Lectures on Russian Literature by a renowned literary scholar Professor Andrei Zorin (Oxford University, New College)
All lectures are held in Russian!
All lectures are taking place in the Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre, Main Building, UCL Campus. The doors open at 18:40, the lectures start at 19:00. To enter the building, please use the 'Student Centre' entrance -- our event volunteers will navigate you to the Gustave Tuck LT along the way.
Lecture 1: Conceptual Overview [18th of November, 2025]
Start: 19:00
This lecture will focus on the conceptual overview of the representation of romantic love and beauty in Western European and Russian literature across the centuries. We will cover social, cultural, and philosophical perspectives and underlying changes that have shaped the ideals of beauty in the period of Romanticism, from Rousseau to Schiller, from Pushkin to Lermontov.
Lecture 2: Gogol [20th of November, 2025]
Start: 19:00
This lecture will focus on the life and works of Nikolai Gogol, especially his reflections on beauty as a non-human force. From his first appearance on the literary scene with his cycle 'Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka' and early works, Gogol connects beauty with malicious, diabolic intent, and lethal temptation. Still, along with this Catholic interpretation of beauty as 'daemonic', Gogol was also fascinated by the deification of beauty in Antiquity and its transformation in Christian, especially so Western Christian, art. These Romanticism ideals have shaped both the works of Gogol and later Dostoyevsky, influencing the aesthetics of Symbolism on the turn of centuries.
Lecture 3: Dostoyevsky [24th of November, 2025]
Start: 19:00
Dostoyevsky famously proclaimed that beauty would be able to 'save the world', yet it could ultimately save none of his characters in one of his most famous pieces, The Idiot. Until the end of his life, Dostoevsky pondered the effect of beauty on the human soul, its doom in a world of evil, and its connection to inner fracture and the thirst for self-destruction. Thus, exploring the tension between angelic beauty and lethal mystical eroticism in such a Proto-Freudian vein, this lecture will focus on the life and trailbalizing works of Fyodor Doestoyevsky.
Lecture 4: Tolstoy [27th of November, 2025]
Start: 19:00
This lecture focuses on works and life of Leo Tolstoy, and the depiction of beauty and romantic ideals in his works. While young Tolstoy dreamed of an ideal of romantic love as a separation from erotic love, his own attempts to build a marriage on such grounds have ended up as a catastrophe. Thus, in his later literary and philosphical works 'Anna Karenina', 'Father Sergius', and 'The Kreutzer Sonata' he re-thinks his understanding of love, eroticism, and beauty, carefully at first, then increasingly radical — to finally come back to the ideals of early-Christian asketism.
HOW TO PURCHASE A TICKET?
Select your Ticket Category:
- Standard -- open to everyone, including members of the public.
- Student -- for students with a valid Student ID.
- Friends of EBS -- you have to have a special sharecode. If you have it, then this ticket category is for you.
Select, which Lecture (or how many lectures) you want to attend:
- Individual Lecture -- gives access to 1 lecture of your choice, the lecture number is given in brackets().
- Lecture Bundle -- gives access to all 4 lectures (can be found at the bottom of the ticket selection: (Lecture Bundle)).
EXAMPLES:
You are a member of the public who wants to come to Andrei Zorin's lecture about Gogol (Lecture 2). So, you get a ticket called 'Standard (Lecture 2)'.
Or, you are a member of the public and have a share code and want to attend lectures 1 and 4 only. So, you get tickets called 'Friends of EBS (Lecture 1)' and 'Friends of EBS (Lecture 4)' respectively.
Or, you are a student who wants to listen to all 4 lectures. So, you get a ticket called 'Student (Lecture Bundle)'.
etc.
If you have any problems, questions, queries, please send an email to one of the following addresses:
[email protected] (Ameliia or Амелия, you can use both English and Russian) or
[email protected] (ZIMA Magazine)