This volume gathers some writings presented by the author at international Conferences, Seminars, Symposia, etc., a part of which have appeared (or will appear), in amended form, in scholarly journals, collections of acts and proceedings of conferences. Each essay presents the figure of one of the main protagonists and builders of the multifaceted culture of Ukraine: Skovoroda, Sevčenko, Iwaszkiewicz, etc. Although often misunderstood or even imagined, by those who do not know it, as a provincial form of the wider "Russian" culture, the cultural life of Ukraine has always played the original and vital role of a transnational and transcultural hinge between different areas of the Slavic world and of the wider European world. The essays collected here were all composed in the light of this cross-cultural inspiration, this being the key to understanding the history of this country.
Giuseppe A. Perri is a member of CIERL, Centre interdisciplinaire d'étude des religions et de la laïcité, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), where he is involved in Ukrainian studies. He is also a Research Fellow of the Italian Ministry of Education (History of contemporary Italy - Italian philosophy) and author of several books on these topics. Giuseppe A. Perri recently edited (2014) the Italian translation of M. Kocjubyns'kyj's novel Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors and published a brief history (in Italian) of modern Ukraine: La ricca fontana, Sesto Fiorentino (Italy) 2015. He also recently published articles in journals such as: Kyiv-Mohyla Humanities Journal, History of Communism in Europe, Slovo, La Revue Nouvelle, Borders, Rivista di Storia della Filosofia, Rivista di Studi Politici Internazionali.
