Deadline: March 1, 2022
Vladimir Dahl Russian State Literary Museum, Moscow
June 23–24, 2022
Vladimir Dahl Russian State Literary Museum organizes the Conference dedicated to the Russian writer Varlam Shalamov and invites proposals on the works and life of Shalamov in the context of literature and arts of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Varlam Shalamov was an attentive observer of the events of his epoch. His diaries and letters are full of accurate remarks and portraits of his contemporaries. His works cannot be examined without the context of the epoch, the history of literature, and culture of the twentieth century. It is important how Shalamov is read and understood now. Poets and writers who found themselves with Shalamov in the same epoch, also tried in their own way to reflect on the twentieth century in all the senses that this concept means.
We propose to examine the works of Varlam Shalamov in the context of his contemporary literature, his literary world and his interlocutors; literature of the countries of Eastern Europe, the history of European writers who ended up in Stalin’s camps; literature of the twenty-first century, inheriting the tradition of creativity, embodying his ideas and views of Shalamov.
We invite proposals for twenty-minute papers from scholars at any stage in their career, working in the field of works and life of Varlam Shalamov, twentieth-century history, literature, and arts. The participants will be proposed to publish their articles on the themes of presentations.
Conference themes include (but not are limited to):
– Varlam Shalamov and Russian literature and criticism of the Soviet era;
– “camp” literature and literature about the Gulag in Eastern Europe of the twentieth and twenty first centuries;
– the transformation of the theme of the twentieth century in modern literature;
– poetry, prose, criticism of Varlam Shalamov in the context of modern literature: reception and development;
– the existence of “new prose” in the twenty-first century.
Please submit your abstract (max. 500 words), biography of the speaker (max. 200 words) and the contact information.
The Conference will be held in hybrid mode. It will take place in the Vladimir Dahl Russian State Literary Museum and online in zoom. The participants will be able to visit the exhibition dedicated to Varlam Shalamov Several My Lives, which will open in the Museum.
However, we will be continually observing the ever changing situation caused by covid-19. So, depending on the situation next spring, we will be considering a full online Conference.
Proposals should be sent by March 1, 2022 to shalamov@goslitmuz.ru.
We will announce our decision by April 1, 2022.
Please use the following e-mail address to contact the organizers:
Organizers:
Ksenia Filimonova, Senior Lecture, Russian State University of Humanities, Department of History of Modern Russian Literature, PhD (Russian Literature)
Kristina Sarycheva, Head of Research Department, Vladimir Dahl Russian State Literary Museum, PhD (Russian Literature)