Russian

Evgenia Cherkasova who is a professor and chair of Philosophy at Suffolk University (Boston) will give a talk entitled “Philosophy for Life: Ideas that Matter”. The oldest, most perplexing existential questions are as relevant today as they were in ancient times. What do we live for? Why do we suffer? Which beliefs, values, and experiences sustain meaningful, fulfilling existence? The speaker will discuss “Philosophy as a Way of Life”—an engaged, existentially-charged approach to the Big Questions. Diverse examples will be drawn from Western and Eastern philosophical and literary texts. ❖ Fri, April 5th, 2019 @ 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm | Hollander Hall, 241 Continue reading »

Joan Neuberger, Professor of Russian History at the University of Texas, Austin, will speak about her new book on Sergei Eisenstein's film masterpiece Ivan the Terrible on Friday, April 12 in the Williams College Bookstore. Professor Neuberger's book, titled This Thing of Darkness: Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible in Stalin's Russia, explores how one of the world's greatest filmmakers and one of the 20th century's greatest artists observed the world around him and experimented with every element of film art to explore the psychology of political ambition, uncover the history of recurring cycles of violence, and lay bare the tragedy of absolute power. ❖ Friday, April 12, 2019 at 4:15 pm | Williams College Bookstore Continue reading »

If literature offers models of the world, then the big problem it poses is that of ontology, the nature of reality. In Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky takes us into the head of his hero, and we see the world mostly through his eyes. What we see is the utterly recognizable, tangible cityscape of St. Petersburg, Russia, captured at a precise moment in the year 1865, with its slums, bridges, canals, taverns, smells and crowded, filthy flats. Even the weather corresponds to meteorological records of the time. Nowhere before in Russian literature had a writer so tangibly conveyed the physical experience of urban poverty, hunger, prostitution, and drunkenness. Seduced by this immersion in a particular time and place, readers might not notice an odd, disquieting feature of the novel: the dubious material grounding of its protagonist. This reading tracks Raskolnikov’s path leading up to the act of murder, posing the question: how, given the mass of potential witnesses, does he get away with it? Who sees him, and how do we know? The more deeply we probe into this question, the stranger and more fantastical does he, and his world become. ❖ Friday, November 2 at 4 pm | Schapiro 241 Continue reading »

Jeff Lilley, ’86, will speak about how his education at Williams helped to put him on track to be an international correspondent in Russia at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union and make writing an essential part of his professional life. He will tell the story behind the writing of his latest book Have the Mountains Fallen: Two Journeys of Loss and Redemption in the Cold War, which has roots in his first posting in Central Asia. The book follows the lives of a writer and a broadcaster from Soviet Kirgizia who fought against Soviet authoritarianism with words not weapons. It's a story of the Cold War from the “other side.” ✽ April 24, 4.15 pm | Schapiro 129 Continue reading »

Russian graphic artist, activist, and journalist Victoria Lomasko will discuss the genres of "documentary comics" and "graphic reportage" by addressing the history of the genres and their development in Russia, how graphic stories can be used in social activism, journalistic aspects of graphic art, and the principles for combining verbal and visual elements. ✽ April 26, 4:15 | Schapiro 129 Reception to follow talk ✽ Exhibit April 26 – May 11 | Other Russias Schapiro Hallway Continue reading »

The talk will explore the issue of incest in Leo Tolstoy's novels in the broader context of the family, marriage, and law in 19th-century Russia. ✽ April 16, 4:15 – 5:15pm | Hollander 241 Continue reading »