Slavic Bazaar

2015

 

Program

Friday, April 24, 2015

 

The Max Kade Center, 3401 Walnut Street, Room 329A, University of Pennsylvania

Schedule

10:00. Conference Opening, Coffee & Tea & Donuts

10:10–10:40. Thesis Presentation

Olivia Route, “Russian Intervention in Post-Soviet Ethnic Conflict”

10:40-11:50. Of Poetry, Hope, and Suffering

Hanna Kereszturi, “Time, Space, and the Consciousness in the World of Joseph Brodsky”

Laura Christians, “Strange Loner and Tormented Soul: Lermontov Revealed in «Выхожу один я на дорогу» (“Alone I Set Out on the Road”)”

Claire Jenets, “I Suffer, Therefore I Live”

12:00–12:50 Keynote Lecture

Pavel Khazanov, “Learning to Have the Courage of Ceaseless Happiness”: High Stalinism, Thermidor, and Andrei Platonov’s Happy Moscow”

This paper aims to develop a better understanding of Andrei Platonov’s mature view of Soviet socialism by considering his unfinished novel, Happy Moscow (1931-1936) in the context of Mikhail Lifshits’ and Georg Lukács’ philosophical movement of the 1930s, known as the Current. In light of the Current’s conceptualization of Stalinism as a peculiar form of Thermidor that did not spell an unequivocal end to the Russian Revolution, I argue that Platonov’s Happy Moscow articulates an enduring commitment to Soviet socialism and its utopian possibilities.

12:50–1:40. Lunch Break (Lebanese Bazaar Style)

1:40–2:50. Dostoevsky and Beyond

Adam Zachar, “Liza and Svidrigaylov: Suicide as Escape from the Self” Melissa Beswick, “The Irrationality of Morality in The Brothers Karamazov: Using Evolutionary Psychology to Illuminate Ivan's Internal Struggles” Alex Droznin-Izrael, “Dostoevsky’s Gospel: The Function of Biblical Quotation in The Brothers Karamazov

2:50 – 3:00. Coffee Break and Refreshments

3:00–4:00. Inspired Russian Pens

Watch Chernyshevsky, Gogol and Bakunin’s ideas being discussed in a light-hearted manner and discover their thoughts on Russia.

David Sweigart, “In the Shadow of Gogol’s Devil”

Jonah Rosen, “Chernyshevsky: Lessons for Moral Living”

Ninad Singh, “Awakening from Bakunin’s Dream”

 

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