Translating Russian Literature

February 2020

Nonconformist Writers, Artists & Soviet Children's Literature: A Talk at the Zimmerli Gallery

In this video, Prof. Ainsley Morse joins scholars and translators Olga Bukhina, Ilya Bernstein and Matvei Yankelevich in a discussion of Soviet children's literature, its origins and legacy today (includes some classic poems in English translation)

A talk about Soviet children's literature written by nonconformist writers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRUmtrXcG8w&feature=youtu.be

May 2020

Translating Contemporary Queer Russophone Poetry

In this video, Prof. Ainsley Morse joins several other Russophone poetry translators and the poets themselves for a reading (part one) and discussion (part two) of the vibrant queer poetry scene in Russia today (including poets who live elsewhere but write in Russian). 

August 2020

Crisis of the Humanities, Soviet-style: Translating Konstantin Vaginov

In this video, Prof. Ainsley Morse joins fellow Soviet literature scholar and translator Geoff Cebula for a discussion of the novels of Konstantin Vaginov, an important early Soviet modernist writer whose novels they are translating. Vaginov's novels, written in the late 1920s-early 1930s, address the decline of "high" intellectual culture and question the values of traditional aesthetics in the new Soviet state.

"Crisis of the Humanities, Soviet-style": a discussion about the Soviet modernist writer Konstantin Vaginov: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU_noZpf2Uw&feature=youtu.be