“Going Back in Time, Rub Your Eyes”: What Can Literature Do in the time of War?

Panel I: Uses and Misuses of Historical Memory in Post-Soviet Culture and Politics

11:00am–12:30pm

Excavation and reconstruction of traumatic historical memory have been at the center of cultural debates in post-Soviet space since the 1990s. This process has resulted in a number of powerful literary and cinematic works based on their authors’ deep engagement with tragic history of the Soviet period. At the same time, manipulations with historical memory have been widely used by the Putin regime for ultra-nationalist state rhetoric serving as the justifications for the invasion in Ukraine and other political crimes. We ask participants of the roundtable, poets and scholars, to reflect on this paradox and the ways to confront political instrumentalization of historical memory.

• Polina Barskova, Poet; University of California, Berkeley
• Yuliya Ilchuk, Stanford University (via Zoom)
• Sophie Pinkham, Writer
• Irina Shevelenko, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Maria Stepanova, Poet, 2022 Harriman Writer in Residence, editor-in-chief and founder of Colta.ru

Moderator: Mark Lipovetsky, Columbia University

Panel II: Publishing East European Writers in the West

2:00-4:00 pm

This roundtable brings together professionals (editors, publishers, translators) involved in publishing and promoting literature from Eastern Europe. We ask them to reflect on selecting, contextualizing and representing contemporary Eastern European writers for Western readers. How do books—especially contemporary poetry—from Eastern Europe reach readers in Western Europe and America? What does it mean to publish authors from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus at the time of the war? How can we best represent powerful literary voices from Ukraine? Can literature help to fight hate?

• Polina Barskova, Poet, University of California, Berkeley
• Edwin Frank, Poet; Editor, NYRB Classics Series
• Ostap Kin, Translator; Archivist/Librarian, Zimmerli Art Museum
• Katharina Raabe, Editor; Suhrkamp Verlag
• Maria Stepanova, Poet, 2022 Harriman Writer in Residence, editor-in-chief and founder of Colta.ru
• Matvei Yankelevich, Poet, Translator, Editor; World Poetry Books

Moderator: Irina Paperno (University of California, Berkeley)

4:00–5:30 pm — Reception

Poetry Reading

5:30–7:30 pm

• Polina Barskova/Ostap Kin – translations from Ukrianian Poetry
• Maria Stepanova