The Chair of Ukrainian Literature and Comparative Studies

The Chair of Ukrainian Literature and Comparative Studies

The cycle Commission on the humanities was ab initio the educational department of historical and philological faculty of our university (1919) which officially from March 1, 1945 became known as the Chair of Ukrainian Literature. From 2010 having regard to the extended range of its researches, the chair was renamed into the Chair of Ukrainian Literature and Comparative Studies.

In different years the following famous researchers worked at the chair: professors Yevgen Nenadkevych, V. Ya. Gnatiuk (1920-1931), L. M. Vengerov (1953-1975), S. P. Pinchuk (1965-1975), I. I. Stebun. Doctor of Philological sciences, professor P. V. Bilous, Doctor of Philological sciences, professor Tkachuk M. B., Candidate of Philological sciences, Professor Monastyretskyi L. S., Doctor of Philology of John Paul II Catholic University Savenets A. M. (Lublin) started their scientific career at the chair.

The Chair of Ukrainian Literature and Comparative Studies gave a ticket to the creative life to former students, and later famous writers Borys Ten (M. Khomychevskyi) (1897-1983), who entered the institute when it was founded (21.10.1919) and at once became the 2nd year student, V. Grabovskyi, M. Pasichnyk, B. Ostapenko, I. Liberdi, V. Danylenko, V. Vrublevskyi, V. Shynkaruk E. Kontsevych, A. Savenets and others.

The chair has a good tradition — to organize meetings of students with famous writers. M. Rylskyi, A. Malyshko, V. Bokov, O. Vyshnia, O. Gonchar, M. Stelmakh, B. Kanivets, V. Kucher, Ye. Gutsalo, M. Klymenko, A. Zhuravskyi, O. Musienko, I. Drach, E. Dudar, D. Pavlyhko, V. Shevchuk, E. Pashkovskyi, V. Medvid, M. Matios and others visited the chair. In 2005, our countryman, writer Valerii Shevchuk was elected the Emeritus professor of the University. Since then meeting with him became regular.

In recent years, students had an opportunity to talk with well-known writers V. Danylenko, brothers Vitalii and Dmitro Kapranov, A. Kokotiuha, O. Irvanets etc.

The contemporary avenue of research of the chair is «Historical poetics of Ukrainian literature». The result of the research of this issue is the training of 19 Candidates of Sciences at the graduate center (exists since 1999) and at the doctorate (since 2012) under the chair. 6 more graduates of the graduate center have their candidate theses ready for the defense. Today five postgraduate students work at their candidate theses and 2 researchers work at their doctoral theses.

Professor Bilous P. V. advises postgraduate students Sushkevych T., Zolotiuk L., Dmytruk V.

Scientific and educational potential of the chair has been implemented in a number of textbooks, manuals, monographs. Among the works published by the lecturers of the chair are the following: P. V. Bilous’ monographs «The Creativity of V. Grygorovych-Barskyi» (K., 1985), «The Pilgrimage Genre in the History of Ukrainian Literature» (Zhytomyr, 1997), «Ukrainian pilgrim prose» (K., 1998), «The Origin of Ukrainian Literature» (Zhytomyr, 2001), «The Light of Disappeared Worlds (Literary Artistry of Kievan Rus» (Zhytomyr, 2003), «The old Ukrainian Literature and Folklore» (Zhytomyr, 2006), «Actual issues of Ukrainian literary medieval studies» (Zhytomyr, 2009), «Faith of Taras Shevchenko» (Zhytomyr, 2014); «An Enchanted Fairy Tale of Olga Kobylianska’s Life» (2008) by G. Levchenko; «Modern Strategy of Baroque» (2008), «In the shadow of the Empire. Ukrainian literature in the light of post-colonial theory» (2012) by O. O. Yurchuk; «Feelings caused by things. «The flash fiction of V. Vynnychenko in the light of the author’s subjectivity» (2011) by A. Gorban; «Miracles in the literature of Kievan Rus» (2011) by O. Bilous; textbooks: History of Ukrainian literature of the second half of the XIX century by Franchuk M. V., Introduction to Literary Studies: Textbook for unsupervised students’ work / P. V. Bilous, G. D. Levchenko (K., 2012); Bilous P. V. The Interpretation of a Literary Work: Textbook. (Zhytomyr, 2012); Fundamentals of Comparative Literary Studies. Textbook for students of philology / Compiler Levchenko G. D. (Zhitomir, 2012); A. Gorban. The research work of students. Guidelines (Zhytomyr, 2012), P. V. Bilous «Psychology of literary creative work» (K., 2014), and others.

A number of manuals and textbooks was recommended for publication by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. Among them are the following: Bilous P. V. The history of Ukrainian literature of the XI-XVIII centuries (2009), Bilous P. V., Bilous O. P. Ukrainian literature of the XI-XVIII centuries (2010), Bilous P. V., Bilous O. P., Levchenko G. D. Ukrainian literature of the XI-XVIII centuries. Reading book (2011), Bilous P. V. Introduction to Literary Studies (2011); Bilous P. V. Psychology of literary creative work: Textbook / P. V. Bilous. — K.: Akademvydav, 2014.

Scientific and educational backlog of the chair

Today (2014-2015 academic year) the following researches work at the Chair of Ukrainian Literature and Comparative Studies:

  • Bilous P. V. — Doctor of Philological sciences, Professor;
  • Savenko O. P. — Candidate of Philological Sciences, chief instructor;
  • Bilobrovets V. V. — assistant;
  • Gorban A. V. — Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor;
  • Levchenko G. D. — Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor;
  • Chaikovska V. T. — Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor;
  • Franchuk M. V. — Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor;
  • Yurchuk O. O. — Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor, the Head of the chair;
  • Lototska S. V. — senior laboratory assistant.

E-mail of the chair: kaf.ukr.lit@gmail.com