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2019 Oulanoff Memorial Lecture: "Russia Will Be Free: Recent Poems by Russian Women" by Dr. Stephanie Sandler (Harvard University)

Mirror Lake
October 25, 2019
4:30PM - 6:00PM
Barbie Tootle Room, Ohio Union

Date Range
Add to Calendar 2019-10-25 16:30:00 2019-10-25 18:00:00 2019 Oulanoff Memorial Lecture: "Russia Will Be Free: Recent Poems by Russian Women" by Dr. Stephanie Sandler (Harvard University)  Dr. Stephanie Sandler (Harvard University) will give this year's lecture, "Russia Will Be Free:   Recent Poems by Russian Women" (abstract below). The Hongor Oulanoff Memorial Lecture is made possible by the Hongor Oulanoff Memorial Fund. The Hongor Oulanoff Memorial Fund has been established by the generosity of Mrs. Constance-Alexa Oulanoff to support an annual lecture by a distinguished scholar of Russian literature and culture. Co-sponsored by the Center for Slavic and East European Studies. Abstract: Russian poetry has a long history of political poetry, but recent poems by women take on gender- and sexual-orientation-based discrimination and harassment, topics long passed over in silence in Russian public life. They challenge any legacy that poets speak in concert with the ambitionof the Russian state or serve ideological projects, thus opening out new avenues for poetic free speech. More than any other rubric of poetry in the contemporary period, the poetry of ethics and politics has been revolutionized by the work of women. This presentation focuses on the work of Elena Fanailova, Galina Rymbu, Oksana Vasiakina, and Lida Yusupova. They break new ground in promoting conversation as a pathway toward democratic freedom and in seeking a philosophical and historical basis for free individual utterance (Fanailova and Rymbu). They use legal documents to expose the failures of the state to respond to sexual violence against women and gay people and then sing with the voice of the ancient Furies of harms endured (Yusupova and Vasiakina). These projects are separable and each poet is to be respected and read on her own terms, but taken together, they offer us a glimmer of what a free Russia might look like for persons of all genders and sexual orientations.    Barbie Tootle Room, Ohio Union Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures slavicdept@osu.edu America/New_York public

 Dr. Stephanie Sandler (Harvard University) will give this year's lecture, "Russia Will Be Free:   Recent Poems by Russian Women" (abstract below).

The Hongor Oulanoff Memorial Lecture is made possible by the Hongor Oulanoff Memorial Fund. The Hongor Oulanoff Memorial Fund has been established by the generosity of Mrs. Constance-Alexa Oulanoff to support an annual lecture by a distinguished scholar of Russian literature and culture.

Co-sponsored by the Center for Slavic and East European Studies.

Abstract:

Russian poetry has a long history of political poetry, but recent poems by women take on gender- and sexual-orientation-based discrimination and harassment, topics long passed over in silence in Russian public life. They challenge any legacy that poets speak in concert with the ambitionof the Russian state or serve ideological projects, thus opening out new avenues for poetic free speech. More than any other rubric of poetry in the contemporary period, the poetry of ethics and politics has been revolutionized by the work of women. This presentation focuses on the work of Elena Fanailova, Galina Rymbu, Oksana Vasiakina, and Lida Yusupova. They break new ground in promoting conversation as a pathway toward democratic freedom and in seeking a philosophical and historical basis for free individual utterance (Fanailova and Rymbu). They use legal documents to expose the failures of the state to respond to sexual violence against women and gay people and then sing with the voice of the ancient Furies of harms endured (Yusupova and Vasiakina). These projects are separable and each poet is to be respected and read on her own terms, but taken together, they offer us a glimmer of what a free Russia might look like for persons of all genders and sexual orientations.