Center for American Literary Studies in Ukraine 

CALSU was organized at Shevchenko Institute of Literature of the NAS of Ukraine at its Director's initiative and at patronage of the US Embassy for Ukraine in October, 2005. The Center's Regulations, Statute have been approved, the Research Council, representatives in regions have been appointed, the International Consultative Council has been formed. Activity of the Center took place in 2007 (as well as in 2006) in compliance with the plans set at the Center's annual reporting conference, coordinated with the Directorate of the Institute, and financially supported with the Grant Federal Assistance Award number SUP30007 GR107 of May, 7, 2007.

1. The American Literature School continued its operation (based in Fulbright Foundation office and in close contact with its staff). We have completed studying the literature at the verge of the 19th-20th centuries – the period of intensive nation formation, urbanization and industrialization of the country. The emphasis was made on the leading, nation-wide significant personalities (e.g. Henry James), whose works are not sufficiently considered at Ukrainian higher school, on specific features of the American literary process, the latter's ambiguity, its variety of voices that laid the foundation for multiculturalism, the complicated coexistence of various trends within its "corpus", in particular naturalism and realism, on the status of poetry, female voices, socially oriented literary movements and phenomena.
On the whole, nine sessions took place during the year on the following topics:
Works by Henry James (April, June);
the Feminist Component in the Literature on the Verge (January);
Literary Marginalities of the Time (February);
Socially Oriented American Literature (Jack London, Theodore Dreiser, etc.) (March).
Starting from autumn, the framework of the School's operation has been altered: the form of a literary discussion, a round table has been adopted now. Each of the sessions is focused on significant, fundamental phenomena in US literature of the 20th century that can be considered as milestones and influence further development of literature and culture of the United States. The updated form of work gives the participants the opportunity to widely discuss their visions of the problems raised. Thus, the following topics have been discussed in this mode: J.S.Foer Everything is Illuminated – the novel, its translations into Ukrainian and Russian, its film version (importantly, the action of this work by the modern American writer takes place in Ukraine) (September);
Modernism in American Poetry (October);
Literary Museums of the USA (November) – the session was held by the Fulbright Foundation in Ukraine Director Mr. Myron Stachiw;
Harlem Renaissance in American Literature (the session was held by Prof. N.Vysotska) (December).
The best presentations will be submitted as articles and passed for publication in CALSU year-book #5.
15-20 participants both from Kyiv and from other cities of Ukraine have been permanently working within the framework of the school. The most active "students" are Cand. Phil. O.Dibinina, Cand. Phil. G.Stembkovska (Kyiv, Shevchenko Institute of Literature at the NAS of Ukraine), Assistant Professor O.Gon, T.Lazarenko (Kyiv, Institute of International Relations at Kyiv National Shevchenko University), G.Pokidko (Kyiv, Linguistic University), Assistant Professor M.Shymchichyn (Ternopil), Assistant Professor M.Koval (Lviv), O.Starshova, T.Ostapchuk, V.Rahnyansky (Mykolaiv), O.Bezhan (Odesa), L.Lobunets (Gorlivka), N.Shpyliova (Cherkasy), N.Bidasyuk (Khmelnytsky), N.Krynytska (Poltava), other scholars. Active participation in the School's activities of Professors N.Vysotska (Kyiv Linguistic University), N.Zhluktenko (Kyiv National Shevchenko University) has contributed into high academic level of the sessions.

2. The 3rd All-Ukraine Academic Symposium "Discourse of Romanticism in American Literature" was conducted to summarize the creative mastering of history of American literature (May, 19, the agenda is attached). The welcome address to participants of the Symposium was expressed by representatives of the US Embassy for Ukraine and the Directorate of the Institute. 35 participants from various regions of Ukraine (Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Lviv, Chernivtsy, Mykolaiv, Khmelnytsky, Cherkassy, Poltava) have taken part in the sessions and discussions. At the plenary session and within the framework of the three sections, 25 presentations were delivered and discussed. Apart from the presenters, the corr. member of the NAS of Ukraine D.S.Nalyvayko, Proff. N.Zhluktenko, Ass. Prof. O.Bandrovska (Lviv) took an active part in the discussions. A detailed review of the Symposium by O.Dubinina was published in "Slovo I Chas" journal, Issue 9, 2007.

3. Materials of the Symposium have been published in Volume 4 of the CALSU year-book (December, 2007, "Fact" publishing house) and will be presented to the academic community in February, 2008.

