XVIII Fulbright International Summer School in the Humanities
Moscow State University, June 23–27, 2015
Great Books and Schools of Critical Reading
Day 1. The Classic: Social and Institutional Contexts
Theme: Classics do not “become”on their own, but arise as the function of society’s cultural (specifically educational) institutions. How is the process of canon-formation organized?
10.00–11.30 Michael Holquist (Yale University, Columbia University), “How and by Whom are Canons of ‘Great Books’ Made?”
12.00–13.30 Gasan Guseinov (NRU-HSE), “Classical Philology in the Russian Educational Context.”
14.30–16.00 Irina Savel’eva (NRU-HSE), “The Classics as Resources for Academic Corporate Memory.”
16.30–18.00 Peter Steiner (University of Pennsylvania), “Classics in the Making: The ‘Internationalization’ of the Legacy of Russian Formalism.”
Day 2. National Classics in an Age of Transnationalism.
Theme: National politics as a factor in the “invention” of literary tradition and the formation of strategies for humanistic education. The situation in Russian education: between the necessity of preserving heritage and the necessity of meeting the challenges of globalization.
10.00–11.30 Michael Holquist, “The Formation and Role of National Dominants in Literary Culture.”
12.00–13.30 James Wertsch (University of Washington, St. Louis) “Nations and their Narrative Habits: Theory and Practical Research Applications.”
14.30–16.00 Discussion. “The National Classics in School: Debates on the Literary Canon in Russia since 2000.
Participants: Mikhail Pavlovets (NRU-HSE), Svetlana Krasovskaia (“Prosveshchenie” Publishers), Mikhail Golubkov (MSU), Elena Penskaia (NRU-HSE), Leonid Klein (RANEPA), Birgit Menzel (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz)
17:00-19:00 Film Screening: The Girl in the White Coat (Director: Darrell Wasyk, Canada, 2011).
Day 3. “World” Literature Past and Present. Problems of translation and the practice of reading.
Theme: How are tensions between local and national versus common and global resolved (or not resolved) in various cultural traditions and contexts? What is the role of translation—both linguistic and through the media—in forming (a new type of?) trans-cultural literacy?
10.00–11.30 Michael Holquist, “Is ‘World Literature’ Possible?”
12.00–13.30 Aleksandra Borisenko (MSU), Aleksandr Livergant (Inostrannaia literatura), “‘World/ International/Foreign’ Literature: Educational Initiatives and Meia Projects in Russian in the Twentieth Century.”
14.30–15.30 Birgit Menzel (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz), “Retranslating the Classics (The Collision between Translations of Dostoevsky’s Бесы in English and German).”
16.00-18.00 Discussion. “Reading Instruction in Post-Secondary Education.”
Opportunities for teaching “close reading,” “slow reading,” “critical reading” in the humanities (non-humanities) classroom. Pedagogies of reading and the formation of transcultural and transdisciplinary literacy.
Participants: Evgeny Mironov (RANEPA), Aleksei Kozyrev (MSU), Galina Sorina (MSU), Anna Kostikova (MSU)
Day 4. New Technologies as a Factor in Reforming the Literary Canon.
Theme: What role might new technologies play in providing new means for the transmission of literary-cultural heritage? What lessons can the “Great Books” and “Critical Readings” offer the children of the Internet generation?
10.00–11.30 Michael Holquist, “The Role of New Technologies in the Formation of a Global Canon.”
12.00–13.30 Seminar: “Cultures of Reading and Viewing: Media Translations in a Global Dimension. Cinema (especially Film Adaptation) in the Context of Philological Education: Relevancy, Literacy, and Canonicity.”
Discussion leaders: Irina Kaspe (NRU-HSE), Diane Nemec Ignashev (Carleton College, MSU), Polina Rybina (MSU).
14.30–16.00 Liubov Boriusiak (NRU-HSE), “How and What Do Young People in Russia Read (“VKontakte” as a Mirror of the Reading Classroom).”
16.30–18.00 Steven Duncombe, “OpenUtopia: Marking the 500th Anniversary of Thomas More’s Utopia. Video-conference.
Day 5. Teaching “World” Literature and Culture—Challenges and Possibilities
Theme: How do we teach “worldliness” in the context of globalization? Courses in “world,” “foreign,” and “comparative” literature and culture today as an area of active methodological search and experimentation.
11:00–13:00 Roundtable Discussion
Participants: Igor Shaitanov (RSHU), David Damrosch (Harvard University),Vladimir Plungian (MSU), Kirill Korchagin (New Literary Observer)
14:00-15:30 Roundtable Discussion (continued)