The second edition of the annual magazine Common Ground is out! We believe it is a way to share common European ground, and celebrate Europe Day.
This magazine is not about the last days of corona but the future we ought to build out of it. What can we learn from the last one and a half year? What can we do better and how? There is much talk about the New Normal. Can you still remember the Normal just before corona hit? Trump looked confident to win his second presidential term. Despite the Greta Thunberg impact and all the talk about climate change CO2 emissions had reached another peak. California was burning yet again. The new European Commission looked little inspirational while Brexit reached its sad finale. The immediate Normal before corona should not be our reference point as we look into the future. So, what about the ‘new’ New?
There is plenty New in this magazine. This is intentional. You will read about the case for a Cultural Deal for Europe, may get inspired by the idea of a New European Bauhaus movement. We believe the time has come for a whole new chapter of European philanthropy. We see the future being imagined in European Pavilions springing up all over Europe. Challenges cry out for new solutions. This is what The Europe Challenge is about, a new initiative in the works with the libraries of Europe. We are ready for the future.
Further in this magazine you will discover European moments of hope, resilience and solidarity, why black lives matter, why we must not forget about Belarus, what the New Gospel means for Europe and what the Sisters of Europe have to say about the independent media. You will not find only one but four photo essays. That’s four times more than in our last edition. Finally, there is a short story on life in lockdown, just to remember it before we move on.
Encounters with Polish Literature (Episode 3) — Witold Gombrowicz with Bożena Shallcross
Witold Gombrowicz (1904-69) was born to a family of the Polish gentry, and after writing his play, Princess Ivona of Burgundia (1935) and publishing his major novel, Ferdydurke (1937), he was invited as a writer to report on the maiden voyage of the cruise ship, Chrobry in 1939. While aboard, the Germans invaded Poland, marking the outbreak of the Second World War. He disembarked in Argentina, unable to return to Poland during the war and after the transition to Communism. He worked in a bank, associating with writers in Buenos Aires and continuing to write novels and plays in Polish as well as his Diary in which he engaged in a struggle for self-definition in the face of conservative ideas of Polish nationalism among his fellow émigrés. In 1963 he returned to Europe on a Ford Foundation grant, first to Berlin, and then to France where he was embraced by Paris intellectuals, writing his last novel, Cosmos (1965), and play, Operetta (1966). This episode of “Encounters” focuses on the novels, Ferdydurkeand Trans-Atlantyk (1953 and 1957), and we examine his conflict with what he saw as ossified forms of cultural life among the Polish gentry, and his attempts to maintain his identity as a Polish exile in Buenos Aires and as a gay man in a closeted era.
For students interested in advanced study of Polish literature and culture, Prof. Shallcross describes the academic program in Polish studies at the University of Chicago.
Encounters with Polish Literature is a new video series for anyone interested in literature and the culture of books and reading. Each month, host David A. Goldfarb will present a new topic in conversation with an expert on that author or book or movement in Polish literature.
Learn more about this episode, and see the biography of the guest on the Polish Cultural Institute New York's website. The linked page includes a bibliography of works in English by and about Gombrowicz: Episode 3.
The Cultural is Political: Intersections of Russian Art and State Politics
In the last decade, culture and art have become arenas of forceful political controversy in Russia. Bringing together an international group of scholars from various disciplines – Russian media studies, the history of ideas, political science, literature and gender studies – this book combines assessments of Russian cultural policies, political ideologies and intellectual trends with case studies on Russian literature, film, rap and memory culture.
Irina Anisimova, University of Bergen; Ingunn Lunde, University of Bergen; Jardar Østbø, Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies; Ulrich Schmid, University of St Gallen; Kåre Johan Mjør, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences/University of Bergen; Dinara Yangeldina, University of Bergen; Johanne Kalsaas, University of Bergen; Stehn Aztlan Mortensen, University of Bergen
The Tolstoy Commons: A Companion Website to the Tolstoy Studies Journal
The Tolstoy Commons is an online community designed to foster conversations about the Russian author Lev Tolstoy and to serve as a clearinghouse for scholarly activity related to his life and works. We welcome announcements of new books, articles, reviews, and conferences, as well as discussions of new pedagogical approaches to teaching Tolstoy. The Tolstoy Commons is a companion website to the Tolstoy Studies Journal, the peer-reviewed organ of the Tolstoy Society of North America.
1) The first, Tolstoy Interviews, is a series of interviews intended to publicize Tolstoy scholarship. If you have Tolstoy projects that you want us to feature, whether books (within the last 5 years) or more non-traditional, DH projects, or even a heavy-duty article, let us know and we will interview you too. We will be soliciting a few scholars on our own as well. Check out an interview with Donna Orwin on her recent book, Simply Tolstoy.
