On June 5, 2020, the first lecture of the Qizhen Lectures on Russian Literature hosted by the Institute of Russian Language and Culture of School of International Studies (SIS) was launched online. Presided over by Prof. Wang Yong, Director of the Institute of Russian Language and Culture, the lectureentitled “Russian Literature in the Last 30 Years of the 20th Century” was delivered by Prof. олубков Михаил Михайлович of Lomonosov Moscow State University, an expert on ontemporary Russian literature. Over 150 researchers and lovers of Russian literature, including teachers and postgraduates from more than 30 universities in China, went online at Zoom to enjoy the lecture.
Prof. олубков, an outstanding scholar on Russian literature, has been studying contemporary Russian literary community, and in recent years he has been widely recognized in the academic circle for his division of periods for the literary evolution in 20th century and the corresponding scientific basis. In the first part of the lecture, Prof. олубков introduced the situation faced by the post-war Russian literature, including rural and urban novels and concentration camp novels in the 1970s and 1980s. He went on to introduce three literary works with titles beginning with the Russian letter П (“Пожар” (Fire), “Плаха” (The Place of the Skull), “Печальный детектив” (A Grievous Detective)), and pointed out that these three works depicting the evil of human nature betokened the new difficulties and challenges facing Russian literature. As presented by Prof. олубков, in 20th century, many representative works of the three main branches of Russian literature were published in major global literary journals, which had influenced the formation of “value centers” in 1980s and 1990s and thus evolved into a critical literary event that provided a fertile ground for the emergence and development of Russian postmodern literature. Prof. олубков then rendered a fascinating analysis of the novel “Кысь” (The Slynx), which was written by Татьяны Толстойfrom from 1986 and published in 2000, and came up with his own opinion that the maturity of this novel indicated the pinnacle in the postmodern literature in Russia.
The logical and reasonably-detailed lecture of Prof. олубков provided the audience with an overview of the contemporary Russian literary landscape as well as a glimpse into the greatest strength of its significant representative works. At the end of the lecture, the audience jumped into the question-and-answer session for close communication with the Professor and expressed their expectation for a second lecture. Meanwhile, the community members from other universities extended their heartfelt gratitude to the Institute of Russian Language and Culture of Zhejiang University (ZJU) for its ongoing effort in organizing high-level conferences, workshops and lectures in recent years.
Initiated and organized by the Institute of Russian Language and Culture of SIS, the Qizhen Lectures on Russian Literature are planned to deliver four series of lectures, namely, Contemporary Literature Series, Literary Classics Series, Research Methods Series, Literary Translation and Research Series, each consisting of 3-6 lectures. In addition to today’s lecture by Prof. олубков, there are more to expect in the first series including a lecture by Prof. Zhang Jianhua, an Evergreen Scholar at Beijing Foreign Studies University, and a lecture by Prof. Алексей Варламов, President of Maxim Gorky Literature Institute.
The Lectures will be mainly broadcast live on Zoom, dedicated to offer a high-end academic exchange platform to be shared by researchers and lovers of Russian literature. We sincerely look forward to the sustained attention and support of community members from other universities and other Russian literature lovers.
Photo/Text by Xue Ranran
Institute of Russian Language and Culture
June 5, 2020
Translated by Mo Feifei
Proofread by Xu Xueying
