Milestones in the History of Russian Culture

Against the backdrop of Russian history, this new lecture course (2011/12) offers an overview of major developments in Russian literature, music, film, painting, sculpture, architecture, theatre (including opera and ballet), crafts and costumes.
Spanning the history of Russian culture from its roots to the present day, the course is divided into two semesters. The first looks at the culture of pre-revolutionary Russia (from the icons of Kievan Rus’ through the times of Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great to the ‘golden age’ of the nineteenth century), while the second covers the culture of Soviet and post-Soviet Russia from the October Revolution to the present (the avant-garde of the 20s, Stalinist social realism, ‘the thaw’ under Khruschev, the culture of ‘glasnost’ and contemporary Russia).
This multimedia course is intended for a wide audience with a general interest in Russian culture. The class consists of a one and a half hour lecture per week. Lectures are delivered in English by staff of the Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies.

The course is already running, but it is possible to enrol for the second semester.

Lecture Schedule for Michaelmas Term (first semester)

The completed application form accompanied by payment in the form of a personal cheque, postal money order or bank draft, payable to Trinity College no. 1 account should be returned to: The Executive Officer, Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies, room 5045, Arts Building, Trinity College, Dublin 2. Phone: 01 896 1896, email: slavonic@tcd.ie

Russian Society events

The Trinity College Russian Society is planning a big programme of events for the coming academic year.

Fortnightly film nights (Russian with subtitles):  
12th Oct 2011: 'A Driver for Vera'/'Водитель для Веры'

 20th Oct 2011: 'Brat 2' (part of Open film night)


Culture nights out:
26th Oct 2011: Restaurant 'Admiral'
March: Russian State Ballet performing Swan lake. Tickets are €40 and will be sold on Thur, 27th Oct, 11-1 and 3-5 in the Main Hall of the Arts Building.

Russian language classes:
Contact Karolina  (see below).

If you would like to join the Russian Society (membership €4), please email the Membership Secretary Karolina Mitikaite.

Ferris Wheel from Chernobyl at Dublin Contemporary

A Brian Duggan exhibition as part of Dublin Contemporary 2011 (Earlsfort Terrace) running until the end of October.

Some information about this part of the exhibition in Russian.

Tours of and talks about the exhibition (in Russian or English) can be arranged - email Sarah (usual departmental address).

Departmental pub nights are back!

Guinness for fluency ;)

The Departmental pub nights are informal gatherings of people wishing to converse in Polish, Russian, Czech and Bulgarian, the languages taught in the Department. They take place fortnightly on Wednesdays at Kennedy's pub, near Lincoln Gate, from 8:30, starting on 5th October.

The remaining dates for this semester are 2nd Nov, 16th Nov, 30th Nov, 14th Dec - please put them in your diary! The pub nights will take place unless superceded by another departmental event, such as a tea party.

As always, we ask all our native and advanced speakers of Russian, Polish, Bulgarian and Czech to come along and give a hand to those learning your language! If you haven't been to a pub night, check the restaurant section of the pub first and look out for a "Slavonic departmental pub night" sign on the table.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Workshop on 1956 and Memory - 7 October

“1956-es” – Resistance and Memories in the Eastern Bloc

Trinity College Dublin, Long Room Hub, 7 October 12.15-16.30

This one-day workshop aims to provide a forum for a comparative assessment of resistance movements in the Eastern bloc in 1956. Focusing mostly on the Polish and Hungarian events, the workshop will address the significance of popular discontent (a nascent civil society?) in challenging the authority of the Party and the State, and in gradually eroding the communist system. The workshop is organized on the 55^th anniversary of the events of 1956 and thus the issue of the legacy of 1956 will also be addressed. The multiplication of diverse historical and political interpretations, the fragmentation of the ‘idea of ’56’, and the emergence of 1956-es in the collective consciousness of the respective societies will be in the limelight of discussions at the workshop.

Programme

12.15-12.30 Introduction

12.30-13.00 Clemens Ruthner (TCD), Contested memories in Central and Eastern Europe – A brief introduction

13.00-13.30 Kevin McDermott (Sheffield Hallam University), Resistance and Conformity in Stalinist Czechoslovakia

13.30-14.00 Gábor Gyáni (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Eötvös Loránd University), New approaches to the '56 Revolution in today's Hungarian historical scholarship

14.00-14.30 Coffee break

14.30-15.00 Ewa Stanczyk (TCD), Commemorating Poznan ‘56

15.00-15.30 András Mink (Open Society Archives, Central European University, Budapest), Meanings of an uprising: The changing images of 1956 in Hungary

15.30-15.50 Leila Hadj-Abdou (European University Institute, Florence), Collective memory and contemporary debates about immigrants in Austria. Does 1956 matter? (Discussion input)

15.50-16.20 General discussion 

The workshop is organised by the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies (TCD) and the Irish Association for Russian and East European Studies

For further information email Balazs Apor at aporb@tcd.ie