Archieven: Events

Shamil Khairov (Glasgow University)

Abstract

What is a polithematic dictionary? How to dissect real life in a dictionary ‘for all occasions’? What is ‘a communicative fragment’ and why is it so important when learning a foreign language? These are the main questions discussed in the lecture.

Admitting that for effective communication one should possess a repertoire of ready-to-use collocations and phrases the authors found a theoretical support in Boris Gasparov’s concept of ‘communicative fragment’ – a linguistic unit which speakers are able to reproduce spontaneously as part of the process of language production, and which at the same time, can undergo an infinite variety of modifications and fusions.

The second part discusses treating expressivity and contractions like мухосранск or старпёры (старые пердуны) in Russian for All Occasions.

The ways the dictionary can be used in class, in independent language learning or in translation practices are considered in the conclusion

Biografie

Dr Shamil Khairov is Slavist by training (Ph.D. from St. Petersburg State University) and has taught Russian, Polish and Slovak languages in Britain, Ireland, Slovakia and other parts of Europe. He also speaks Bulgarian, Czech, Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian and Slovene.

From 2005 he works as lecturer in Russian at the University of Glasgow. He is a designer and convener of the Russian for Social Scientists postgraduate programme. Shamil Khairov is a co-author (with J. Dunn) of Modern Russian Grammar (Routledge, 2009) and Russian For All Occasions. A Russian-English Dictionary of Collocations and Expressions (Routledge, 2019). His other publications deal with Slavonic lexicography, phraseology, and inter-cultural reception of different strata of Slavonic languages.

One of his most popular courses for undergraduate students is Russian 20^th Century Visual Culture: he delivered it as guest lecturer, partly or in full, in several European universities.

Shamil Khairov is a keen black-and-white photographer and has had solo exhibitions in Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Belgium, Scotland and Russia.

Gaëlle Le Pavic (United Nations University | Universiteit Gent)

Abstract

In 1993 Abkhazia parted from Georgia, only gaining very limited recognition from Russia together with Nicaragua, Venezuela and Nauru in 2008. Since then, the borderization of the Georgian – Abkhaz borderland spanning over the district of Gal(i) on the Abkhaz controlled-side and the district of Zugdidi on the Georgian controlled-side, has only increased. This process of borderization has a significant impact on the daily lives of people living in the borderland, in particular in their access to social services. Russia’s war in Ukraine is currently reactivating the Abkhaz – Georgian de facto border with important social consequences for people living on both sides, especially for those inhabiting the borderland. Based on a qualitative methodology encompassing (online) interviews, (visual) ethnography and observations in multiple sites along the de facto border, this presentation aims to analyse the social consequences of the de facto Abkhaz-Georgian border in the context of Russia’s war in Ukraine. The results show that the crossing of the de facto border is tightening, impacting in particular the inhabitants of the Gal(i) district, whose majority is Migrelian, an ethnic Georgian subgroup. While many Russians are arriving in Georgia, mainly to escape the (partial) mobilization, many Georgians are empathizing with Ukrainians, remembering the Russo-Georgian 2008 war and the Abkhazian-Georgian war of 1992-1993. Last but not least, the Abkhaz majority is not supporting  Russia’s war in Ukraine and is trying to contain Russia’s clout in Abkhazia, while rejecting the Georgian rhetoric of Abkhazia being occupied by Russia.

Biografie

Gaëlle is a PhD student at the United Nations University (UNU-CRIS) and the University of Ghent in Belgium. Her research topic focuses on access to social services in situations of regional separatism. Her research studies the role of civil society organisations in facilitating this access within and across borders without (full) legal recognition, or de facto borders. The two cases she studies are Abkhazia and Transnistria, two de facto states that seceded respectively from Georgia and Moldova in the 1990s. Gaëlle is also an active member of the Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees (CESSMIR).