4. On February, 2, 2007 the bilingual publication of proceedings of the Third International Conference "Mainstream – Heterogeneity – Canon in Modern American Literature" (which took place in Kyiv, on October, 3-5, 2005) was presented to the academic community at presence and active participation of representatives of the Institute's Directorate and the US Embassy for Ukraine – the Cultural Affairs Officer Courtney Austrian, the Deputy Cultural Affairs Officer Karen Robblee, the Assistant to the Cultural Affairs Officer Lilia Shylo, the Director of the Fulbright Foundation in Ukraine Mr. Myron Stachiw, the Director of Kennan Institute in Ukraine Yaroslav Pylynsky. Doctors of Science, Professors T.M.Potnitseva (Dnipropetrovsk State University), B.B.Shalaginov (National University "Kyiv-Mohyla Academy") N.Y.Zhluktenko (Kyiv National Shevchenko University), Ass.Prof. O.Bandrovska (Lviv), the editorial board of the "Slovo I Chas" journal participated in the discussion. They emphasized the academic significance of the Conference's proceedings, as well as the practical importance of their bilingual publication.
The review of this volume by O.Gon was published in the 5th issue of "Agora" (Kennan Institute in Ukraine), 2007.
The CALSU leaflet was published due to efforts of O.Dubinina and G.Stembkovska for this event.
5. During 2007, 6 dissertations in American Literature were successfully defended in Ukraine:
Doctor Dissertation by T.V.Myhed "Puritan Tradition and Literature of American Renaissance: 1830-1860";
Candidate Dissertations:
Bidasyuk N.V. "Works by Bharati Mukherjee in the Context of American Multiculturalism";
Shpylyova N.V. "Works by Richard Brautigan in the Continuum of American Literature of the 1960s-1970s";
Starshova O.O. "Problem of the Author in Works by John Barth";
Pokidko G.S. "Modification of the Genre of the Family Drama in Works by Ann Tyler";
Grechuha L.O. "W.Burrough: Problems and Poetics of Works".
6. Members of our community take an active part in academic life of both Ukraine and other countries.
All of us deliver lectures at various higher educational facilities of Ukraine. We try to be useful for our native Institute: for publication of the anthology in Comparative Literature that the Comparative Literature Department has been working on, all materials in English were translated due to efforts of O.Dubinina, O.Gon, G.Stembkovska, N.Shpylyova, T.Myhed. We act as presenters at conferences in philology at various levels – "American" presentations are regularly delivered at the annual Conference "Language and Culture", in Cherkasy (foreign literature readings), Mykolaiv (conference on the canon), Kherson (theater meetings), at Kyiv Linguistic University, etc.
We actively participate at international conferences: at the 9th International Young Scholars Conference (Kyiv, Shevchenko Institute of Literature at the NAS of Ukraine), a whole section of British and American Literature worked (Moderator T.Denysova, secretary G.Stembkovska), at which 17 reports were presented and discussed. At the International Scholarly Symposium "Visualizing the Image of A Child in Literature" (Lviv, April), 8 reports in American Literature were delivered. At the 33rd Conference of the Russian Society for American Culture Studies, I (T.Denysova) and G.Stembkovska delivered our reports. At the annual conference of the Polish Association of American Studies, M.Koval delivered her presentation. I also presented a speech "Canon and around the Canon" within the framework of the 20th Conference of the International Association of European Professors in English (Lund, Sweden, August). Our colleagues took part in work of American Studies seminars that were held in Ukraine at support of the US Embassy – L.Lobunets (the seminar in Gorlivka), M.Shymchishyn (the seminar in Alushta).
All alumni of Fulbright Program and Kennan Institute took part in work of annual conferences (November) of these foundations. Our cooperation with these institutions, due to which we have the opportunity to enjoy direct links with the subjects of our researches, is systematic, regular, invigorating. We express our gratitude for that to all the staff of Fulbright Foundation and Kennan Institute.

7. Our cooperation with Ternopil branch due to active efforts of M.Shymchishyn has resulted in publication of materials for the specialized course "Female Voices in the Literary Discourse of the 20th Century" (the joint project of the Organizational Council for International Education, Shevchenko Institute of Literature at the NAS of Ukraine, Ternopil National V.Hnatyuk University), in which materials by T.Hundorova, N.Vysotska, M.Shymchishyn, T.Denisova are published. Cooperation with the "Univers" publishing house (the project funded by the US Embassy for Ukraine) has resulted in publication of the translation of T.Morrison's novel "Song of Solomon" with the afterword by T.Denysova.

8. Work on preparing elective courses in American Literature for publication by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine has been continued. 17 outline plans have been collected from the future authors of the publication. It is planned to finish the preparatory work in 2008.

9. During the year, the CALSU web site www.calsu.kiev.ua has been functioning, on which, due to efforts of G.Stembkovska and D.Stembkovsky, all information about activities of the Center and that necessary for the Center's work was published. On the web site, we will in a short notice publish the dates of our annual conference, as well as of the presentation of the next volume of the yearbook.

10. We never stop our fruitful cooperation with J.Demiray Resource Center, which actively involves us into its research and educational activities and materials of which we regularly use. We rely on further cooperation and plan to suggest our projects for realization at the Center.

I would like to emphasize that coordination of the Center's operation have been balanced and trouble-free, for which I express my gratitude to O.Gon, O.Dubinina, G.Stembkovska.

We are very grateful to the Directorate of Shevchenko Institute of Literature at the NAS of Ukraine for the permanent reliable support of all of our activities, as well as to the US Embassy for funding these activities.

CALSU Coordinator,
Leading Research Fellow
of Shevchenko Institute of Literature at the NAS
Doctor of Philology, Prof.

T. DENYSOVA

The report was discussed and approved by participants of the CALSU conference on February, 2008.

Report on the CALSU Activity in 2006