The 2017 Hongor Oulanoff Memorial Lecture will feature Dr. Boris Wolfson, Chair of Russian at Amherst College.
Dr. Wolfson will present “Suicide by Theater: The Force of Performance in Bulgakov’s World.” The talk will focus on Bulgakov’s work in the theater in the thirties, when he comes to terms with the situation of the author who, on the one hand, repeatedly insists on his own autonomy from, and opposition to, the literary and ideological establishment, and, on the other, seeks to occupy a place of special importance in the Soviet culture of the time. As a writer whose thoughts and ambitions are shaped by the theater, Bulgakov strives to attain this controversial position by specifically theatrical means, so that his understanding of the theater’s role in his life is informed and defined by the Stalinist context. Bulgakov’s constant and varied attempts to reassert himself as a major cultural figure via his activities in the theater allow us, in a way that other aspects of his work at this time can not, to see the ambiguity of Bulgakov’s position vis-à-vis the Soviet experience – his Soviet career – in the thirties.
