Their Everything. The Pushkin Cult In Comparative Perspective.

In Russia, Pushkin is our everything, but he is not unique. Many nations are built on the cults of one or more national bards, from Virgil and Ferdowsi to Shota Rustaveli and Nguyễn Du. Most bards preside over alleged golden ages: "the Golden Age of Russian literature" for Pushkin, the Elizabethan Age for Shakespeare, and "the Golden Century" for Cervantes and Camões, among many others. In this lecture, acclaimed cultural historian Yuri Slezkine will explore these national cults of the 'bard' in a comparative perspective, establishing connections and regularities, as well as differences.

Yuri Slezkine is Professor of Graduate School at the University of California, Berkeley, a Visiting Fellow at St. Edmund’s Hall, Oxford, and member of the American Academyof Arts and Sciences. His most recent book is The House of Government: A Saga of the Russian Revolution (Princeton UP, 2017).

Students, colleagues, and interested members of the public, are all welcome. A reception will follow. 

Thursday 13 February 2020 at 17.00, Latimer Room, Clare College