Rais, Emmanuel

Rais, Emmanuel [Райс, Емануїл; Rajs], b 1909 in Khotyn, Bessarabia, d 27 January 1981 in Paris. Literary critic and translator of Jewish origin. He studied law and literature at Bucharest University and Paris University (1934–40) and earned a PH D from the Sorbonne (1972). He specialized in the study of lyric poetry and published many studies of French, Russian, and Ukrainian literature. His interest in Ukrainian poetry began in the mid-1950s; thereafter he published a number of articles on the works of Emma Andiievska, Mykhailo Drai-Khmara, Volodymyr Svidzinsky, various émigré poets, and poets in the Ukrainian SSR (particularly the shistdesiatnyky) in Ukraïns’ka literaturna hazeta and Suchasnist’. He also wrote articles of general interest on esthetics and philosophy. He edited and wrote the introduction to a collection of Ukrainian poetry in French translation, L'Ukraine, cette inconnue (1967).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]