Utopia Dystopia: Literary Responses to the 1917 Russian Revolution

The Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies in Trinity is hosting an evening of readings to mark the centenary of the 1917 revolutions in Russia. The audience will hear texts by poets, prose writers, dramatists and historians who either witnessed the events first hand or observed their aftermath. Some welcome the dawn of a new era; some express disillusionment, anxiety and fear as history unfurls; some are confused or ambivalent. Readers select texts which have fashioned their understanding of the history of Russia and its neighbouring countries over the past hundred years.

A number of texts will be read in their original language (in which case translations will be provided); most will be read in English.


Wednesday, 25 October 2017, 6:30 – 7:30pm, Trinity Long Room Hub


See full schedule of lectures

IFI Evening Course from Russia with Film, 21 March-25 April

A six week evening course looking at selected films from Russia’s rich film history.

With 2017 marking 100 years since the Russian Revolution, the course looks at examples of Russian cinema from the Soviet era through to glasnost, and today’s film production under Putin.
Filmmaking in Russia dates from 1896, a recording of Tsar Nicholas’s coronation shot by a Lumière cameraman. Since then, Russian cinema has evolved alongside distinct historic upheavals, and yielded a wealth of filmmakers, some of whom have significantly influenced the art of cinema itself. Eisenstein’s use of montage, Tarkovsky’s long takes, Sokurov’s poetic themes; the cinema of Russia has produced challenging, visionary work.
The course will run on consecutive Tuesdays, commencing at 18.30 unless otherwise stated.

The films showing in this course are:
Ivan the Terrible Part 1 (Mar 21st)
Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (Mar 28th)
The Commissar (Apr 4th)
Night Watch (Apr 11th)
Leviathan (Apr 18th)
Hipsters (Apr 25th)

More information about the films and the cost of the course at http://ifi.ie/evening-course-from-russia-with-film/

ADIFF 16-26 Feb 2017

The Audi Dublin International Film Festival takes place from 16-26th Feb this year. There are a number of relevant films and cartoons on offer, for example:

• GLORY / SLAVA (Bulgaria, Greece)
• PRETENDERS / TEESKLEJAD (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)
• HEY DEER! (Hungary)
• ALL THESE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS (UK, Poland); PLAYGROUND / PLAC ZABAW (Poland)
• NIGHT DANCING (UK, Romania); GRADUATION / BACALAUREAT (Romania, France, Belgium)
• THE STUDENT (Russia); PARADISE (Russia, Germany); CLOUDBERRY/MOROSHKA (Russia)

Dublin Festival of Russian Culture, 19-26 Feb 2017

 



The Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies is pleased to announce two events which take place as part of the annual Dublin Festival of Russian Culture.

‘Only one step’: The Bolsheviks and Revolutionary Ireland. Lecture by Dr John Borgonov, UCC. Mon, 20th Feb 2017, 7pm, Synge theatre (2039), Arts Building, TCD

Dr John Borgonovo lectures in the School of History at University College Cork, and is coordinator of UCC’s Decade of Centenaries program.  He has published widely on the Irish Revolutionary period and Ireland’s First World War experience.  His books include, ‘The Dynamics of War and Revolution: Cork City, 1916-1918’ (Cork University Press, 2013) and Spies, informers and the 'Anti-Sinn Féin Society': The Intelligence War in Cork City, 1920–1921 (Irish Academic Press, 2007).  He is the assistant editor of the forthcoming The Atlas of the Irish Revolution, to be released by Cork University Press this spring.

Evening at the Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies, Trinity College Dublin. Thur, 23rd Feb 2017, 6:30pm, Rm 4017, Arts Building, TCD

Join us for a cup of tea, browse through second-hand books in Russian and about Russia, and hear students perform music and poetry. Books will be auctioned off from 7.15pm onwards; bids can be made beforehand. Copies of the journal 'Irlandskaya Literatura'/'Ирландская литература' which contains Irish texts along with new translations into Russian will be available for literary enthusiasts.

The complete schedule is at the festival site http://russianfestival.ie/

All welcome. 

Wajda film screenings

Andrzej Wajda, who passed away on the 9th of October, was Poland's leading filmmaker and one of the major figures in the post-war European cinema. His unique style influenced such directors as Martin Scorsese, Roman Polanski, and Francis Ford Coppola. Wajda’s films have received the major prizes of the film industry, including an honorary Oscar in the year 2000. Wajda became known for drawing on Polish history and political subjects to create humanistic movies focusing on ordinary people's lives that were also, somehow, a political call to action. His last film, Afterimage, a tribute to avant-garde artist Wladyslaw Strzeminski was selected as the Polish entry for the 2017 Oscars in the category Best Foreign Language Film. 

To celebrate Andrzei Wajda's legacy, the Department of Russian & Slavonic Studies and the Department of Film Studies are screening four of Wajda's films, starting with Ashes and Diamonds on Thursday, 3 Nov 2016, in 2041B (Teatar M. Ui Chadhain) at 7pm. 

The remaining dates are:

17/11/2016, The Promised Land,  7pm, room 2043 (Arts Building). Introduced by Dr Aneta Stępień (Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies)

24/11/2016, Katyn, 7pm, Maxwell 5 (Hamilton building). Introduced by Dr Conor O’Kelly (Department of Film Studies)

01/12/2016, Wedding, 7pm, Room 2043 (Arts building). Introduced by Dr Piotr Sadowski (School of English)

Followed by discussion. All screenings are free, and all are welcome. 

Evening courses still enrolling

The evening courses at the Department are back this week. We have an exciting range of offers, from language courses in Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Polish and Russian, to new lecture courses:

- Contemporary Czech Literature
- Contemporary Bulgarian, Croatian, Polish and Russian Cultures (4 five-week modules which can be taken separately or together)
- Contemporary Literature and Cinema in the European Southeast and the Question of Balkan Identity

For more information, see the Departmental website. It's not too late to enroll.

Slavonic pub nights resume 5th October 2016

Our by now traditional pub nights take place every second Wednesday during term time in Kennedy's Pub in Western Row near Lincoln Gate.

The dates for the first semester are:

• 5 Oct 2016
• 19 Oct 2016
• 2 Nov 2016
• 16 Nov 2016
• 30 Nov 2016
• 14 Dec 2016

Those for the second semester are:

• 25 Jan 2017
• 8 Feb 2017
• 22 Feb 2017
• 8 Mar 2017
• 22 Mar 2017
• 5 Apr 2017

Pub nights start around 8:30-9pm, usually on the ground floor level. The pub takes food orders until about 9:30.

So come along and meet the language assistants, old and new, evening and day students of the Department, during an evening of chats and stories (and maybe some scrabble) in whatever Slavonic language you speak. See you there!