2) The second, Tolstoy Stories, is intended as a pedagogical resource, and was suggested by two intrepid Tolstoy scholars, Ilya Vinitsky and Tom Newlin.
For this one, we would like to invite scholars to tell us their favorite Tolstoy stories. We mean this in two ways. First, we are interested in true stories about Tolstoy that captivate you and you share in class with students. Second, your own Tolstoy stories, in the form of any particularly vivid personal reflections while reading and teaching Tolstoy. Some scholars have found teaching Tolstoy to be fundamentally different from teaching Dostoevsky and we welcome such pedagogical reflections.
We hope these stories will be both entertaining/enlightening but also potentially useful for other scholars in the classroom as we continue to keep making the case for why Tolstoy remains relevant to younger generations.
TheTheatreTimes.com launches the Spotlight on Poland series on 27 March 2018. Bringing together reviews, exclusive interviews, and articles, the Spotlight on Poland will be one of the largest English-language digital resources on contemporary Polish theatre.
The Spotlight on Poland is edited by Dr. Kasia Lech in collaboration with partners Biweekly.pl, East European Performing Arts Platform, Cosmopolitan Review, and Culture.pl. A special report on the Divine Comedy Festival was prepared with the support of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute – the national institution of the culture of Poland.
Highlights include the following:
A special report on the 10th Divine Comedy Festival, showcasing the best Polish theatre of 2017.
Selected reviews of productions, events, and festivals, including work by critically acclaimed Polish directors like Krystian Lupa, Maja Kleczewska, Anna Augustynowicz, and Cezary Tomaszewski.
Introductions to Polish theatre and research centers and institutions.
Articles on the newest developments in Polish mainstream and independent theatre and performance.
An extensive and ever-growing archive of materials on Polish theatre – over one hundred articles.
The Slavic Humanities Index is a research database in the field of Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern European Studies. This comprehensive database provides access to scholarly and cultural periodicals published in Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, the Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine.
The Edward and Helen Mardigian Reference and Research Library at NAASR is composed of more than 20,000 books, pamphlets, periodicals, and documents, primarily in Armenian and English, dating as far back as the late eighteenth century. The collection encompasses a broad range of topics including history, literature, art and architecture, linguistics, as well as law, anthropology, and natural sciences.
Two circumstances led to the establishment of a library at NAASR. The first was the donation of books on Armenian subjects by NAASR members and their families; the second was the increasing number of requests to NAASR by students, the media, and individuals for information on Armenian topics. The library has become a center for scholars, undergraduates, high school students, and the general public, who have benefited from NAASR’s unique holdings.
Through the years, numerous important and valuable collections have been donated or willed to NAASR and form the heart of the Armenian language collection, and NAASR continues to accept donations. The largest of these collections is the Ani and George Bournoutian Collection of more than 3,000 titles. Other major collections donated to NAASR include those of Hagop Atamian, Dickran Boyajian, Dr. John A. C. Greppin, George Kolligian, Harry Kolligian, Alice Odian Kasparian, Samuel Toumayan, and Manoog S. Young.
The library also contains several important collections of personal papers, including those of the late Avedis Derounian (aka John Roy Carlson), the Rev. Charles Vertanes, Emmanuel P. Varandyan, Haigazn Kazarian, Marderos Deranian, Dicran Simsarian, and others, which represent a substantial source of information for future researchers.
Highlights of the library include a large number of histories of now-destroyed Armenian villages and towns, Armenian dictionaries of many different types, a copy of virtually every title published in English over the past half century, and an enormous trove of newspapers and periodicals, including scholarly journals.
The Mardigian Library's fully searchable catalogue can be accessed by clicking here: NAASR Library Catalogue.
Please note that the NAASR follows Library of Congress transliteration rules for Armenian, Russian, Persian and other languages. We suggest omitting diacritical marks when searching.
Established on April 22, 1929 with the support of the "father of Soviet literature," writer Maxim Gorky, Literaturnaia gazeta is a landmark publication in Russia's cultural heritage. With its focus on literary and intellectual life, Literaturnaia gazeta allowed Soviet Russia’s preeminent authors, poets, and cultural figures a particular podium for commentary, affording perhaps fewer restrictions than might be possible in other publications. Literaturnaia gazeta was considered the most open among newspapers of the Soviet era, and it remains popular among the intelligentsia in today’s Russia.
