Prof. Dr. Vitaly Chernetsky
Vitaly Chernetsky, a native of Odesa, Ukraine, received his doctorate in comparative literature and literary theory from the University of Pennsylvania in 1996, and now serves as Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Kansas. Prior to arriving at the University of Kansas, he taught at Columbia, Northeastern, and Miami University (Ohio); he has also held postdoctoral fellowships at Cornell and Harvard. In 2024, he is also servings as the President of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES).
Vitaly Chernetsky’s research explores modern and contemporary cultures (literature, film, popular culture) of Ukraine and the broader region, from Central and Eastern Europe to Central Asia, in a broader comparative/interregional and interdisciplinary context. His other research interests include globalization and its cultural dimensions, postcolonial theory, diasporic cultures, nationalism and ethnicity, and the more general questions of literary and cultural theory, film studies, feminist theory, gender and LGBTQ+ studies, and translation studies.
Professor Chernetsky has numerous important publications to his name, including the prizewinning book Mapping Postcommunist Cultures: Russia and Ukraine in the Context of Globalization. He has also been translating extensively from Ukrainian into English, including two novels and a poetry collection by Yuri Andrukhovych and a comprehensive poetry volume by Ostap Slyvynsky.
Contact: vitaly.chernetsky@unibas.ch | vchernetsky@ku.eduResearch project
Emma Andiievska’s "A Novel about a Good Person" and Ukrainian Post-World War II DP Camp Experience Reassessed
During his time at the University of Basel, Vitaly Chernetsky will be working on his research project “Emma Andiievska’s A Novel about a Good Person and Ukrainian Post-World War II DP Camp Experience Reassessed.” The project looks at the Ukrainian diaspora and the literary treatment of refugee experiences following the Second World War. It focuses on the Mittenwald Displaced Persons (DP) camp in southern Bavaria and its depictions in literature, with particular reference to A Novel about a Good Person by Emma Andiievska, one of the leading writers of the Ukrainian diaspora. Professor Chernetsky’s research aims to reassess the postwar experiences of Ukrainian refugees und their portrayal in literature, something which is of particular relevance today in light of the millions who had to flee Ukraine in the context of Russia’s war of aggression.
Events
Contemporary Ukraine: An Interdisciplinary Introduction
University course by Prof. Vitaly Chernetsky during the 2024 autumn semester
17 September – 20 December 2024, 10.15–12.00, Department of History, University of Basel, seminar room 3
Accompanying his research project, Professor Chernetsky will offer a course at the University of Basel titled “Contemporary Ukraine: An Interdisciplinary Introduction,” exploring with the students the cultural diversity and rich artistic traditions of Ukraine since 1991, with the particular emphasis on the period after 2014. The course will look at a number of works of literature, film, the visual arts, and music and use interdisciplinary academic texts to contextualize them. Artists and authors covered in the course include Yuri Andrukhovych, Oksana Zabuzhko, and Serhiy Zhadan, and the bands Dakha Brakha and Dakh Daughters.
Ukrainian Literature during the Long Twentieth century and the Challenges and Promises of Polyglossia
Lecture by Prof. Vitaly Chernetsky in the context of the lecture series "Vom Imperium zur Post-Migration: Poetiken und Politiken der Polyglossie im östlichen Europa".
14 October 2024, 18.15–19.45, Old University, lecture room –101, Rheinsprung 9, 4051 Basel
Modern Ukrainian literature contains lots of cases of multilingualism and polyglossia. Code-switching has been an indelible part of Ukrainian writing since the days of Ivan Kotliarevs'kyi in the late eighteenth century. This lecture concentrates on cases from the 1890s to the early 2000s, discussing several crucial cases, from Olha Kobylians'ka to Oksana Zabuzhko, and considers the relationship between polyglossia and literary innovation and the impact of the sociopolitical contexts on it.
URIS Workshop - title tba
More information coming soon!
1 November 2024, University of Basel
Upcoming URIS university courses
University course from URIS Fellow Prof. Vitaly Chernetsky during the 2024 autumn semester
Im Herbstsemester 2024 starten wir endlich wieder mit einem Ukrainisch I für Einsteiger:innen!
