Tolstoy and World Literature 2012, Yasnaya Polyana.
The Eighth International Academic Conference, "Leo Tolstoy and World Literature," organized by Galina Alekseeva of the Yasnaya Polyana Museum-Estate and Donna Orwin of the University of Toronto, took place August 11-15, 2012. As in the past, the conference featured a variety of scholarly perspectives on Tolstoy, explorations of the museum-estate and its environs, and the special type of camaraderie that results from four days of intensive, on-site discussion of a great writer's life and works.The conference featured over 30 papers by scholars from Russia, the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Israel, Ukraine, Japan, Armenia, Finland, Estonia, and Lithuania. The papers themselves were equally varied, addressing War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Resurrection, and numerous smaller works, as well as Tolstoy's broader religious-philosophical ideas. Research topics ranged from such textual issues as Tolstoy's narrative style, epilogues, and source texts, to social questions including his views on noble-peasant relations and the concept of honor, to investigations of Tolstoy's estate and its visitors. Among the numerous perspectives explored, Tolstoy's intertextuality and influence on subsequent writers turned out to be especially frequent themes in the sessions, as papers confirmed Tolstoy's sources (English novelists, Emerson, Pushkin, Biblical and folkloric texts, and historical figures such as Alexander Suvorov) to be as numerous and varied as his influence on successors including Bunin, Chesterton, Sholokhov, Solzhenitsyn, the Bolsheviks, and emigre writers Nabokov, Gazdanov, and Varshavskii).
Stimulating as the scholarly exchange inside the conference room was, the non-academic events were every bit as inspiring. Along with a guided tour of Tolstoy's house, estate, and grave, the schedule included a trip to the family graveyard at Nikolo-Kochakovsky Cemetery, and a concert of Russian romansy. More informally, participants enjoyed spending their free time following the sessions on long evening walks around the estate, exchanging impressions of Yasnaya Polyana.
The last session of papers was followed by a presentation of recent publications, including proceedings from previous conferences, and two surprise speakers, writer Andrei Bitov and local artist Gennadii Oparin. Bitov, writer of the now-classic postmodern novel Pushkin House, spoke eloquently on the importance of literary study. He praised Oparin for his assistance in creating a commemoration of Tolstoy's Hadji-Murat in Yasnaya Polyana. Oparin personally drove a 30-plus-ton stone monument of Hadji-Murat's head from Dagestan, to the spot where Tolstoy was allegedly inspired to write his novel. Following his remarks on this venture, Oparin, a Cold War-era marine, presented participant Rick McPeak --himself a US Army Colonel and Professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point --with an authentic wool Russian Navy sweater as a gesture of friendship and hopes for future peace between Russia and the US. Later that evening, Bitov, Oparin, and numerous participants held a campfire at the site of Hadji-Murat's commemorative head, a fitting conclusion to a four-day celebration of Tolstoy's life and works. Following the bus ride back to Moscow the next day, the trip concluded with a tour of Tolstoy's Khamovniki estate before participants dispersed, perhaps to meet again at the ninth Yasnaya Polyana conference, which will be held in August 2014.
Alexander Burry
The Ohio State University
Program of the Eighth International Academic Conference, "Leo Tolstoy and World Literature," Yasnaya Polyana, August 11-15, 2012.
Opening Remarks
Ekaterina Tolstaya (Yasnaya Polyana)
First Session
Donna Orwin (Canada). Where in War and Peace is Alexander Suvorov? [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII].
Rick McPeak (Canada). The Concept of Honor in Tolstoy ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]).
Mikhail Vaiskopf (Israel). Moscow, 1812: Toward the Question of the Sources of War and Peace (MocKBa-1812: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII].
Anna Barker (USA). In Search of Peace in War and Peace: Tolstoy's Historical Journey ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII].
Galina Alekseeva (Yasnaya Polyana). R.W. Emerson and L.N. Tolstoy's Appraisal of Napoleon ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]).
Second Session
Eric Naiman (USA). The Method of Close Reading and its Application to the Epilogues of War and Peace and Anna Karenina ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]).
Olga Slivitskaia (St. Petersburg). "Suddenly" in Tolstoy: The Unexpected in the Rational World ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]).
Eugenius Zhmuida (Lithuania). Tolstoy's Novel Anna Karenina and the Folk Tale of the Step-Daughter (PoMaH [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]
Alexander Burry (USA) Eros and Vengeance: The Don Juan Theme in Anna Karenina ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII])
Alexei Pavlenko (USA) Linkage in Tolstoy, or Where the Arches of Anna Karenina Close ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII])
August 13, 2012 Third Session
Yulia Krasnosel'skaia (Mosow). L.N. Tolstoy and E.P. Kovalevskii: Literary Ties in 1856 ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] 1856 r).
Alexander Volkovinskii (Ukraine). The Fall in the Interpretation of Tolstoy and Frazer ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]).
Muireann Maguire (UK). Mysticism or Madness? G.K. Chesterton and L.N. Tolstoy ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]).
Alexei Vdovin (Estonia). Bunin and Tolstoy: On One Source of "Light Breathing" ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]).
Tatiana Krasavchenko (Moscow). A Tolstoian Beginning in the Literature of the First Wave of Russian Emigration: V. Nabokov, G. Gazdanov, V. Varshavskii ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]).
Fourth Session
Carol Apollonio (USA). Tolstoy in the Words of Constance Garnett ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]).
Ben Hellman (Finland). Tolstoy's Swedish Visitors ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]).
Elena Tolstaya (Israel). A Conversation with the Ocean: Akim Volynskii on His Visit to Yasnaya Polyana ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]).
Oleg Kationov (Novosibirsk). Retreat and Captivity in Classic Russian Literature: L.N. Tolstoy, M.A. Sholokhov, A.I. Solzhenitsyn ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]).
August 14, 2012
Fifth Session
Vladimir Papernyi (Israel). Lev Tolstoy and the Mythology of Resurrection ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]).
Anna Grodetskaia (St. Petersburg). The Epilogues of Resurrection: A Field of Possibilities ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]).
Inga Matveeva (St. Petersburg). A Conversation about Art in the Second Complete Edition of L.N. Tolstoy's Novel Resurrection ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII].
Irina Gniusova (Tomsk). The Prison Finale of the Pastoral Plot: Traditions of the English Novel in Tolstoy's Resurrection ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]).
Margarita Vaisman (UK). "To See Everything in its Entirety": Narrative Optics in Tolstoy's Childhood ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]).
Sixth Session
Ksenia Nagina (Voronezh). The Philosophy of the Garden in L.N. Tolstoy's Work in Light of Literary Tradition ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]).
Elena Belousova (Yasnaya Polyana). "We were born for inspiration": A.S. Pushkin in L.N. Tolstoy's Creative Destiny ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]).
Koiti Itokava (Japan). The Separate Graves of the Tolstoy Spouses ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]).
Michael Denner (USA). "A Proletarian Barin": L.N. Tolstoy among the Bolsheviks, 1917-1924, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], 1917-1924).
Natalia Teplitskaia (USA). A Prophetic Vision of the "Cosmic Religion of the Future" ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]).
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| Title Annotation: | News of the Profession |
|---|---|
| Author: | Burry, Alexander |
| Publication: | Tolstoy Studies Journal |
| Article Type: | Conference notes |
| Geographic Code: | 1CANA |
| Date: | Jan 1, 2012 |
| Words: | 1111 |
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