Dostoevskii: Materialy i issledovaniia (Dostoyevsky: Materials and Research), vol. 1-20
The collection of the series “Dostoyevsky: Materials and Research” was conceived as a companion to the academic Complete Collected Works of F.M. Dostoyevsky and will be published in parallel to their publication. The series will include studies dealing with contemporary issues in Dostoyevsky scholarship, letters addressed to the writer, materials and documents addressing various aspects of his biography, commentaries to his works, bibliographic materials and surveys, and articles on the influence of Dostoyevsky on Russian and foreign literature from the late 19th to the 20th century.
Information about volumes 1-20:
Vol. 1 of the series consists of three sections: “Presentations and studies,” “Communications. Notes. Biographical materials” and “Bibliography.”
Vol. 2 of the series “Dostoyevsky: Materials and Research” is compiled according to the same pattern as Vol. 1. It consists of four sections: “Articles,” “Communications,” Selections from the scholarly and literary legacy” and “Publications.”
Vol. 3 of the series “Dostoyevsky: Materials and Studies” is patterned after the two previous volumes. It consists of three sections: “Articles,” “Notes and communications,” “Publications.”
Vol. 4 of the series “Dostoyevsky: Materials and Research” was conceived as a kind of companion to the 30-volume academic Complete Collected Works of F.M. Dostoyevsky (published 1972-1990).
Vol. 5 of the series “Dostoyevsky: Materials and Research” consists of four sections: “Dostoyevsky and modernity,” “Unpublished texts of Dostoyevsky,” “Articles and studies,” “Communications. Notes,” “New materials,” (this section is a continuation of the publication of letters written to Dostoyevsky).
Vol. 6 of the series “Dostoyevsky: Materials and Research” consists of three sections: “Texts of Dostoyevsky,” “Articles,” and “Communications and notes.”
Vol. 7 of the series “Dostoyevsky: Materials and Research” consists of three sections: “Articles,” “Materials and communications,” and “Publications.”
Vol. 8 of the series “Dostoyevsky: Materials and Research” consists of four sections: “Articles,” “Materials and communications,” “Notes about Dostoyevsky,” and “Selections from Dostoyevsky’s literary legacy.”
Vol. 9 of the series “Dostoyevsky: Materials and Research” consists of three sections: “Articles,” “Materials and communications,” and “New materials.”
Vol. 10 of the series “Dostoyevsky: Materials and Research” consists of six sections: “Articles,” “Materials and communications,” “Epistolary materials,” “Selections from Dostoyevsky’s literary legacy,” “Chronicles,” and “Bibliography.”
Vol. 11 of the series opens with additions to vols. 27-30 of the Complete Collected Works of Dostoyevsky. The most substantive addition is the work of V.A. Viktorovich, reprinted from the journal “Znamia” (1991, No. 11, pp. 154-160). Beginning with Vol. 10 of the series “Dostoyevsky: Materials and Research” the collection is published by the Institute of Russian Literature (The Pushkin House) of the Russian Academy of Sciences with financial support and contributions from the University of Tallahassee (Florida, USA), for which the Institute of Literature of the RAN is grateful.
Vol. 12 of the series “Dostoyevsky: Materials and Research” consists of traditional sections: “Articles” and “Materials and communications.” The first part contains articles by scholars from Russia, France, and Latvia, and is devoted to the study of individual works by Dostoyevsky, commentaries to those works, and a critical assessment of his works as a whole. The volume also includes previously unpublished selections from the diaries of Ya.P. Polonsky about Dostoyevsky and other materials.
Vol. 13 of the series “Dostoyevsky: Materials and Research” coincides with the 175th anniversary of the great writer’s birth. The volume includes articles dedicated to that occasion. Some of the articles are edited and updated versions of conference presentations and articles initially presented at international conferences of Dostoyevsky scholars: “Dostoyevsky and world culture” held in Staraia Russa in May 1995; St. Petersburg’s The Dostoyevsky Literary-Memorial Museum (November 1995); and the 9th Symposium of the International Dostoyevsky Society (Gaming, August 1995).
Vol. 14 of the series Dostoyevsky: Materials and Research” is dedicated to the memory of Academician Georgy Mikhailovich Fridlender, the initiator of the present series and one of the greatest scholars and experts on the work of Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The volume opens with G.M. Friedlender’s last work “T. Mann’s ‘Doctor Faustus’ and F. Dostoyevsky’s ‘Demons.’ ” The volume also includes works by Russian and foreign Dostoyevsky scholars, participants of the International Conference “Dostoyevsky and World Culture” held in St. Petersburg, Staraia Russa, and Novgorod on May 22-26, 1996. Along with the traditional sections “Articles,” and “Materials and communications,” the collection includes “Selections from Dostoyevsky’s literary legacy” and “Bibliography.”
