Dmytro Ivanovych Chyzhevsky (Дмитро Іванович Чижевський, sometimes transliterated as Dmitri Tschizewsky or Dmitrij Tschizewskij) (March 3, 1894 – April 18, 1977) was Ukrainian-born scholar of Slavic literature and the literary

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

. He was born in Russian Empire of Russian-Polish-Ukrainian ancestry. He was a professor of Slavic studies at the

Heidelberg University } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

Biography

Dmytro Chyzhevsky was born on 3 March 1894, at Aleksandria, in the

Kherson Governorate The Kherson Governorate (1802–1922; russian: Херсонская губерния, translit.: ''Khersonskaya guberniya''; uk, Херсонська губернія, translit=Khersonska huberniia), was an administrative territorial unit (als ...

of the Russian Empire, near the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

. His first interest was philosophy, and his teachers were

Nikolay Lossky Nikolay Onufriyevich Lossky. (; – 24 January 1965), also known as N. O. Lossky, was a Russian philosopher, representative of Russian idealism, intuitionist epistemology, personalism, libertarianism, ethics and axiology (value theory). He gave ...

, Vasiliy Zenkovsky, and Georgy Chelpanov. From 1911 to 1913 he studied philosophy and literature at the

University of St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg State University (SPBU; russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет) is a public university, public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in 1724 by a de ...

and afterwards at the department of history and philology at St. Vladimir University of Kyiv, where he graduated in 1919. During the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...

he was involved in politics and was a member of the

Mensheviks The Mensheviks (russian: меньшевики́, from меньшинство 'minority') were one of the three dominant factions in the Russian socialist movement, the others being the Bolsheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries. The factions eme ...

. After teaching at high school in

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

from 1919 to 1921, he emigrated from Soviet Russia to Germany and continued his philosophical studies at Heidelberg during the winter semester 1921/22, and then at Freiberg, where he was a student of

Edmund Husserl , thesis1_title = Beiträge zur Variationsrechnung (Contributions to the Calculus of Variations) , thesis1_url = https://fedora.phaidra.univie.ac.at/fedora/get/o:58535/bdef:Book/view , thesis1_year = 1883 , thesis2_title ...

(SS 1922- WS1923/24). He lived in Prague from 1924 to 1932, where he became a professor in the Ukrainian university there, and was a member of the prestigious

Prague linguistic circle The Prague school or Prague linguistic circle is a language and literature society. It started in 1926 as a group of linguists, philologists and literary critics in Prague. Its proponents developed methods of structuralist literary analysis an ...

, a group of linguists and philologists that included

Roman Jakobson Roman Osipovich Jakobson (russian: Рома́н О́сипович Якобсо́н; October 11, 1896Kucera, Henry. 1983. "Roman Jakobson." ''Language: Journal of the Linguistic Society of America'' 59(4): 871–883. – July 18, In 1932 he moved to the

University of Halle Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university i ...

in Germany, where he completed his dissertation in Philosophy, ''Hegel in Russland'', under Adhémar Gelb and Paul Menzer. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Chyzhevsky took a position at the

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg (german: Philipps-Universität Marburg) was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Protestant university in the wor ...

. After the war he moved to the United States of America in 1949, and became a professor of Slavic studies at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. In 1956 he returned to Germany and settled in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

as a professor of Slavic studies; where he remained until his death on April 18, 1977.

Work

Chyzhevsky wrote on a broad range of subjects, including

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

, Slavic and

comparative literature Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across linguistic, national, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role similar to that of the study ...

. He wrote monographs on the Ukrainian philosopher Hryhorii Skovoroda (1974) and the German philosopher

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends ...

(1934). He is also known for his studies of the Ukrainian writer,

Nikolai Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...

. He argued for the existence of a literary baroque and wrote several books on the subject, becoming one of the foremost authorities on baroque literature.

Bibliography

* ''Логіка'' (1924) * ''Dostojevskij Studien'' (1931) * ''Hegel bei den Slaven'' (1934) * ''Štúrova filozofia života'' (1941) * ''Geschichte der altrussischen Literatur: Kiever Epoche'' (1948 and 1960) * ''Outline of Comparative Slavic Literatures'' (1952) * ''On Romanticism in Slavic Literatures'' (1957) * ''Das heilige Russland'' (1959) * ''Russland zwischen Ost und West'' (1961) * ''Russische Literaturgeschichte des 19 Jahrhunderts'' (1964) * ''Comparative History of Slavic Literatures'' (1971) * ''Skovoroda, Dichter, Denker, Mystiker'' (1974) * ''A History of Ukrainian Literature'' (1975)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chyzhevsky, Dmytros 1894 births 1977 deaths Slavists Harvard University faculty University of Marburg faculty Heidelberg University faculty Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Germany German emigrants to the United States Mensheviks