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From: ilya vinitsky <[log in to unmask]>

MIDDLEBURY RUSSIAN SCHOOL LITERARY SYMPOSIUM

In conjunction with the recent closing of Norwich University Russian
School, this year's literary symposium has moved to the Russian School of
Middlebury College.

The symposium attracts scholars of Russian literature and culture for a
weekend of papers and discussions about current topics. In the past,
symposia have focused on authors, such as Pasternak, Derzhavin, Lermontov,
and Pushkin, as well as on cultural topics, such as "Hoaxes and Forgeries
in Russian Literature."

In the summer of 2001, the Middlebury Russian School Symposium will be
entitled "Nachalo Veka kak kult'urnyi fenomen."

The symposium will be hosted by the Russian School on the campus of
Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont during the weekend of July
20-22, 2001.

The symposium will be opened with a lecture by Lev Loseff and a concert by
Tat'iana Iampol'skaia at Middlebury's Center for the Fine Arts the evening
of July 20th and will resume the following morning with papers by
symposium participants.

Symposium participants will bear all costs of room and board. Interested
participants may contact Ilya Vinitsky ([log in to unmask]), symposium
organizer, for further information.

  Description:

THE RISE OF A NEW CENTURY AS A CULTURAL PHENOMENON IN RUSSIA

At the end of the 18th c. Nikolai Karamzin prophesied: "Oh, Rossy, vek
griadet v Rossii velichaishii!" Similar prophesies one may easily find in
the works of numerous Russian poets, artists, composers, and politicians
of the late 19th and 20th centuries. The apocalyptic idea of a new age
with its great expectations, fears, and premonitions is deeply inherent in
Russian cultural consciousness. Hypothetically, the notion of the
beautiful or terrifying "beginning of a century" is opposed to the
traditional notion of the melancholy "fin de siecle." The present
conference is conceived as the discussion of various representations of
this idea in Russian literature, painting, music, architecture, or
politics from the late 17th to the late 20th centuries.