Program of the XLIV International RSACS Conference “America and Europe: Forms of Cultural Interaction” December 5-8, 2018

December 5, Wednesday, 6 pm  Room 103

Plenary Opening Session 

  1. Professor Yassen Zassoursky

RSACS President, President of the Journalism Department,

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

American Language: A Project of the 18th Century by Jonathan Edwards 

 

Section 1: Journalism

Coordinator Professor Yassen Zassoursky

 (Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia)

December 6, Thursday, 10 am – 12 am  room 217

 

1.Nikolai Zykov

Journalism Department,

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

American-European Cultural Links in the Programs of the Voice of America

 

The topic of cultural relations has been and remains one of the main subject in the programs of the oldest international radio station in the United States, rising throughout the history of the work of the broadcaster. It is about the deep interrelation of cultures of the former colony and the countries of Europe, contacts of cultural figures and ordinary citizens. Such contacts contribute to the establishment of mutual understanding in the international arena. These programs have long been remembered by listeners.

  1. Karina Chobanyan

Journalism Department,

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

American Broadcast Journalism Transformation in the Trump Era

In the two years that have passed since the election of Donald Trump as the President of the United States, American journalism in general and television in particular has been marked by distinct transformations in genres, topics, some linguistic choices and overall content strategy shifts. Some of the main changes are:  significant drop in the number of news items per show, rise of panel discussions, dominance of politics and Trump’s figure as the main news maker, presence of negative remarks in the language of anchors and correspondents, shift in reporting from watching and telling to criticizing and assessing.

  1. Tatyana Klimenko

Trans-Baikal State University, Chita, Russia

On Politically (In)correct in Literature

 

Literature as Art has no national boundaries and the fact of the American author receiving 2016 Booker Prize proves it.  Despite the “inconvenient” language the book was called “a novel for our times”.

The speaker suggests studying the style and problems of Paul Beatty’s novel The Sellout focusing on the best traditions of the British satirical novel found in well-known works of Jonathan Swift, Aldous Huxley and George Orwell.

What are the sources of African-American and British literatures interconnections? To what extend does the term Anglophilia coined by E. Tamarkin reflect the essence of cultural ties between England and America? The speaker suggests investigating the history of literary ties and names which are abundant in the novel, as well as discovering the roots of Anglo-Saxon rhetoric, which was the basis of racialist philosophy.

The history of racial issue in the US as the main topic of P. Beatty’s novel makes the reader be more attentive to the ideology of present-day communication in the developed countries of the US and Europe, where apart from racial discrimination there are often other forms of disregarding and neglecting the minorities.

Social constructs of sovereignty, equality and freedom in literature are created by the text and in this sense the text forms the artist, the subject of the fictional discourse. Ironic interpretation of reality and thorough analysis of the language texture of the novel, in which every linguistic sign is charged with the historical meaning and makes the reader refer to larger contexts of people’s collective memories make it possible to consider the novel   The Sellout along with other novels about ideal social order as anti-utopia.

 

  1. Egor Zharovskiy

Journalism Department,

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Mediatization of the North American Culture in Online Media of the Crimean Peninsula

 

Among the peculiarities of modern culture we should highlight the following: globalized context of cultural values, prevalence of the «superconsumption» phenomenon, dominance of the virtual sociocultural environment over actually existing one. Largely such transformation of culture has become possible due to the processes of mediatization, which cover the information space on global scope.

At the present time, a Crimean media space isn’t an exception in terms of presence of the mediated information about U.S. and Canadian culture within it. Nevertheless, mediatization of the North American culture inside of Crimean region is defined by particular factors and conditions (political agenda, among others, and influence of a fundamental level, not expressed overtly), which require a thorough study and comprehension in the foreseeable future.

 

  1. Andrew Ruskin

Journalism Department,

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

2018 Midtem Elections: Nuances of the US Media Coverage

 

  1. Svetlana Orekhova-Tibbits

Washington, USA

Midterm Elections 2018 in the USA: a Case Study in Washington DC

 

Section 2: American Culture of the 17-19th Centuries

Coordinator Professor Elena Kornilova

(Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia)

December 6, Thursday, 4.30 pm – 6 pm  room

 

1.Diana Huseynzade

Azerbaijan University of Languages, Baku, Azerbaijan

Early Colonial Architecture of North America

 

Over the course of five centuries since the colonization of North America by alien nations, tremendous changes have been made in its cultural landscape.European colonialists fought desperately for the opportunity to settle on new lands with native population, harsh natural conditions and each other.Later, the sociocultural phenomenon described as a “melting pot” led to the mixing of the old and emergence of new original traditions in all spheres of life, including architecture.

The first colonial settlements were small forts with a number of dwellings (huts and modified wigwams), a church and barns.After the initial development of the territory, the colonists began to build permanent houses.  Initially, the American architecture absorbed the most popular styles that existed in Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Within the framework of the early colonial stage of development of American architecture, the colonial styles can be distinguished as follows: Spanish colonial style, English colonial style, originating from the English countryside architecture and widely represented by the Saltbox and Cape Cod styles, Dutch colonial style, widespread in New York and the Hudson Valley, French colonial style, also called French Creole architecture. These early colonial styles predefined the contemporary American architecture traditions.

