V.I. Fesenko Department of Theory and History of Literature

About us  

V.I. Fesenko Department of Theory and History of Literature was established at the Kyiv National Linguistic University (then Kyiv State Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages) under the Decree of the Ministry of Education of Ukraine in June, 1996 at the instigation of O.K. Romanovsky, Doctor of Philology, ex-rector of the Institute and a well-known expert in literary theory.

The introduction of the comprehensive “History of World Literature” course and such courses as “Introduction to Literary Studies”, “Literary Theory” and “Methodology of Teaching Literature” contributed to bestowal of university status (and later the status of national university) to the Institute, since the courses in question made it possible to launch a comprehensive program in Philology.

From the time of its establishment till 1999 the Department was headed by Sergiy Mykhaylovych Prygodiy (1953-2013), Doctor of Philology, Professor, scholar in the fields of American literature, literary theory, and comparative literature renowned both in Ukraine and abroad.

In 1999 Professor Prygodiy was succeeded as Department Chair by Valentyna Ivanivna Fesenko, Doctor of Philology, Professor, who held this position till her untimely death in November 2012. A brilliant literary scholar and expert in French literature, she taught such courses as “History of the 19^th Century Literature (Romanticism and Realism)”, “Turn of the Century Literature”, “French Literature”, “History of the Late 20^th Century Literature”, elective courses “Literature and Cinema” and “Literature and Painting”, as well as a specialty course “Literary Hermeneutics”. Professor Fesenko has also written monographs “The Oeuvre of Georges Bernanos: Poetics of Event and Prophesy” and “Female Writing of Marguerite Duras”; supervised the team of authors working on the “Alchemy of the Living Word:  French Novel, 1945-2000” textbook for university students (written in collaboration with Philippe Le Touzé, University of Picardie Professor holding a Dr.h.c. from KNLU). She has also written (and contributed to) a number of textbooks and study guides for secondary and tertiary school.

Apart from her scholarly work, Valentyna Ivanivna Fesenko has greatly furthered the development of the Department and of the University. As Department Chair, she has established partnership with several French higher education institutions, initiated a number of scholarly, educational and cultural projects and made the Department a centre of attraction for generations of students interested in literature and academic research.

Starting October 2013, the Department bears the name of V.I. Fesenko in commemoration of her outstanding contribution to researching and teaching literature in Ukraine.

Since November 2012 the Department has been chaired by Natalia Oleksandrivna Vysotska, Doctor of Philology, Professor. She graduated from the Department of Romance and Germanic Philology, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Professor Vysotska is a member of Collegium for African American Research and a regular participant of academic conferences held by this organization in different European countries, as well as of European Association of American Studies and of the Center for American Literary Studies in Ukraine.  She also collaborates with the Russian Society of American Culture Studies, taking part in its annual conferences and editorial projects. As a Fulbright alumna and the incumbent Chair of Ukrainian Fulbright Alumni Association, Prof. Vysotska participates in events organized by the Association in Ukraine. She was a visiting professor at California State University, Sacramento in 2006.

The core courses taught by Prof. Vysotska include “History of Renaissance and 17^th Century Literature”, “Contemporary Literature”. She also teaches such electives as “British Literature through the Prism of Humour”, “Contemporary American Drama”, “Multicultural Dimension of American Literature”, “From Saint to Superman: National Mythology in American Culture from Historical Perspective”. Her diverse professional interests embrace American Literature of the 2^nd half of the 20^th and early 21^st centuries, the problems of multi/transculturalism, literatures of ethnic minorities, American and British drama and theatre, African American literature, the works of William Shakespeare and English Renaissance literature.

Department Faculty  

Natalia Vysotska – Department Chair, Doctor of Philology, Full Professor

Yuriy Marynenko – Doctor of Philology, Full Professor
Tetiana Meizerska – Doctor of Philology, Full Professor
Maria Shymchyshyn – Doctor of Philology, Full Professor
Felix Shteinbuk – Doctor of Philology, Full Professor

Tamara Bakina – Ph.D, Associate Professor

Viktoriia Ivanenko – Ph.D, Associate Professor

Yulia Pavlenko – Ph.D, Associate Professor
Tetiana Kulinich – Ph.D, Associate Professor

Madlen Shulgun – Ph.D, Associate Professor

Olena Yurchuk – Ph.D, Associate Professor

Tetiana Bilyashevych – Ph.D, Senior Lecturer
Iryna Kunytska  – Ph.D, Senior Lecturer

Tamila Kyrylova – Ph.D, Senior Lecturer
Andriy Kaustov  – Senior Lecturer

Borys Nikolaev – Senior Lecturer

Mykhaylo Babaryka – Teaching Assistant

Roman Bilyashevych – Teaching Assistant
Olesia Kamyshnykova  – Teaching Assistant

Hanna Kochehura – Teaching Assistant
Hanna Rabotiaga – Teaching Assistant

Svitlana Romanova – Teaching Assistant

Anastasia Stetsenko – Teaching Assistant
Oksana Uzlova – Teaching Assistant

Postgraduate students:

Olesya Bondarenko

Oksana Uzlova

Postdocs:

Yulia Pavlenko
Viktoriia Ivanenko

Madlen Shulgun 

Concentration

10.01.04 “Literature of Foreign Countries”

Core courses

“History of World Literature”

“Introduction to Literary Studies”

“Literary Theory”

“Methods of Teaching World Literature”, etc.

