Tonight the annual conference of the Irish Association for Russian, Central and East European Studies entitled ‘Memories and Identities in Central and Eastern Europe’ starts off with a public lecture by
Polly Jones (Oxford) on ‘The Many Uses of the Usable Past: Rethinking Revolution(s) in Late Socialism’
6pm, Long Room Hub, TCD
If you are interested in attending the conference itself, please go to IARCEES' website for the full programme and registration details.
This year's Dublin City Festival of Russian Culture kicked off today with a lunchtime concert in the Hugh Lane Gallery. It runs until next Sunday, 22nd Feb, boasting a varied programme of concerts, talks and film screenings. Full details of events at http://www.russianfestival.ie/.
The Department again contributes several events:
- a talk about studying Russian at TCD/abroad and a quiz "How well do you know Russia?", on Tue 17th Feb, 10-12.30, Ilac library
- a talk in Russian and English about the history of the Bolshoi Theatre by Evgenia Rosato, on Tue 17th Feb, 6-7:30pm, Long Room Hub, TCD
- an Open Day at the Department, on Wed 18th Feb, 4.30-6pm, Room 5051 in the Arts Building, which includes a free tour of TCD
- an evening of poetry and song, on Wed 18th Feb, 7-9pm in the Atrium at TCD.
Next Wednesday is our next regular pub night, and we will repair to Kennedy's after the poetry evening, so the Russian table will start a bit later than usual.
All welcome, and enjoy!
(Please note that there are a couple of inaccuracies concerning our events in this printed version.)
A short post celebrating the work of Pushkin's literary contemporaries, who helped to shape and inspire his writings, featuring new translations specially created for Trinity's Russian poetry evenings.
Vasily Zhukovsky (1783 - 1852)
Oh silent sea, oh azure sea,
I'm spellbound by your depths.
You live, you breathe with turbid love,
With thoughts that never rest.
Oh silent sea, oh azure sea,
Reveal to me deep mysteries:
What moves your boundless breast?
How breathes your labouring chest?
Do the far-off shining heavens
Draw you from your earthly strife,
When, filled with sweet and secret life,
You bask in their radiant presence?
Their azure brightness floods your face,
You burn with the rising and setting sun,
The clouds are gold in your embrace,
The glittering stars and you are one.
And when the dark clouds gather round
To steal the heavenly glow,
Your waves rise up, wild howls resound,
To shatter your gloomy foe...
The darkened clouds disperse away,
But filled with past alarm,
You long raise waves of anxiety -
And returning heaven's shining charm
Cannot bring you peace complete,
Your calm appearance is deceit.
Your deep abyss hides turbulent fevers
For love of the heavens, the ocean quivers.
Apart from his influence as a leading poet - shown by his poem 'The Sea' above and his lyrics to the national anthem of tsarist Russia - Zhukovsky was a famously skilled literary translator, bringing the work of West European writers to Russian readers from Homer's epic 'Odyssey' to leading German Romantics, crucially influencing the forms of modern Russian literature in its early development. Mentored by the famous Russian historian Nikolai Karamzin, Vasily Zhukovsky himself became tutor to the future tsar, Alexander II. He may have helped to instill the liberal ideals that inspired Alexander to abolish the institution of serfdom and earn the nickname of 'Liberator', and he certainly used his influence at court to protect and serve as patron to edgier talents like Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Mikhail Lermontov and Alexander Herzen, even helping to buy the Ukrainian nationalist poet and icon Taras Shevchenko out of serfdom. Although the name of Zhukovsky is not very familiar outside of Russia, and his works rarely translated, it is no exaggeration to say that the Golden Age of Russian literature would not have been what it was without him.
Alexander Griboyedov (1795 - 1829)
Into what circles I'm driven by fate?
Circles of hell where my tormentors wait
To victimise me! ostracize me! Storytellers!
Gossiping traitors to love as well as
Ungainly connoisseurs, cunning laymen,
Malicious aged men and women
Grown stale on a diet of schemes and lies.
You brand me a madman with your loud cries!
You're right: he'll come through fire who
When staying just a day with you,
Breathing air with people of your kind
Would not be driven from his mind!
Away from Moscow! Out of these parts!
I seek a place for outraged hearts!
I'll go around the world in search
Get me a coach! Get me a coach!
