This year marks the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies' 5th annual Nobel Prize in Literature celebration. The 2015 winner of this prestigious award is Svetlana Alexievich. Her books deal mostly with Soviet and post-Soviet trauma caused by WWII, the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and disillusionments of the 1990s, issues and perspectives that are often unspoken and censored.
This one-day celebration will consist of several events, beginning with a keynote speech by Dr. Elena Gapova from West Michigan University, followed by two round tables connected to Alexievich's work from linguistic and genre perspectives. The first roundtable will be centred on the topic of minority/majority languages. The second roundtable will be devoted to the genre of creative non-fiction as used by Alexievich in her praised writings.
The next event will feature Dr. Defraeye's staging of an excerpt of a play by Dr. Smith and Dr. Feldman adapted from Alexievich's book on the Soviet-Afghan War. To conclude, an MLCS team of translators will read a short excerpt from Voices from Chernobyl in 5 different languages (Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Polish, and Chinese). Finally, Dr. Hanna Chuchvaha, a specialist in Eastern European art and visual culture, and co-organizer of the event this year, will give a talk devoted to the contemporary visual explorations that express the traumatic experience caused by Chernobyl.
This one-day celebration will consist of several events, beginning with a keynote speech by Dr. Elena Gapova from West Michigan University, followed by two round tables connected to Alexievich's work from linguistic and genre perspectives. The first roundtable will be centred on the topic of minority/majority languages. The second roundtable will be devoted to the genre of creative non-fiction as used by Alexievich in her praised writings.
The next event will feature Dr. Defraeye's staging of an excerpt of a play by Dr. Smith and Dr. Feldman adapted from Alexievich's book on the Soviet-Afghan War. To conclude, an MLCS team of translators will read a short excerpt from Voices from Chernobyl in 5 different languages (Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Polish, and Chinese). Finally, Dr. Hanna Chuchvaha, a specialist in Eastern European art and visual culture, and co-organizer of the event this year, will give a talk devoted to the contemporary visual explorations that express the traumatic experience caused by Chernobyl.
For more information, contact, the founder and organizer of the annual event: Chris Reyns-Chikuma at reynschi@ualberta.ca