 

  1. Irina Khruleva

History Department

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

European Roots of the First Great Awakening of 1730s-1740s in British America

 

The Great Awakening in British America was influenced by both the colonial traditions of revivalism and the introduction of new ideas and practices, borrowed from Europe. Thus the religious movement of the Great Awakening can not be properly understood without its European roots and reassertion of its international transatlantic character. The advent of pietism in Holland, Germany, and British Methodism, and their influence on American religion redefined Protestant theology, soteriology, and ecclesiology on both continents. The rising evangelical Awakening was far more complex than a mere rejection of Newtonian science, Enlightenment rationalism, or theological Arminianism, and more than the incorporation of emotionalism as a component of piety

  1. Elena Lioznova

The School of Public Administration

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

New England at the beginning of the 18th century: Puritanism and Enlightenment

 

At the turn of the century several different and opponent tendencies can be found in the intellectual development of New England. These tendencies, on the one hand, were connected with the dominant religious ideology and attempts to reform spiritual sphere of life and, on the other hand, were related to the spread of Enlightenment ideas and new science. In this respect the problem of coexistence and interaction between new science and religion is relevant and important. In this presentation it is analyzed how new philosophical ideas of European Enlightenment and rational scientific approach influenced religious, ideological and political development of New England at the beginning of the 18th century.

 

  1. Tatiana Yurieva

St. Petersburg State University, Russia

Concept of a National Hero in Art of the USA in еру 18th  Century. Reflection of the Myth in Living Portraits of George Washington

 

This report is about the problem of formation of national hero in life and art in the USA during The period of American Revolutionary War, War of Independence, is extremely interesting for study due to several reasons. The 18th  century is the Age of Enlightenment on the territory of America, bringing up new contrast into the world art. President George Washington’s status in American society as “The Father of the Nation” causes no doubt. His “Final message”, the statements form the conception of what values and principles were vital for the first president of the USA. He helped the nation to perceive its identity. Due to George Washington’s character and actions, mythologeme of national hero assumed such concepts as heroism, honesty, patriotism. George Washington is known to take an active part in creating of Constitution and Declaration of Independence. These documents are basic for American law and way of life in the USA to the present day. Any myth needs experiencing and registering. American mythology is reflected in not only in portrait painting, but also in history painting, as the 18th century art of the USA is full of true stories from real history. This myth is performed and perceived by American artists, friends and worshippers impressed by George Washington, such as Charles Peale, Gilbert Stuart and others. Reminding of formation of National hero and his reflection in portrait painting is very significant for understanding not only American culture but, the Russian one too

 

  1. Elena Kornilova

Journalism Department,

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Mythological Models in Poetry and Short Stories Edgar Allan Poe

 

 

Section3:  Literature and Culture of the USA in the 20th-21st centuries

and American Drama Round Table

Coordinator Yulia Kleiman Saint-Petersburg, Russia

 

December 6, Thursday, 4 pm – 7 pm,  room 217

 

 

  1. Maxim Gudkov

Saint Petersburg State University,

Russian State Institute of Performing Arts, Russia

The American stage and B. Brecht’s Epic theatre: Production Mother (1935, NYC)

 

The U.S. stage was deaf to the plays of German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and his epic theatre for a long time. One of the first Americans’ meetings with Brecht took place through the production of Maxim Gorky’s novel Mother (1935). Brecht’s adaptation of the Russian work became a model of epic drama. However, this production turned into a story of artistic confrontation between American authors of the production and the German playwright, who arrived from abroad to oversee it. The realistic aesthetics and psychological insight of Gorky was more recognizable to the Americans than Brecht’s epic theatre. The analysis of the production Mother considers the problem of familiarization of epic theatre and Brecht’s dramatic composition by American theatre-lovers.

 

  1. Alla Nikulina
  2. Akmullah Bashkir State Pedagogical University, Ufa, Russia

In Search of Meaning: The Interaction of Analytic and Continental Philosophical Traditions in D.F. Wallace’s The Broom of the System

 

D.F. Wallace acknowledged that at the time of creating his first novel The Broom of the System (1987) he was deeply influenced by “the infiltration of continental deconstruction on analytic philosophy” and pointed out to L. Wittgenstein and J. Derrida as his primary intellectual infatuations at the period. While Wittgensteinian motives, due to a number of recognizable allusions, have been thoroughly examined, the impact of Derrida’s thought on the ideological content of the novel has attracted less academic attention, although the French philosopher’s ideas seem to be crucial in realizing the message of Wallace’s book. Wittgenstein’s philosophy in the novel is treated as a clue to understanding the generally pragmatic Anglo-American approach to the notions of language and meaning, in which the signifier and the signified can demonstrate only one meaningful type of relationship in the given context. But the strictly logical approach to viewing the events of the novel is opposed by the possibility of their different interpretation that, in accordance with Derrida’s claim, discloses the initial and irreducible alterity of any phenomenon, disregarding the context in which it happens to appear.

 

  1. Irwin Weil

Northwestern University, Evanston, USA

Doubles of Philip Roth and Double by Dostoyevski

 

The young Dostoevsky wrote a novella (“The Double”) which deals with a character who experiences, or thinks he does,  an exactly similar double. Philip Roth wrote a novel (“Operation Shylock”) which presents two exactly similar Philip Roths. In his novel there is some reference to Dostoevsky. It is interesting and useful to see how two widely separated artists examine the theme of double personalities and psychologies.

