The failure to establish a central memorial to the victims of the Gulag mentioned in my previous post is part of a problem of contested memory that has been apparent since the demise of the Soviet Union but has escalated in the last decade or so. As Arseny Roginsky’s eloquent essay The Embrace of Stalinism shows, […]
All posts tagged Grossman
Historical memory of the Gulag (3): Contested memory
Posted by Sarah Young on September 17, 2015
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2015/09/17/historical-memory-of-the-gulag-3-contested-memory/
Women in the Gulag
I always welcome new contributions to the study of the Gulag, particularly (because it is a dimension that remains much less explored than the history) those that focus on personal experiences of the Soviet labour camp system and the writings associated with it, so I was looking forward to reading Paul R. Gregory’s Women of […]
Posted by Sarah Young on November 11, 2013
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2013/11/11/women-in-the-gulag/
New publications: the spatial turn
I have a couple of recent publications to announce. The first is on Shalamov: ‘Mapping Space as Factography: Human Traces and Negated Genres in Varlam Shalamov’s Kolymskie rasskazy,’ Slavonica, 19.1 (April 2013), 1-17 ) (£). The second, co-authored with John Levin, is ‘Mapping Machines: Transformations of the Petersburg Text’, The Spatial Turn in Literary Studies, Primerjalna književnost (Comparative Literature) 36.2 (2013). […]
Posted by Sarah Young on September 15, 2013
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2013/09/15/new-publications-the-spatial-turn/
BASEES 2012 highlights
I was quite busy with committee business during the BASEES conference, but did manage to attend a few panels, and want to pick out a few highlights from what everyone I spoke to agreed was a very stimulating and enjoyable weekend. A Monday morning panel on Gulag literature may not be everybody’s idea of fun, […]
Posted by Sarah Young on April 2, 2012
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2012/04/02/basees-2012-highlights/
Top ten letters in Russian literature
Letters play a significant role in some of my favourite works of Russian literature, and a couple in particular have been very much on my mind lately. So here is my top ten, which manages to encompass everything from the absurd to the tragic. Apologies for the plot spoilers (especially in entries 10, 7 and […]
Posted by Sarah Young on December 15, 2011
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2011/12/15/top-ten-letters-in-russian-literature/
Vasily Grossman: links
The BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Life and Fate is in full swing, but I’ve been away/really busy, so I haven’t managed to listen to any of it yet (perhaps later today, if I finish the article I’m working on…), or write the follow-up post I was intending about the conference. But as Grossman mania sweeps […]
Posted by Sarah Young on September 20, 2011
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2011/09/20/vasily-grossman-links/
Life and Fate on the BBC
I’m still recovering from a couple of memorable days at St Peter’s College Oxford, where the BBC’s event to celebrate the Radio 4 adaptation of Vasily Grossman’s vast and still under-appreciated novel Life and Fate was followed by an interdisciplinary conference on Grossman. I’m still gathering my thoughts on the latter, so I’ll save that […]
Posted by Sarah Young on September 12, 2011
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2011/09/12/life-and-fate-on-the-bbc/
Judging books by their covers
As part of some work on Vasily Grossman (about which more anon), I’ve been catching up with my reading on Gulag history. Stephen Cohen’s The Victims Return finally arrived at the library, so I went to get it out. The first thing that struck me was how similar its cover was to another recent book on Gulag […]
Posted by Sarah Young on August 29, 2011
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2011/08/29/judging-books-by-covers/
Top Ten Animals in Russian Literature
As I have suggested previously, animals have a significant place in Russian literature, and I think this is quite unusual, probably reflecting the greater proximity of Russia literature to its folklore roots than is the case with other literary cultures. Although obviously children’s stories in English (as in other languages), are full of animal characters, […]
Posted by Sarah Young on March 4, 2011
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2011/03/04/top-ten-animals-in-russian-literature/
An Interview with Robert Chandler
The Road, Robert Chandler’s new collection of translations of Vasily Grossman’s short stories and essays, will be published by MacLehose Press on 14th October 2010. On Monday 4th October at 6.30pm, he will be giving a talk about Grossman at Pushkin House, 5a Bloomsbury Square, to mark the publication. Here I talk to Robert about Grossman’s writing […]
Posted by Sarah Young on October 1, 2010
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/10/01/an-interview-with-robert-chandler/