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News and Events Calendar
Lecture

"Dying is Fun": "the art of suicide" in Nabokov’s last novel’

15 March 2024
47 Bolshaya Morskaya Street, St Petersburg

Lecture "Dying is Fun": "the art of suicide" in Nabokov’s last novel’ by Liubov Bugaeva.

The lecture focuses on Nabokov’s last incomplete novel "The Original of Laura". The original author’s title of the novel "Dying is Fun", relegated to the background in the American edition, was completely lost in the Russian version, which, however, does not negate the fact that "Laura" is a novel about death. The failed title refers to the words "Dying is an art" from Sylvia Plath’s poem "Lady Lazarus", which, however, is not so much about death as about resurrection and rebirth from the ashes. The novel about dying therefore turns into a narrative about the transition to a ‘new life’, about suicide as self-destruction and liberation. Intertextual clues help to read the novel in this way, including Dante’s "Divine Comedy", Virgil’s "Aeneid", and "tragic heroes in Japanese history" (one of whom is Yukio Mishima), and Jose Silva, i.e. the creator of the mind control method.

Events

111

Principles of Rational Nutrition in Modern Society. Trends, Developments, and Challenges

Presentation of the Third Volume of Pu Songling’s (1640–1715) Collection of ‘Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio’ (Liao Zhai Zhi Yi)

# museums

Other news

111

1 June, 2025 Play

Scientists from St Petersburg University develop neural network to assess carbon concentration in seas and oceans

30 May 2025 News

St Petersburg University and Gazprom Neft launch master’s programme to train a new generation of engineers

30 May 2025 News

Principles of Rational Nutrition in Modern Society. Trends, Developments, and Challenges

3 June Online lecture

Prep year grind: how an Iranian student earned her spot in St Petersburg University

12 May 2025 Student Reviews
"Peterburgskii Dnevnik" newspaper:

Nikolay Kropachev: "Churches at universities are becoming centres of spiritual life"

3 April 2025 Rector's Interviews
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