Thematic hour

6.3.2023

Thematic hour «Department of Ukrainian and Foreign Literature: pages of history»

On March 1, 2023, to mark the 102nd anniversary of the founding of State Institution «Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University», a thematic hour entitled «Department of Ukrainian and Foreign Literature: Pages of History» was held for students of the Faculty of Ukrainian Philology and Journalism.

Ukrainian literature was taught at the Donetsk Institute of National Education from the beginning of the institution’s existence in 1921. In 1934, the department of Ukrainian and foreign literature was created. On April 26, 1939, the Luhansk State Pedagogical Institute was named after Taras Shevchenko, as it was the only institution of higher education in the East that trained teachers of the Ukrainian language and literature.

In the tragic 1930s of the last century, Mykhailo Vynnychenko, Hryhorii Kostiuk, Ivan Liishchyna-Martynenko, and Oleksandr Pulynets worked in the department.

The period of the revival of the department of Ukrainian literature falls in the 1950s.

From 1947 to 1972, the department was headed by Hryhoriy Honcharuk. At that time, Oleksiy Mikhno and Ivan Bilohub started working in the department.

Lecturer Oleksiy Andriyovych Michno, a folklore researcher, and Shevchenko expert worked at the Department of Ukrainian Literature from 1947 to 2000. He combined teaching work with administrative work, since from 1951 to 1962 he was the dean of the Faculty of History and Philology, and from 1968 to 1992 he headed the Faculty of Philology.

Professor Bilogub Ivan Mykhailovych worked at the Department of Ukrainian Literature from 1947 to 1994 and was the head of the department from 1973 to 1990. The founder of literary and local studies in the Luhansk region

In October 1991, the Faculty of Ukrainian Philology was established, which was headed by Tetiana Stepanivna Pinchuk, professor of the Department of Ukrainian Literature, from 1995 to 2022.

The teachers of the department of Ukrainian literature involved students in research work, literary evenings, etc. that were organized by the faculty.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Zhanna Timofiivna Lyakhova, Nadiya Yehorivna Taran, Raisa Illivna Pashchuk, Valentyna Mykhailivna Vanda, Oleksiy Ivanovych Nezhivy, and Volodymyr Pavlovich Kalashnikov worked at the Department of Ukrainian Literature.

A new page in the history of the Department of Ukrainian Literature begins with the arrival of a new head in 1998, Professor Oleksandr Andriyovych Halych, who is a researcher in the fields of documentary literature and literary studies. Scientific activity is being intensified at the department, and the high-quality composition of the department’s teachers is growing; all of them are working on the departmental theme «Slobozhanshchyna: Literary Dimension». Candidates in the sciences defend their theses and receive the title of the associate professor: Viktoriya Igorivna Dmytrenko, Iryna Evgeniivna Boitsun, Olena Oleksandrivna Brovko, Olha Volodymyrivna Skyba, Tetyana Pavlivna Shestopalova, Olena Leonidivna Kravchenko, Tetiana Oleksandrivna Kulinich, Olena Anatolyivna Lapko, Svitlana Anatolyivna Nehodiaieva, and others.

From 2000 to 2017, the Eastern branch of the Institute of Literature of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine was established at the university, the director of which was Oleksandr Andriyovych Halych. The senior researchers of the Eastern branch were Olena Oleksandrivna Brovko and Iryna Evgeniivna Boitsun. The international scientific conference «Slobozhanshchyna: Literary Dimension», the all-Ukrainian scientific conference «Documentary Studies of the Beginning of the 20th Century,» and the all-Ukrainian student scientific-practical conference «Creativity of Taras Shevchenko in the Context of the Age» have become traditional.

Since the beginning of the Russian aggression, the teachers of the Department of Ukrainian Literature, together with the university, were first evacuated to Starobilsk, Luhansk Region, and in 2022 they moved to the city of Poltava.

On July 1, 2022, the Department of Ukrainian and Foreign Literature was based on the Department of Ukrainian Literature, headed by Professor and Doctor of Philological Sciences Olha Kryzhanovska. Despite the realities of wartime, the teachers of the department continue the traditions started in 1921, presenting universal and national values through the works of Ukrainian and world literature and training teachers of the Ukrainian language and literature.