 

  1. Yulia Kleiman

Russian State Institute of Performing Arts

St. Petersburg, Russia

From European Mystery Play to American Avant-garde

 

American culture, unlike the European, didn’t know the religious theatre. But American avant-garde of 1960s that presented to the whole world phenomenon of “performative turn”, showed the eager to strategies of mystery plays. Judith Malina and Julian Beck (“Living Theatre”), Richard Schechner (“Performance Group”), Peter Schumann (“Bread and Puppet”) used in their works principles of European religious theatre.  Even titles reflect this tendency: Mysteries and smaller pieces, Paradise Now, Dionysus in 69, Domestic Resurrection Circus. There was not a single model; the movement toward ritual was implemented differently in each production. It is interesting to check how generics of religious mysteries happened to be catalysts of radical changes in stage action’s structure. Such changes led to the appearance of such topical phenomena as site-specific theatre (theatre outside the theatre building) and performance.

 

  1. Ekaterina Zagvozdkina

KommersantЪ  Publishing House, Moscow, Russia

European Experimental Film and New Holliwood

 

American postwar cinema was far from progressive: till 1966 it was under censorship with the help of the infamous Hays Code, the studio system hindered the creation of truly author films – in their place the corporate bosses saw the expensive movies, that were supposed to get the attention of audience by their rich set design and star casting, but were torn away from the life of modern-day America. The commercial failure of one of such films – peplum Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor in 1963 – showed the crisis of the whole system.  The end of the 1960-s marked the beginning of the New Hollywood – the name of that period in film history itself suggests the break with the old filmmaking system. New American directors, including Robert Altman, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, and Arthur Penn, named as a source of inspiration the films and cinematic experiments of their European colleagues – first of all, the French New Wave and created by filmmakers behind it auteur theory. We aim to trace that influence in the current paper.

 

  1. Evgeniya M. Butenina

Far Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok, Russia

The New York Text of Russian American Fiction

 

Russian immigrants have been settling in New York since the beginning of the 20th century, which gradually formed the New York text of Russian American fiction. Russian authors often transfer St. Petersburg’s eschatological myth onto New York. Thus one can call New York (originally New Amsterdam) an American Petersburg due to several reasons. The two port cities located near rivers and on islands and modelled on their European “ancestors”, Venice and Amsterdam, share such common features as openness to outside influences, verticality, rationality, masculinity, theatricality. The paper focuses on the poetics of the New York text of Russian American literature, mainly in Keith Gessen’s All the Sad Young Literary Men (2008) and Michael Idov’s Ground Up (2009), while drawing in the context of Gary Shtenygart’s, Lara Vapnyar’s, Irina Reyn’s fiction.

 

  1. Daria Ignatieva

Kuznetsov Naval Academy, St. Petersburg, Russia

Modernity as a Problem:

Ways of Organizing Literary Text and Depicting Reality in the Novels by Richard Powers

 

The paper focuses upon the problem of depicting reality by means of a literary text in Richard Powers’s novels The Echo Maker (2007) and Orfeo (2014). Fragmentariness, heterogeneity and chaotic character of modern reality bring an author to search for appropriate literary devices which could portray this reality, simultaneously seeking original ways to organize a literary text.

The analysis reveals the methods which he uses to create a so-called many-dimensional text, such as: polythematism, synthesis of different discourses and genre syncretism.

The paper also touches upon the nature of modern reality and influence of informatization and virtualization on a person.

 

  1. Kirill Ignatov

Department of Foreign Languages and Area Studies

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Claudia Rankine: The Political Dimension of a Poetic Text

 

Claudia Rankin (born 1963) is a well-known modern black US poet, essayist and editor of several poetic anthologies, as well as a public figure. Her most recent work Citizen: American Lyrics (2014) is particularly popular and has won numerous literary awards. Such was the political charge of the collection that, when the sales soared, the New York Times included it in the list of nonfiction bestsellers.

From the point of view of linguopoetics, the work of Rankin is an interesting example of the transformation of ‘post-post-modernism’ into ‘neo-realism’, which is rooted in the postmodernism of protest and preserves many formal features of its source (rhymes are perceived as superfluous, poems are usually composed in prose, the polemic charge is deliberate, the performative nature of poetry is favoured, and links with other art forms are premeditated). At the same time, a strife for experiment shifts focus from form to content. With each new collection, the role civic poetry plays is increasing, so now many readers associate Rankin with the struggle for racial equality in the United States. The report examines the role of politics in the thematic diversity of Rankin’s poems, analyzes the components of the political content in them, and discusses the results of observations on the connection between the content of the poems and their form.

Section 4: Ethnic Components of American Culture

Coordinator Dr Oksana Danchevskaya 

(Moscow State Pedagogical University, Russia odanchevskaya@gmail.com  )

December 8, Saturday, 10 am – 1.30 pm  room 103

 

 

  1.  Oksana Danchevskaya

Moscow State Pedagogical University, Moscow, Russia

Native American Intuitive Knowledge

 

The West is trapped: on the one hand, in Europe and the US, the number of trainings, seminars and books on the development of intuition is constantly multiplying, but on the other hand, the further progress moves, the worse we hear our inner voice. Perhaps that is why, in search of the “sixth sense”, we are increasingly turning to the experience of traditional cultures that have not lost this ability. A particularly striking example is Native Americans, famous for their insight. In the report we will try to understand how this feeling works for them and how they manage to do it.

