Contemporary Ukrainian literature
Contemporary Ukrainian literature refers to Ukrainian literature since 1991, the year of both Ukrainian independence and the collapse of the Soviet Union. From that year on, censorship in the Soviet Union ceased to exist and writers were able to break openly with the official socialist realism style of art, music, and literature. Principal changes had taken place in Ukrainian literature already under Perestroika (1985) and especially after the Chernobyl disaster. Some researchers consider that modern Ukrainian literature was born during the 1970s and founded by Soviet dissidents from the sixties generation. Due to the increased freedom and openness of Ukrainian society to foreign influences and much broader access to the literatures of other countries, contemporary Ukrainian literature is different from the literature of the Soviet and Classical periods. Writers often turn to previously forbidden topics (Holodomor, sexuality, drugs, deviant behavior, etc.), using new styles (postmodernism, neo avant-garde, profanity, surzhyk), diversity and mixing of genres, shocking effects and reflecting upon social problems and historical memory. Modern Ukraine also has a significant number of Russophone writers, who are especially successful in the genres of science fiction and fantasy. History As part of the Great Turn, Modernism in Ukrainian literature was snuffed out