Denys Chyk
Stanisław Lem’s Novels and the Ukrainian Science-Fiction Literature of the Soviet Times: Representations of Trauma, Memory, and Resistance to Totalitarianism
Denys Chyk, Department of Foreign Languages and Teaching Methods at Taras Shevchenko Regional Humanitarian Pedagogical Academy of Kremenets
Denys Chyk is a professor at the Department of Foreign Languages and Teaching Methods at Taras Shevchenko Regional Humanitarian Pedagogical Academy of Kremenets (Ukraine) and holds Ph.D. and D.Sc. degrees in Comparative Literature. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 2002 and has been teaching English and Literature Studies since 2002. In 2018, he defended his thesis “The Genre Systems of Ukrainian and English Prose of the Late XVIII—Middle of the XIX Century: Problems of Typology and Poetics” for a Doctoral Degree at Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University. He is the author of many works on contemporary issues of comparative literature, in particular, imagology and comparative typology. Additionally, since 2020 he has contributed his expertise as an expert at the National Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education of Ukraine. Prof. Denys Chyk has been the Editor-in-Chief of the annual academic journal Kremenets Comparative Studies since 2011. His research has been supported by grants from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, Fundacja im. Krzysztofa Skubiszewskiego, the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, and Centrum Dialogu im. Juliusza Mieroszewskiego. Since the early days of the Russo-Ukrainian war, Dr. Denys Chyk has actively engaged in volunteering as the head of the NGO “Volyn Cultural Initiatives,” and a member of the Volunteer Centre “Kremenets. Army. SOS!!!.”
Project Description
The proposed project “Stanisław Lem’s Novels and the Ukrainian Science-Fiction Literature of the Soviet Times: Representations of Trauma, Memory, and Resistance to Totalitarianism” will be a continuation of Dr. Denys Chyk’s monograph chapter “Black Swan of Naples: Destruction of the Detective Genre in the Novel Katar by S. Lem” (2022) and article “Anamnesis of the Mad Bond: Heterotopia in Stanisław Lem’s Diary Found in the Bath” (2023), which were an attempt to present a modern view of the novels by S. Lem. An essential facet of investigation emerges through the study of works by the eminent Polish science fiction writer Stanisław Lem (1922–2006). Unfortunately, literary examinations of this distinguished writer from a comparative standpoint are conspicuously absent in Ukraine. Consequently, Dr. Denys Chyk endeavours to explore the novels of Stanisław Lem within the broader context of Ukrainian science fiction literature from the latter half of the 20th century, specifically those by Volodymyr Vladko (1900–1974) and Oles Berdnyk (1926–2003). The study focuses on the narrative techniques employed by Stanisław Lem, who adeptly interwove science fiction with veiled criticisms of the totalitarian system in his works. An intriguing aspect will be tracing parallels between this covert criticism and the writings of Ukrainian Soviet dissident authors, such as Oles Berdnyk, who resisted the repressive Soviet system, or the writers who were subject to censorship.