Vol. 15 of the series “Dostoyevsky: Materials and Research” includes articles, communications (letters), and materials of Russian and foreign scholars, including participants of the 1998 Velikii Novgorod-Staraia Rusa academic conference “Pushkin and Dostoyevsky,” the 1998 St. Petersburg conference “Dostoyevsky and Global Culture,” and the 10th International Dostoyevsky symposium (New York, 1998). The collection consists of the traditional sections: “Articles,” “Materials and communications,” “Selections from author’s literary and epistolary legacy.” Of special note is the thematic character of the collection. The principal theme of the volume – Dostoyevsky and the “silver age” – belongs to one of the most understudied aspects of the writer’s life and work. Another understudied topic that represents an important theme in the volume is Dostoyevsky and Orthodoxy, which is dedicated to the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of Christianity.
Vol. 16 of the series “Dostoyevsky: Materials and Research” includes articles by Russian and foreign Dostoyevsky scholars, offering a wide-ranging analysis of Dostoyevsky’s works from the 1840s to the 1880s, his connections to the Russian culture of the 11th to the early 20th centuries. The collection consists of traditional but often changing sections: “Publication of texts,” “Articles,” “Materials and communications,” “Literary legacy,” “Epistolary materials.” It is dedicated to the 180th anniversary of Dostoyevsky’s birth, and the 120th anniversary of his death.
Vol. 17 of the academic series “Dostoyevsky: Materials and Studies” is devoted to the study of Dostoyevsky’s works and his worldview in the context of global culture. The volume consists of the traditional sections: “Articles,” “Materials and communications,” “Epistolary materials,” “Literary legacy,” and a new section titled “Polemics.” Articles by Dostoyevsky scholars from Russia, Italy, Germany and the US are devoted to understanding both more concrete works by Dostoyevsky as well as the entire corpus of his literary output. The section “Materials and communications” is being published in addition to commentaries to the Complete Collected Works and the Chronicles of Dostoyevsky’s life and works. It also includes letters addressed to the writer. Of special note in the present collection is the section under the heading “Polemics.”
Vol. 18 of the series “Dostoyevsky: Materials and Research” continues the tradition of fundamental works published by the Pushkin House. The present volume focuses on little-studied aspects of Dostoyevsky’s worldview, biography, and literary career in the context of world culture.
Vol. 19 of the academic series “Dostoyevsky: Materials and Research” is devoted to issues concerning F.M. Dostoyevsky’s biography, worldview, and works in the context of global culture, as well as the influence of Dostoyevsky’s works and their legacy. The collections consist of the following sections: “On the 250th anniversary of the birth of Friedrich Schiller,” “Literary legacy,” “Articles,” “Materials and communications,” “Epistolary materials,” “Corrections and addenda to the commentaries.”
Vol. 20 of the series “Dostoyevsky: Materials and Research” differs from previous volumes in that it is thematic: it includes articles by Russian and foreign scholars about the study, translation and reception of F.M. Dostoyevsky’s works in many European and Asian countries, as well as the US and Australia. The volume pays special attention to the contribution of western philological schools in the study of Dostoyevsky’s works in the past forty years, since the first publication of the writer’s collected works. The idea of the series was first proposed by V.E. Bango during work on the second Complete Collected Works of F.M. Dostoyevsky. Soon after, Bagno’s proposal was discussed during the 2012 Napoli gathering organized by the International Dostoyevsky Society. The collection consists of the following sections: “Articles and analytic surveys,” “Materials and communications,” and “Publications.” Later, a new section titled “Bibliographies” was appended to the collection by the authors due to the nature of the collection, the main part of which is devoted to the history of the study of Dostoyevsky’s works abroad.
You can access Dostoevskii: Materialy i issledovaniia through the UChicago library: http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/h/dostoevskii (note: each volume is treated as a separate e-bool; click on the D in the index and scroll down to the Dostoevskii volumes)
The virtual exhibition is devoted to the Solovki prison camp and the cultural resistance of its inmates. It is the result of a collaborative effort with The Hunterian Museum and Russian partners (mainly Memorial, but also state institutions such as the Museum of the History of the Gulag). The exhibition displays unpublished documents from Russian archives, and includes prisoners’ paintings, theatre photographs, a selection of literary texts composed by the prisoners (with audio recordings in Russian and English) and some historical documents such as the personal file of Naftalii Frenkel’, the camp’s guide prepared by the prisoner Vladimir Zotov for his fiancée and the photo album created by camp administration as a gift for Gor’kii, Stalin and Kirov.