Previously, Gaëlle worked as a researcher at the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy at Ghent University. She was involved in two Horizon 2020 research projects: RefugeeWellSchool, which aims to improve the well-being of refugees in schools, and InHere, which stands for inclusive holistic care for refugees and migrant victims of sexual violence in Belgium, Ireland and the UK. In recent years, Gaëlle was project manager at the Development Office of the College of Europe (Bruges) and, before that, at the French Embassy in Croatia.

Luc Breukelman (Universiteit Gent)

Abstract

Vladimir Nabokov maakte in de jaren ’30 nog deel uit van de Russische emigrantengemeenschap die na de Russische Revolutie en Russische Burgeroorlog was ontstaan. Deze gemeenschap hechtte een groot belang aan de continuïteit van Russische literatuur in ballingschap. Juist daardoor werd de toekomst van Russische literatuur actief ondervraagd in de literaire debatten van deze gemeenschap. Vladimir Nabokovs laatste Russische roman, De gave (1937-1938), kan gelezen worden als zijn antwoord op deze debatten, als een zoektocht naar een toekomst voor literatuur, zowel Nabokovs eigen literatuur als Russische literatuur in zijn algemeen. Dit antwoord komt in de vorm van een Künstlerroman, een roman over de artistieke groei van een nog jonge fictieve emigrantenschrijver, Fjodor Godoenov-Tsjerdyntsev, wiens werken onderdeel zijn van De gave. Twee van deze werken zijn biografieën: Fjodors onvoltooide biografie over zijn vader en zijn voltooide biografie over de negentiende-eeuwse radicale denker en schrijver Nikolai Tsjerynsjevski.

In deze lezing wil ik nader ingaan op de betekenis van de aanwezigheid van deze twee biografieën in Nabokovs roman. Ik zal hierbij stilstaan bij de vragen waarom Fjodor in staat is de ene biografie wel te voltooien en de andere niet en hoe deze tegenstelling gelezen kan worden als onderdeel van Nabokovs zoektocht naar een toekomst voor literatuur. Deze vragen zullen ingebed worden in een vergelijking met andere emigrantenromans die middels een versmelting van biografie en fictie op zoek waren naar een toekomst voor (Russische) literatuur en in een bespreking van de veranderende culturele tijdservaringen tijdens het interbellum die een invloed uitoefenen op de zoektocht naar de betekenis van literatuur.

Biografie

Luc Breukelman heeft in 2022 zijn doctoraat in de Oost-Europese talen en culturen aan de Universiteit Gent behaald. Zijn onderzoek betreft de historische roman van de Russische emigrantengemeenschap van het interbellum met een focus op de biografische roman en de relatie tussen (culturele) tijdservaringen en literatuur. Luc is op dit moment gastdocent aan de Universiteit Gent.

Dorine Schellens (Universiteit Leiden)

Abstract

This January, a picture of a red banner hanging between two trees was posted on the Instagram account 89gradusov with the (translated) text: “I howl in pain and I absolutely dislike it, although I lived and grew up here and thought I knew everything about these places.” Designed as an homage to the famous Collective Actions’ performance “Slogan-1977”, the banner situates itself in a longer history of ‘poetic actions’ in Russia while at the same time pointing to the increased difficulty of performing protest in the present. This paper will explore the relationship between poetry and activism in recent Russian literature. I will particularly focus on the poetic work, theoretical essays and performances of Pavel Arsen’ev, Roman Osminkin and Kirill Medvedev, and discuss how they relate to older traditions (such as Collective Actions and Moscow conceptualism) of combining poetry and activism.

Bio

Dorine Schellens studied Russian and German literature and culture in Leiden, Berlin and Freiburg. She obtained her PhD in Freiburg in 2020. Her research focuses on entanglements between contemporary Russian and German cultural history through the lens of literature and art. She is the author of Kanonbildung im transkulturellen Netzwerk (transcript, 2021), a history of the transnational reception and canonization of Moscow conceptualism. She has also published on contemporary Russian protest culture. Her current research focuses on literary imaginaries of the future in Eastern German and Russian literature and art after 1989.