The all-European tendency: yesterday's teenagers become «adult» authors

Theses of the speech by Kseniya Sladkevych and Petro Matskevych
The all-European tendency: yesterday's teenagers become «adult» authors
(«From 16 to 26»:Local phenomenon or mainstream of the teenager’s literature?)
The international scholarly symposium «Visualizing the child in children’s fiction»,12 April 2007

About speakers:
Petro Matskevych, PhD, publisher, independent culture operator. Investigator of contemporary cultural process and lecturer. Author of more than 40 science articles and more than 30 articles (in publishing and cultural field) in the press.
E-mail: \n petro@msbrand.net
Kseniya Sladkevych independent culture operator, publisher. Investigator of contemporary cultural processand lecturer. Author of 10 science articles and more than 45 articles (in cultural and communication fields) in the press.
E-mail: \n ksena@msbrand.net
Kseniya Sladkevych and Petro Matskevych are cofounders of «MSBrand Corporation» that is one of the most active participants of modern cultural process in Ukraine (www.msbrand.net). «MSBrand Corporation» is the initiators and the organizers of many cultural, publishing and information projects.
Kseniya Sladkevych and Petro Matskevych are creators and managers of many project for Calvaria Publishing House that is one of the famous Ukrainian Publishers (www.calvaria.org).
Our researches are result of practical activities in fields of marketing, PR, and book publishing business. And in these fields emotions dominate.

On buttocks my wool grows correctly

More of the Work under consideration at this conference is the Works written by adult writers about/for children and teenagers. We want to turn your attention on «adult» literature, which creates by young writers. These young writers create absolutely new «adult» literature. But protagonists of this literature are children and teenagers, mainly.
Annually Calvaria Publishing House obtains more than 1000 manuscripts from Ukrainian authors. But Publishers select 10 (ten) –15 (fifteen) texts only. One of the tasksof our agency there is organization of the expertise of manuscripts and starting work with the writers-debutants.
In autumn 2005, we have met with the new authors and we have found the interesting fact: years of the birth majority of them there are from 1979 to 1990. All these children grew in the similar conditions, but each of them there are another; they are not similar neither in genre or style. And the texts are intended for different reader's groups.
We have formulated such tasks for the further actions: develop new book–series, create promotion action and materials for group of these new young writers and their books.
So we have begun to search for and collect information from different countries. The analysis of this information has shown two interesting trends: in Ukraine and in Europe. At the end of 2005 we have first published of such informationin general.
First tendency: practically in each European country there is one writer-teenager that writes firstbook in 15-17 and this book at once became the national bestseller. For example, Bedzhamin Lebert from Germany, and Irena Karpa from Ukraine. Both were born in 1982. Or Melissa (1983) from Italy. But it is especially allocated (in Ukraine, and in Europe) 1984 year of birth (named «Phenomena 1984»). In France – Ann-Soffie Brasm, in Poland – Miroslav Nahach, in Serbia – Anna Vikovich, in Ukraine – Ljubko Deresh.
For example:Ljubko Deresh has written its first novel «Worshipping the Lizard» at 15, the second novel «Cult» – in 16, the third – «ARCHE» – at 19 years. All of these became the Ukrainian bestseller. Now his novels are published in Europe (Germany, Poland, France, and Serbia etc).
In books of these writers there is no almost a world of adult people. It’s the closed world of teenagers where they prove in concrete, «extreme» situations. This extreme provides success of these books as for adults as for teenagers. These works are an interesting object of research for literary critics, and they can become very useful to social psychologists.
But already today in Ukraine we observe the new tendency – occurrence of «another» generation of young writers (named «From 16 to 26»). These authors have written their first Works at age 17-20 years. There are Halyna Tkachuk (1985), Tetjana Vynokurova-Sadychenko(1984), Kseniya Kharchenko (1984), Halyna Lohinova (1979), Ljubomyra Knjazhych (1979).
Attention, please!!! These children were born at ten – twelve years before Independence of UKRAINE (from 1979 to 1991).
These young writers create absolutely new «adult» literature which majority protagonists are children: from babies and teenagers up to child-brownie (house spirit). This generation creates really other layer of the literature. It’s not similarly to previous and present. It’s Original. It’s Individual. Someone names this literature subculture. Someone names alternative. In this books mainly there is no violence, many alcohol, drugs, curses and other typical themes of a yesterday's literary product. They perceive the world and write differently. This is their force. Unique general feature – all this authors create the own world, uniting a reality with something, subconscious. Their heroes become the part of the natural world (visible) and supernatural world (that is given to us in dreams).
In some books there are no author's descriptions – there is only a children's internal voice and consciousness. Feature of heroes of these books – primary ability to fill the world by himself and to think it by himself.
«Phenomena 1984» is closed world of teenagers. «From 16 to 26» is in active interaction with the «adult» world. These Works are written by yesterday's children about children and teenagers, but their basic reader are an adult.
Images and associations in these books are clear to modern Europeans but it is not «universal products of globalization». This authentic Ukrainian literature.
From our point of view the tendency «From 16 to 26» is not only a literary phenomenon, it is the first reflection of deep social processes. While we do not know is it a local Ukrainian phenomenon or all-European tendency? On this reason we continue to research this phenomenon.

Look on these faces once again. Their eyes the New World filled by harmony and love looks at us.