 

2.Gleb Alekandrov

Institute for US and Canadian Studies RAS, Russia

England and America in the writings of Olaudah Equiano, James Albert (Ukawsaw Gronniosaw) and Ayuba Suleiman Diallo

 

The Atlantic slave trade connected England, America and Africa. While the attitudes towards slavery of Englishmen and Americans in the XVIIIth century are fairly well-researched, the point of view of the Africans often remains unexplored. We examine the images of England and America in the writings of three African-born XVIIIth century authors, each intimately familiar with the Atlantic slave trade and both English and American societies  – Olaudah Equiano, James Albert (Ukawsaw Gronniosaw) and Ayuba Suleiman Diallo. Those writings not only provide another perspective on Atlantic slave trade, but also present a unique “outsider” point of view on XVIIIth century England and America themselves.

 

  1. Anna N. Sebryuk

National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia

The Phenomenon of Cultural Appropriation from the Perspective of Colorblind Ideology (using the example of African American culture)

 

Despite numerous social and legal measures, racism continues to be one of the most acute problems of American society. Modern racism is expressed in new specific forms, often veiled and difficult to distinguish. In the framework of this study, using the example of African American culture, the author analyzes the relationship between the phenomenon of cultural appropriation and colorblind ideology.

Recently, there have been increasing debates on cultural identity and the validity of borrowing the culture of other peoples, and as a result – around the term “cultural appropriation” in the context of Native Americans and African Americans. The process of exploitation of culture and its absorption by the dominant culture leads to the tendency to consider cultural appropriation as a negative phenomenon which reflects white American privilege.

 

4.Maria Baranova

Linguistics University of Nizhny Novgorod, Russia

Spanish Heritage in Estampas del Valle y Otras Obras by Rolando Hinojosa

 

Rolando Hinojosa created his first novel Estampas del Valle y Otras Obras (1973) in the tradition of Spanish Costubrismo, describing customs and everyday life of the Mexican-American community in the fictional Belken County, Texas. The writer represents Mexican-American problematics, employing the picaresque novel and turning one of the main narrators into a picaro type. The title of the novel refers to the genre of Spanish estampa, which was adopted by Latin-American and Chicano writers. The paper dwells upon the way Rolando Hinojosa modified Spanish heritage in his novel Estampas del Valle y Otras Obras and its English version the Valley (1983).

 

  1. Firdes Dimitrova

Voronezh State University, Russia

Cultural Interaction of opposite worlds in Silko’s novel Gardens in the Dunes

 

Leslie Silko (1948), a well- known American Indian author, fully devoted herself to reviving Indian culture and traditions. In her novel Gardens in the Dunes (1999) she succeeded in showing mutual understanding and fruitful cooperation of two opposite worlds: “white” and “Indian” which was not possible in her Ceremony though. These polar opposite worlds were presented in the novel by an Indian girl Indigo and Aunt Bronwyn from England. Bronwyn follows Gustav Fechner’s theory of panpsychism believing that Universe has the soul. Panpsychism can be considered as the late analogue of primitive animation of nature that is peculiar for Indigo. Both have similar attitude to nature that makes this contact possible.

 

  1. Tatyana Voronchenko

Trans BaikalState University, Chita, Russia

Siberia-America: Establishing Bridges. To the Problem of Ethno-Cultural Parallels

 

The study of ethnic literatures appeared in Russia several decades ago by A.V. Vashchenko, T.V. Voronchenko, Y.V. Stulov, and researchers began to explore the culture of cross-border regions, such as Southeast Siberia and U.S. Southwest. The problem of ethno-cultural parallels in cross-border regions of Russia and the United States demands the drawing of philological research together with border studies (F. Lomeli, A.I. Kubyshkin). The borderland ethno-cultural parallels are determined by common folklore and literary motifs, connections of writers and nature, idea of the unity of the world, embodied in various artistic forms and symbols. The report examines the connections between Trans-Baikal school and Californian philological studies in the field of Mexican-American literature and the theory of cultural frontier. In the 2000s, bridges are strengthened by reciprocal visits and publications of Russian scientists from Transbaikal region and American researchers from California, New Mexico, and Illinois.

 

  1. Ekaterina Fyodorova

Trans BaikalState University, Chita, Russia

The Encounter of Cultures in A. Morales’ Novel River of Angels (2014)

 

The novel of contemporary Mexican-American writer Alejandro Morales River of Angels (2014) is explored from the perspective of dialogue between cultures. The connection of the Anglo-American and Mexican-American traditions and the syncretism of Christian and pagan beliefs are examined in keeping with the encounter of cultures in the U.S. South-West. Morales’s historical novel refers to the problems of understanding the interaction between European and American value orientations. Accordingly the researchers from Belgium, Germany, and Italy have regard to the literary works of A. Morales.

 

  1. Lubov Pervushina

Minsk State Linguistics University, Belarus

Ethnic Revival in the Creative of Work by Contemporary American Writers

 

Ethnic pluralism remains a vital force in contemporary American culture. Various ethnic communities influence the values, world views and lifestyles in the multicultural society while ethnic literatures reflect difficult processes of assimilation, acculturation and Americanization. The problems of national peculiarities are especially topical in literary creativity of the second and third generations of Slavic emigrants/immigrants. In the artistic work of Stuart Dybek (1942) and Gary Gildner (1938) – famous American writers of Polish descent – a cultural dialogue between the Old and the New World is established and their Polish cultural and historical memory is actively revived. In the collection of stories The Coast of Chicago by S. Dybek and in the book of memoirs My Grandfather’s Book: Generations of an American Family by G. Gildner family histories are revived. Despite their different aesthetic principles and artistic approaches, both authors reconstruct Polish traditions, restore their ethnic roots and analyze the functions of their ancestral genetic memory. Of great importance in the authors’ intensely autobiographical narratives are intermediality and intertextuality (references to literary works by outstanding Polish authors and Polish musical heritage). Both authors incorporate elements of their Slavic identity and reveal national uniqueness of Polish emigrants/immigrants of different generations.

