The Senate of the University of Wrocław decided to award the Ukrainian writer and poet an honorary doctorate, describing him as “an artist whose work transcends the boundaries of literature, becoming a testament to the era and an instrument of resistance against violence”.
The ceremony to confer the honorary title took place on 22 May.
“This is a significant gesture of solidarity between the academic community of the University of Wrocław and Ukraine, and its struggle for freedom, identity and culture,” a statement on the university’s website reads.
During the ceremony, Zhadan delivered a speech entitled The Possibility of Happiness, the Denial of Death. In it, he noted, in particular:
“It is strange to realise that this year Ukrainian universities are already graduating students whose studies have entirely coincided with the years of full-scale war. Some had the opportunity to attend lectures interrupted by air raid sirens, while others, such as students at Kharkiv universities, studied remotely. Nevertheless, we have a generation that has received an education in wartime conditions. What lies behind this phrase — ‘in wartime conditions’?
Empty university corridors, lecturers who took up arms, curfews, warnings of possible shelling. But above all — time shattered, perspectives shifted, futures disrupted. Time that has lost its linearity, the impossibility of finding a foothold, the ground knocked from beneath one’s feet. What does this unnatural and painful coexistence of two realities — the reality of war and the reality of normal, everyday life — testify to?
Perhaps that, when faced with cruelty and injustice, we still need the fundamental achievements of classical philosophy and classical art. Or, on the contrary, that no classical philosophy, science or art is capable of stopping a murderer, suppressing evil’s need to assert itself at others’ expense, feed on others’ tragedies, and occupy someone else’s space, life and future.”
He concluded his speech as follows:
“We are forced to defend ourselves, upholding our right to exist. And so we will be forced to reclaim our right to joy and happiness. Skovoroda, whom we have mentioned here, said that the source of unhappiness is our helplessness. Today, we can hardly be accused of helplessness.
It seems to me that Ukraine today is a compelling reminder of how much values such as honesty and responsibility matter in our rather cynical and cruel world. It also seems that Ukrainians, who are currently fighting off the enemy in an attempt to survive and preserve themselves, are defending what we might call our shared space, with its shared ideas, knowledge and history.
Today, to a large extent, we are defending not only our own universities, but also the universities of old Europe, which does not always find the courage to condemn evil. However, that is a topic for another conversation. I simply wanted to remind you once again that this daily resistance being waged by Ukrainians is not only about pain and despair. It is equally about the strength of those who have the right to be happy — and who have no intention of giving up that right.”