Poet, composer, officer of a Hussar regiment and diplomatic envoy to Georgia and Persia, Alexander Griboyedov is today remembered as the author of the satirical verse comedy Woe from Wit. A snapshot of the tensions in Russia before the Decembrist Uprising of 1825 (a failed rebellion by mainly aristocratic advocates of democratic reform against the totalitarian tsarist regime), it shows the conservative, anti-reformist Famusov, the social-climbing hypocrite Molchalin and the liberal Anglophile Repetilov as typical types of Russian society at the time. Against all of them, the hero Chatsky is a sarcastic, disaffected cynic who would himself become the model for the 'superfluous man' type of Russian Romanticism. Banned by the censors in 1823, the play circulated freely in unauthorised manuscript copies (like a form of tsarist Samizdat') influencing later works like Pushkin's Eugene Onegin and Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time. Griboyedov saw his play staged only once, in an unofficial production by the garrison of Yerevan, Armenia, before he himself was murdered in an uprising against the Russian embassy in Tehran, Persia (now Iran). Mikhail Lermontov's decision to end 'A Hero of Our Time' by reporting his hero Pechorin's death on his way to Persia may be seen as a nod to Griboyedov, creator of Chatsky, the original hero of his time, played above by well-known Russian actor Oleg Menshikov (Burnt by the Sun, The Barber of Siberia). Click here for an article about Pushkin and the musical salon culture of the Golden Age.
Saturday, 11 January 2014
Introduction to Polish Culture
This course invites participants to discover modern Poland from many perspectives: from historical experience to cultural tradition and artistic innovation. Topics covered include the complex memories of the Second World War, the communist period and the migratory experience, the Jewish and Turkic influences that enrich Poland's culture, the country's folk traditions and its cutting-edge experimental art. Along the way, it examines the work of a wide variety of internationally renowned Polish artists, from the theatrical revolutionaries Grotowski and Kantor to the Oscar-winning filmmakers Wajda and Polański.
The course is intended for a wide audience with a general interest in the countries of Eastern Europe and Poland in particular. The sessions are delivered in English by staff of Trinity College and special guest lecturers.
This course invites participants to discover modern Poland from many perspectives: from historical experience to cultural tradition and artistic innovation. Topics covered include the complex memories of the Second World War, the communist period and the migratory experience, the Jewish and Turkic influences that enrich Poland's culture, the country's folk traditions and its cutting-edge experimental art. Along the way, it examines the work of a wide variety of internationally renowned Polish artists, from the theatrical revolutionaries Grotowski and Kantor to the Oscar-winning filmmakers Wajda and Polański.
The course is intended for a wide audience with a general interest in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe and Poland in particular. The sessions are delivered in English by staff of Trinity College and special guest lecturers.
The course is part supported by the Embassy of Poland in Dublin.
Starring: Johnny Kelly, Mateusz Kołakowski, Fionnuala Gygax, Tuula Costello, Danny Greening, Alice Bentley, Declan Johnston, Julia Walsh, David Armstrong, Finn Plekkenpol, Michael Ware and Patrick Cummins-Tripodi.
Directed by Patrick Reevell and Patrick Cummins-Tripodi
Players Theatre, Monday (5 December) - Saturday (10 December), 7pm (except Wed - 6pm), only 5.00 (3.50 euro for Players members)!
Seminal Polish play, performed for the first time in Ireland. "Witkiewicz's writing has the bubbly boil of angry lunacy; the play is a furiously sardonic smirk of despair." NYT
Two men, one a train engineer and the other a stoker, set off on their steam locomotive on what seems a day of work just like any other. But racing along the rails, they come upon the idea that they must crash the train, killing themselves and all aboard, in the name of living and liberation. Set entirely aboard the engine of a steam locomotive, the play follows two men’s crazed venture towards destruction and the love triangle that emerges as their efforts are complicated by a bizarre host of characters.
Drawing inspiration from the author’s surrealist paintings and Futurist music, the production aims to create a spectacular journey of colour, sound and energy.
ABOVE: 'Deception of a Woman', Witkiewicz's self-portrait with Maryla Grossmanowa.
Nikolai Gogol's famous 19th century satire of rural Russian corruption and officialdom 'The Inspector General' is given an Irish spin by Roddy Doyle - a portrait of incompetent, embezzling and bungling politicians and bureaucrats with the language of modern Ireland? Surely not!Check out Doyle's Irish Times article on the challenges of adapting Gogol.
Even better, check out 'The Government Inspector', now playing in the Abbey Theatre!
Tonight the annual conference of the Irish Association for Russian, Central and East European Studies entitled ‘Memories and Identities in Central and Eastern Europe’ starts off with a public lecture by 
Apart from his influence as a leading poet - shown by his poem 'The Sea' above and his lyrics to the national anthem of tsarist Russia - Zhukovsky was a famously skilled literary translator, bringing the work of West European writers to Russian readers from Homer's epic 'Odyssey' to leading German Romantics, crucially influencing the forms of modern Russian literature in its early development. Mentored by the famous Russian historian Nikolai Karamzin, Vasily Zhukovsky himself became tutor to the future tsar, Alexander II. He may have helped to instill the liberal ideals that inspired Alexander to abolish the institution of serfdom and earn the nickname of 'Liberator', and he certainly used his influence at court to protect and serve as patron to edgier talents like Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Mikhail Lermontov and Alexander Herzen, even helping to buy the Ukrainian nationalist poet and icon Taras Shevchenko out of serfdom. Although the name of Zhukovsky is not very familiar outside of Russia, and his works rarely translated, it is no exaggeration to say that the Golden Age of Russian literature would not have been what it was without him.