 

  1. Tatjana Srceva-Pavlovska

FON – First Private University, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia

The absurdity of naming and renaming in Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel The Namesake vs the issue of Republic of Macedonia’s name change

 

“Tis but thy name that is my enemy; (…) What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
/by any other word would smell as sweet.” In Shakespeare’s times, the issue of naming, renaming and identity switch seemed as easy as comparing apples and oranges; in Act II, Scene 2 of Romeo and Juliet, these lines, uttered by Juliet are a direct reference to Romeo and his family, the Montague, implying that his name means nothing and they should be together regardless of it. Therefore, Romeo is supposed to easily swap names, be some other name, since, “were he not Romeo call’d/Retain that dear perfection which he owes.”

In modern day Europe and America, this issue seems far more complex than just simple, harmless game of changing names for love’s sake; countries are conditionally forced into signing contradictory agreements by stronger bullies just to secure their future existence; in Lahiri’s novel The Namesake, names, pet names, and changing of names in fact play crucial role in the process of searching and establishing of people’s personal identity. The absurdity of retaining one’s identity against all odds still standing (today’s AOS as well), such as living in the US and being a Bengali Gogol, as well as persevering in the struggle to keep/love one’s personal name in the era of the Internet, global availability, false profiles and hidden identities is an understatement.

 

  1. Yuri Stulov

Minsk State Linguistics University, Belarus

Open City by Teju Cole: Politics and Aesthetics 

 

The paper will examine the novel Open City by Teju Cole dealing with the understanding of himself and the world by a human with hybrid identity in a post-postmodern city that is regarded as a metaphor of cosmopolitanism, power, trauma and self-examination in the context of the new cultural paradigm. Its focus is cultural identity that involves interaction of the domestic and foreign, which has become one of the specific and controversial features of today’s world community. Special attention will be given to the literary techniques that make the novel a major event in US recent literary process.

 

 

Section 5:  Gender Aspects of American Culture

Coordinators Dr. Nadezhda Shvedova and Dr. Larisa Mikhaylova

(RAS Institute for The U.S. and Canadian Studies n.shvedova2015@yandex.ru  and MSU, Russia larmih@gmail.com )

December 8, Saturday, 2 pm – 6 pm,  room 103

 

 

  1. Larisa Baibakova

History Department

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

The Use of Extremist Forms of Civil Disobedience of the English Suffragism in the Fight of  the US Women’s Movement for Vote (the early decades of the 20th century)

 

In the struggle for vote American feminists used the militant tactics of English suffragism, based on acts of civil disobedience. With traditional propaganda activities  in defense of the  right to vote, this tactics was culminated in XΙXth amendment of US Constitution which provided access of  American women   to ballot boxes.

 

  1. Tatyana Kamarovskayа

Belarussian State Pedagogical University, Minsk, Belarus

The Traditions of the English Novel of the19th Century and the Contemporary U.S. Women Novel

 

The main theme of J. Smiley’s novels – the fate of a woman, her way to self-identification is revealed in this novel historically, that is, the action of the novel takes place at the end of the 19th–the first half of the 20th century. The first part of the novel is a parody at J. Austen’s novels.  Margaret, the main character of Private Life, reminds of the heroines of J. Austen- a clever, well-read, intellectual person. In the tradition of J. Austen’s novels, she gets her prize at the end of this part-a rich and handsome young man as the husband. The story of her married life is the denunciation of the institution of marriage as Smiley sees it, as is shown in the article. This historical novel is devoted to the first manifestation of feminism at the end of the 19th- the beginning of the 20th century and tells about different strategies women took to it.

 

  1. Irina Kudriavtseva

Minsk State Linguistic University, Belarus

Memories of the Past and Cultural Contrasts

in The Girl In The Blue Beret by Bobbie Ann Mason

 

In her novel “The Girl in the Blue Beret” (2011) the American author Bobbie Ann Mason turns tо the tragic events of World War II, the destinies of its participants and its psychological consequences, the problem of cultural contrasts and stereotypes. The novel’s plot and the images of its two major characters, the American Marshall Stone and the French Annette Vallon, are based on the real events and people associated with the activities of the French Résistance, in particular with its help to those American pilots of the Allied Forces whose planes were shot down by the Nazis over occupied France. Stone’s memories of the past and encounters with those who once saved his life, as well as his exposure to French culture trigger Stone’s moral and psychological evolution. Behind the simplicity and transparence of Mason’s style there appears in the novel a substantial amount of information about the activities of the Résistance, fascist labor camps and the liberating mission of the Red Army. The romantic development of the plot and the trial motive at the end of the novel create a sense of hope and possibility to overcome psychological traumas, cultural differences, global and personal conflicts.

