Maryana Hirnyak, Ukraine

• Employment: Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Department of Literary Theory and Comparative Studies, Associate Professor
• Scholarship: OeAD, Stipendien Lemberg – financed by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy
• Duration: 01/05/2017 – 31/05/2017

Curriculum vitae

Maryana Hirnyak is an Associate Professor of Philology at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. She has completed her PhD (Candidate of Philology) in 2006 and currently gives lectures in "Theory of Literature", "Semiotics", "Grounds of Literary Communication", "History of World Literature (19th – 20th century)", "Ukrainian Intellectual Fiction" for BA and MA students of the Lviv University. Her main research project concerns the problem of the intellectual fiction in the Ukrainian literature of the 20th century. In particular, she pays attention to the genre peculiarities of the intellectual novel, its correlation with philosophical novel, eventually, the relations between literature and philosophy. Dr. Maryana Hirnyak is the author of the book "Mystery of Split Face: the Author’s Consciousness in the Intellectual Fiction by Viktor Petrov-Domontovych" (2008) and about 50 papers devoted to the problems of the author’s presence in the text, literary communication, and philosophical aspects of Ukrainian novels of the 20th century. The main points of her international experience are the participation in the Erasmus+ (Staff mobility for teaching) Program (The University of Tartu (Estonia), March 2017), training at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow (Poland, 2010), participation in training projects at the universities of Bratislava (May 2010) and Würzburg (October 2015) as well as participation in international scientific conferences.

Reflection

The OeAD scholarship I have received for conducting research in Vienna in May 2017 was very important for my scientific career. My host institution was the University of Vienna, namely the Department of Slavonic Studies, and I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Prof. Alois Woldan who was my academic supervisor during this scholarship. Professors of the university kindly allowed me to visit their lectures and seminars which were interesting for me not only in view of the discipline subject but also because of the teaching methods that can be borrowed for my own teaching activity. During my scholarship I worked on the research project "Intellectual Novel in the Ukrainian Literature of the 20th Century: Genre Peculiarities". Owing to my access to library funds of the University of Vienna, I had the possibility to find many interesting books and papers concerning my research topic. Certainly, they are very useful for me in preparing my scientific papers, especially in elaborating the theoretical aspects of the interrelations between literature and philosophy. New ideas and new experiences I have gained working on this project, became a good impulse for me to intensify my research and present its results at the conferences as well as at lectures and seminars for my students. In addition, I had the possibility to get acquainted with the Viennese cultural heritage, to attend the most interesting museums and places of the city and – what is the most important – to expand my professional network, to communicate with prominent scholars, to establish contacts with very nice and friendly people being ready to give advice and to help. I believe my participation as an OeAD scholarship holder was successful and productive for my scientific and academic activity.