Dovlatov Street in New York

[Svetlana Cheloukhina]

Dear Colleagues,

Channel 1 of the Russian television reported that in Queens, NY, just a few blocks away from dear to my heart Queens College, there may appear a street named after Sergei Dovlatov:

http://www.1tv.ru/news/culture/248286 

Over five thousand signatures have been gathered (20,000 required) in support of the petition to rename the 63rd Drive in Forest Hills after Dovlatov: 

http://www.change.org/petitions/requesting-an-honorary-street-name-for-sergei-dovlatov
 
A stimulating answer indeed to the question “Why study Russian (literature),” and history in the making for my undergraduate students who have just finished reading “Nomenclature Half Boots” and “The Finnish Crepe Socks” as a part of the course "Russian Short Story."  This is what they think,

“…The humoristic style used by Dovlatov struck me by surprise. It seemed everything we were reading was so serious and required a lot of thinking and analysis, but the humor absolutely lightened up the mood while still conveying an idea.”

“I enjoy Dovlatov’s writing. …Dovlatov’s stories are strong pieces of satire that discuss a specific period in Soviet history. … his prose has a unique style, and his characters are extremely memorable.”

 “What I liked about the stories we read is that we started with the great works of nineteenth century like “The Shot” by Pushkin and then we gradually move forward in time to Dovlatov's humorous stories in mid-eighties, while exploring and learning the historical, political, and social changes that Russia and its people had to go through for two century just by reading the literary works of each period. Every great author studied in this course captures the events, the life and the struggles of his people, form poverty, pain, death, love, survival, hate…”


Yours truly,

Svetlana Cheloukhina
Associate Professor
Coordinator of Russian Program
Department of European Languages and Literatures
Queens College, CUNY
King Hall, R 211C
65-30 Kissena Blvd.
Queens, NY, 11367
Phone: (718) 997-5992

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