 

  1. Ekaterina Burmistrova

Department of General History, Perm State University , Russia

On the other side of the barricades: comparative study of female antifeminism in the USA and Western Europe

 

It is impossible to deny that one of the most influential discourses of our time is feminism. However with the growth of the influence of feminist ideology comes increasing opposition to it: not only male, but female also. The conference report will be based on program documents of anti-feminist organizations and political portraits of female representatives of anti-feminist organizations in the United States and Western Europe. An attempt to identify the factors of female participation in anti-feminist organizations and the range of problems raised by antifeminist organizations will be made in the conference report. Special emphasis will be given to comparison of the European and American experience of female antifeminism.

 

  1. Marina Loginova

Gerasimov Russian State University of Cinematography, Moscow, Russia

The Changing Role of Women in the U.S. Military and War Films

 

After the Second World War changes of the woman’s role in the society have accelerated dramatically. As a result, changes in the society led to new depiction of women in cinematography in general, and war films in particular. Four models of woman’s images can be classified in the contemporary war films:

  • women-victim
  • Penelope awaiting of Odysseus
  • woman-warrior
  • woman-civilian responsible for military actions and public opinion.

 

  1. Elena Antonova

MGIMO University, Moscow, Russia

Evolution of Political Correctness in the US Media

 

Daria Khukhreva

RAS Institute for the U.S. and Canadian Studies,

Moscow, Russia

Representation of the Gender Dimension of Political Communication in the United States in 2010s

 

The gender aspects of political communications emphasize differences in the status of women and men when planning and making political decisions. Political decisions implemented in the form of existing legislation and the entire state policy have a different impact on the social life of women and men.

The level of gender equality really reflects the characteristics of a particular social system. Consequently, the status of a woman serves as a kind of “barometer” responsive to the nature and changes in society. It is here that many significant aspects of the life of society are focused – employment, work organization, marriage stability, birth rate, public health, the nature of raising children, the degree of development and democracy, moral and ethical standards.

How do US media show women politicians? How are gender issues covered in the US media? What is the difference between the representation of women and men in the US media? Analysis of the representation of various issues, one way or another related to the gender aspect of modern political communications, in the media, including television, media, the Internet, social networks, etc. in 2010s, will be presented.

 

  1. Larisa Mikhaylova

Journalism Department,

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Results of Ford- Kavanaugh’s  Hearing at the Senate Judiciary Committee: Gender Analysis

 

Translation of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony and  judge Brett Kavanaugh’s rebuttal attracted more than 20 million viewers. This record number shows the degree of importance people ascribed to the nomination of a new Supreme Court Justice who was accused of an attempted rape of Christine Ford over 20 years ago. The fact of a sexual assault victim coming out with her story after such a long time definitely demonstrates a changed attitude of women in the country who refuse to be the victims and unite in the movement #MeToo, which definitely marks a new stage  in the fight for gender equality.

Though Kavanaugh became a new Justice, allegations were not conclusively investigated, and in the new climate of making citizen stances more defined along the lines of contentions, including that on gender equality, it is considered possible by political commentators at such major TV channels MSNBS, ABC, HBO, that Democratic majority in the Congress might insist in looking deeper into the truth of the matter.

 

  1. Nadezda Shvedova

RAS Institute for the U.S. and Canadian Studies,

Moscow, Russia

Midterm Elections in the USA in 2018: What’s Next?

 

American women have walked a long and difficult path of struggle for equality of opportunity in their country. As a result, the turn of the XX – XXI centuries witnessed the role of women as an important phenomenon in political and social life. “With confidence you will overcome everything” or “I can do it” – hope and a heightened sense of human dignity are the key to understanding the “American character” in general, and the women’s active democratic movement, in particular, which has always been at the forefront of constructing civil society in a historical perspective.

On election day, November 8, 2016, women supporting H. Clinton visited the cemetery in New York, where Susan B. Anthony was buried. They carried yellow roses and “I voted” stickers, attached to her gravestone as a sign of feminist gratitude. However, the results of the 2016 election cycle in the United States caused widespread protest among American women, gathering their courage, demonstrated their electoral potential in the recent midterm elections of 2018 and celebrate their victory, winning a historic record number of seats in the US House of Representatives.

 

 

Section 6. Fantastic in the Arts.

Coordinator Dr. Larisa Mikhaylova, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

December 7, Friday, 4.30 pm – 6.30 pm,  room 217

 

1.Natalia Kuznetsova

Journalism Department,

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

The influence of European traditions of myth on the short stories of H. P. Lovecraft

 

One of the most famous writers of the American horror literature, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, was very familiar with European “gothic” literature. He notes the features of the cosmic and universal horror in the works of Dickens, M. Shelley, E. Bronte, F. Fouque, R. Kipling, G. de Maupassant, etc. However he often criticizes depiction of the supernatural by the Europeans. He speaks coldly about the masters of the Gothic novel, reproaches Mary Shelley for moral didacticism and blames Kipling for omnipresent mannerisms. Nevertheless, Lovecraft is interested in pagan history, which his predecessors describes. The interest to occultism, magic, ceremonies and cults transforms to creation of the whole universe called the Cthulhu Mythos. The influence of the Welsh author Arthur Machen and the English authors Algernon Blackwood and Montague James on the Cthulhu Mythos will be analyzed in this report.

