Vasily Grossman conference in September

[Robert Chandler]

Vasily Grossman: Ruthless Truth in the Totalitarian Century

An Interdisciplinary Symposium

 

Saturday 10 September 2011, 9.30 am – 6.00 pm

St Peter’s College, University of Oxford

 

This symposium will explore the life and work of the Soviet writer, dissident and war correspondent, Vasily Grossman (1905–1964). Grossman has lately emerged from relative obscurity thanks to new translations of his key works, including the epic novel Life and Fate, the unfinished Everything Flows, the short story collection The Road, his wartime notebooks, and his collaborative documentary history of the Holocaust in the Soviet Union. The purpose of this day is to showcase advanced specialist research on Grossman, and to forge links between those working in the diverse disciplines of History, Politics, Literature, Slavic Studies and Holocaust Studies.

The symposium is being held in connection with the BBC Radio 4 broadcast of a major new dramatisation of Vasily Grossman’s epic novel Life and Fate. The BBC is organising a day of public events, discussions and talks preceding the symposium on Friday 9 September, also at St Peter’s College Oxford. These aim to introduce Life and Fate to a wider audience and discuss the radio dramatisation, and they will include the recording of a special edition of Radio 4’s ‘Start the Week’ programme with Andrew Marr. These events are free, though tickets will be required for admission.

Grossman’s work shows him to be a witness of unparalleled acuity and sensitivity to some of the central horrors of the totalitarian century, especially the Stalinist terror of the 1930s, the Second World War on the eastern front and the Holocaust. He is increasingly recognised as an important source by scholars working on these subjects, and on the wider themes of literary responses to trauma; witnessing and testimony; the collective memory of the Second World War and political dictatorship; and collaboration and resistance under totalitarianism.

For more information:

http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/interpol/research/conferences/conferences2010-2011/vasilygrossman/





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