Our faculty members have also developed the following courses:

“Problems of Contemporary Literary Studies”

“Role of Myth Criticism in Contemporary Literary Studies”

“Mind Games – Concepts of Authorial Play”

“Postmodern Discourse in American and British Literature”

“Models of Masking in Fiction”

“Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics”

“Children as Characters of Short Stories”

“Narrative Strategies in American Novel of XIX– XX centuries”

“Problems of Contemporary Ukrainian Drama”

“Eros and Thanatos motifs in Short Stories”

“Music and Literature: Fruitful Interaction” 

“Virtual Reality: Variation of Worlds in Fiction”

“Possible Worlds Construction in Contemporary British Novel”

“Literature and Theatre (American Drama)”

“History as Text or Text as History: Postmodern English History Novel”

“Problems of Mythologization in XX Century Literature”

“Discourse of Individual Memory in French Novel of Late XX Century”

“Theme of Holy Grail in XX Century Literature”

“Women`s Prose: Crossing the Boundaries of Contemporary Western Literary Criticism”

“Narrative Forms of Contemporary Spanish Novel”

“Poetics of Other Space in a Fiction Text”

“Children`s Folklore and Post-Folklore”

“Children`s Literature of Foreign Countries”

“Theory and Practice of Comparative Literature Studies”

“Constructing Identity in a FictionText”

“Poetics of French Modernist Novel”

Conferences

The Department regularly hosts conferences, colloquia, seminars and roundtable discussions. Among these, the most notable within the last few years have been such conferences as the International conference in memory of Professor V.I.Fesenko (March 2014), “Literature in the Context of Post/Humanism and Virtuality” (March 2013), “Taste of Literature/Literature of Tastes” (March 2012), “Topos of Animal as Anthropological Mirror” (March 2011), Translation Workshops (annually in March) etc. In organizing these events, the Department collaborates with the French, German, Swiss and Austrian Embassies in Kyiv, T. Shevchenko Institute of Literature at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, as well as other educational establishments.

International Relations

The Department collaborates with various institutions in the US, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Poland, Austria, Spain, Russia, Belarus, Russia and other countries. The following faculty members and postgraduate students have received grants or scholarships to do research abroad: Tamila Kyrylova (Austria), Viktoriia Ivanenko (United States), Iryna Sobchenko (France, Switzerland, Italy), Mykhaylo Babaryka (France), Olena Siabrenko (France), Hanna Rabotiaga (France), Olesya Kamyshnykova (United Kingdom), Olesya Bondarenko (Germany, United States).

Publications

Starting 2003, the Department publishes an annual collection “Contemporary Literary Studies”. In 2003, its faculty members authored a textbook “Literature of European Middle Ages”, edited by Prof. Natalia Vysotska. Prof. Valentyna Fesenko has published six coursebooks in World Literature for the 5^th - 8^th grade of secondary school and two – in Ethics for the 5^th- 6^th  grade, including those co-authored by Prof. Natalia Vysotska and Assoc. Prof. Tamara Bakina. T. Bakina has published a coursebook titled “Ukrainian Literature. Course Reader for 6^th Grade”.

Our faculty members have also recently published the following books and textbooks:

N. Vysotska. “E Pluribus Unum: American Literature of late 20^th – early 21^st Centuries in the Context of Cultural Pluralism” (2010).

N. Vysotska “Multiculturalism as a Factor of Literary Evolution in the US of late 20^th – early 21^st Centuries” (2012).

Yu. Pavlenko “French Literature of the 2^nd half of the XX – early XXI Century” (2013).

Yu. Pavlenko “Discourse of Individual Memory in Contemporary Literature” (2013).

H. Rykova “Discourse of Body and Embodiment in the Literary Context”(2013).
F. Shteynbuk. "The Convergence of the Body Topoi in Contemporary Literature" (2014).
O. Yurchuk. "The History of World Literature of the 1st Half of the 20th century" (2014).

Contact Us

03680 Kyiv 150, Velyka Vasylkivska Str. 73, Office 236

Phone: (044) 529-88-15

E-mail: svitlit1@gmail.com

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