 

  1. Boris Maximov

Journalism Department,

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Beyond the “Ratiocination”: the Detective dimension of E.A. Poe`s Mystery Tales

 

Conventionally, scholars considering E.A.Poe as a forerunner of a classic detective story rely on the so called “tales of ratiocination” and focus on the investigator/narrator-dyad as far as on the investigation as a rational procedure. In my lecture I refer to a wider range of Poe`s (mystery) tales in order to explore some less “rational” components of the detective fiction, e.g such thematic issues as exorbitant violence, obtaining and loosing of self control, combating spatial and psychical seclusion, and, furthermore, an elliptical narration and a strongly pronounced predetermination in the plot. All these items later have been inherited by the classic detective fiction of the “golden age”.

 

  1. Yuliya Khoroshevskaya

Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia

Culturological Games in Dan Simmons`s Drood

 

The works of Dan Simmons are addressed, first of all, to the so-called “educated reader”, possessing extensive culturological luggage. This also applies to his novel Drood (2009), painted in pseudo-Victorian tones. It is a single intertextual layer, in which facts from the biographies of Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins are mixed with the artistic reality of their novels (The Mystery of Edwin Drood, The Moonstone) and the free fiction of Simmons himself.

 

  1. Artem Kuznetsov

Journalism Department,

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

The Influence of the Günter Grass’ Сreative work on the John Irving’s novel A Prayer for Owen Meany

 

An American writer John Irving was a friend with the German writer Günter Grass, highly valuing his merits in literature and even wishing to be like the protagonist of Grass’s novel Tin Drum: “I always wanted to live the way Oscar Matzerath lived — to be funny and angry…”.

The name and surname of the Irving’s novel Prayer for Owen Meany protagonist begin with the same letters as those of Grass’s Oscar Matzerath. The names of both heroes are deeply symbolic: “Oscar” is translated as “spear of God”, “divine”, “Owen” – as “noble”, “lamb”. Lamb is the personification of Christ, the traditional symbol of innocence, purity, gentleness and kindness inherent in Owen Meany. It is remarkable that both heroes considered themselves followers of God, successors of his mission, criticized Church and war, combined features of a trickster and a culture hero. In both novels, elements of mysticism and magical realism have a plot-forming function.

 

  1. Aygul Kushaeva

Journalism Department,

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Scientists on The Set: Science Consultants and the Communication of Science in Visual Fiction

 

In modern fiction films, there is a contradiction between the needs of the entertainment industry and the scientific community. Scientists and scientific organizations, who involved in filmmaking, prefer filmmakers to adhere to accuracy in portraying science. However, filmmakers only need confirmation of the authenticity of films, an acceptable level of credibility that fits into production constraints (budget, time and script).

When scientists act as consultants during the production of a fictional film, it becomes an act of communication between science and fictitious narrative. Fictional film provides a space for scientists to visually model their conceptions of nature. At the same time film impacts scientific practice and plays a role in the formation of consensus and closure in scientific controversies. The socially constructed nature of scientific knowledge means that scientific hypotheses become ‘facts’ only when consensus is reached.  The consensus formation process is largely one of rhetoric and representational techniques of persuasion. To this end, scientists use multiple means to convince people of their claims’ validity, including representations in fictional films. Film, in fact, can have a very powerful epistemological impact. In this paper, we explored some aspects of the interaction of science and film industry: how scientific consultants make a film believable, how filmmakers discuss scientific accuracy in production constraints, and how films affect popular perception of science.

 

 

  1. Ahmad Kilani

People’s Friendship University of Russia , Lebanon

Nabhan Dourgham

People’s Friendship University of Russia , Syria

U.S Cultural Hegemony: The Hollywood Case

 

It is becoming evident that the American culture is manifested in the mind set of common public notwithstanding of language, religion, and ideology.  This cultural supremacy is gratefully to Hollywood and its role in shaping the American culture as we know it today. It would be remarkable to scrutinize this hegemony and comprehend its roots from the early 20th century and how it developed recently. Based on Gramsci theory of cultural hegemony, to the encoding/decoding model of Stuart Hall, this paper will be implementing these concepts to better analyze and apprehend the American cultural supremacy using Hollywood.  This paper will conclude that Hollywood is affected by the economics of media, the political pressure (Lobbying), and by the right-wing ideology.

 

  1. Larisa Mikhaylova

Journalism Department,

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

The New Mythos Blog; Modern Writers Reassess the Role of Science Fiction in the Contemporary America

The main topic for a number of months in 2018 was “Why we now need Utopias more than ever?” Analysis of The New Mythos Facebook group of science fiction writers discussion will be presented. An example of reasoning about Dr.Who, the new version: «utopia-writ-small. They shine a light on the mechanisms by which utopias are built. Writing these larger-scale would be challenging but worthwhile.» (Susan Kaye Quinn)

 

Round Table Discussion

Imprints: Image of America and Image of Russia

Coordinator Professor Yassen Zassoursky, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

 

December 7, Friday, 10.30 am – 1.30 pm,  room 103

 

  1. I.M. Udler

Chelyabinsk State University, Russia

From the Travel Letters of P. N. Golovin: Russian (1863) and American (1983) Editions

 

Letters of the Captain-lieutenant Pavel Nikolayevich Golovin (1823–1862) to his St. Petersburg family written during the journey in 1860–1861 through Europe and further through the Atlantic Ocean and the Isthmus of Panama to San Francisco and the Russian North America were published in the magazine Morskoi sbornik (1863). He was sent by the Naval ministry to inspect the Russian-American Company, which governed Russian colonies in America, and to present his views on the future of these territories. His letters and report Review of Russian Colonies in North America (1861) contained valuable information about the history, socio-political structure of the colonies, cultural policy, relations of the Russians with the indigenous population, life, beliefs, psychology, and ethnic peculiarities of the Aleutians, Eskimos and Indians. P. N. Golovin made the unequivocal conclusion about necessity of preservation of these territories for Russia.

Oregon Historical Society published in 1982 in English the travel letters of P. N. Golovin in the magazine North Pacific Studies and in 1983 as a separate book. The biography of the Russian naval officer P. N. Golovin, the high assessment of his national features and personality and the relevance of his letters were presented in the introduction of the executive director of Society and editor-in- chief of NPS Thomas Vaughan.

 

2.Galina Lapshina

Journalism Department,

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

“The New World is Blessed by the Skies…”: Russian Traveler Discovers America

 

Russian Traveler, as a former battle officer Platon Alexandrovich Chikhachev signed his essay about North America, began his 3-year long journey along the route Scotland and England – France – Italy – America in 1835. To the US, the city of Philadelphia, he departed from Palermo. Chikhachev presented his impressions “About Navigation and Lakes in North America” to Russian readers on the pages of the “Otechestvennye Zapiski” magazine’s third issue from 1839. Chikhachev’s travels would extend to South America as well, and corresponding essay would be published in “Otechestvennye Zapiski” in 1844.

Brought up during the age of Russian romanticism, Chikhachev described the nature of the New World with admiration and constantly used the word “vast”: “vast land space”, “vast rivers and lakes of North America”… Romantic perception of America led him to the native people of the Lake Superior, with whom he ventured on a journey along the northern side of Lake Huron in a “fragile canoe made of tree bark”. Perceiving himself a part of natural world, Chikhachev considered native people as fearless, rejecting “poetics of mammon”, “industrious and intrepid”. At the same time, he writes that to manage this powerful nature could only a new, “hardworking, tireless and brave people of America”, “enemy of luxury and pleasures”.

Chikhachev constantly compared America and Russia. He used to say that “though the New World is blessed by the Skies, on the other side of the Earth the land is graced no less” and that “everything depends only on that activity with which one engages in labor”.

 

  1. Mikhail Taratuta

Moscow, Russia

Presentation of a New Book  “Russians and Americans: We and Them, So Different” Moscow,2018

 

  1. Valery Terin

Philosophy Department, MGIMO University, Moscow, Russia

The Russian language dynamics as reflected by America’s pattern recognition role

 

The material covering the subject matter, i.e., Russian language dynamics as related to the perception of America’s role, seems to be abundant. Nevertheless, it is not so simple to analyze in fact meaning mostly the methodological difficulties on the way to understand it in terms peculiar to the impact of electronic media. There are singled out some trends characterizing the perception of America’s image in this respect, and, with this in mind, the problem in question is analyzed mostly as a figure/ground relationship.

 

  1. Larisa Nabilkina, Nikolai Kubanev

Arzamas, Russia

Russia and America: from Interaction to Counteraction

 

  1. Ada Baskina

Moscow, Russia

Self-Esteem as an Important American Value

 

Concept of Self- esteem is very popular throughout  Americans. I was hearing this term in different families, at schools, over TV talk shows. In my paper I am giving examples how society try to maintain self respect of each individual.  Little girl at day care center, school student, very fat woman, disabled , old man… They   shouldn’t feel themselves  as second rate  persons. And they do not.

 

  1. Tatyana Belova

Philology Department,

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

On I. Turgenev’s Impact on the System of Russian – American Literary Connections

 

The report comprises Turgenev’s versatile activity in Europe  and in the USA as a vivid popularizer of  Russian literature, his fruitful contacts with the famous   American writers and literary critics in the 1860-70th, when his best novels   were published in the USA. The main idea of the  report is that his up-to-date works touching upon essential problems of Russia reality to some extend facilitated the rise and development of the  American novel at the end of XIX- the beginning of XX century.

 

  1. Lyudmila Kazakova

South-West State University, Kursk, Russia

  1. Barnes’ Novel The Only Story (2018) as a Monologue and a Dialogue

 

Literature writing can create crossing links between different eras and cultures. The Barnes’ novel The Only Story, (2018) evokes associations with his earlier novel The sense of ending (2011), with books by Russian and American writers.

Artistic conception of the Barnes’ story is close to the conception in the novel I Forget Thee, Jerusalem (1939) by William Faulkner (1897 – 1962), an appreciated classical American novelist. His character is confident that true love story can continue after the death of his beloved woman, being stored in people’s memory. This  Faulkner’s thought is shared by the British  Barnes, that analysis of his novel’s poetics proves. This motive developed by Faulkner and later by Barnes was at first developed in the story by Turgenev (First Love, 1860) being based on the personal youth experience of the writer. This work is framed as a ‘story inside the story’. Barnes, like Turgenev, uses flashback technique. Both stories suggest a triangle, investigating the geometry of love by a young man’s eyes, who at first did not perceive seriously the flared feelings. Intertextual relations in Barnes’ novel allow us to trace some features of a deeply psychological and subtle Turgenev’s narrative in the novel written by the modern British writer. Both stories tell about the first love towards a more adult woman, developing from romantic beginning to a tragic ending.

Stories by Turgenev and Barnes depict strong feelings that can prolong a dialogue of two loving people as a dialogue with the outer world, gradually developing into a dialogue among countries and centuries.