Pushkin’s poetry and his mystical works
SPbU Representative Office in Spain invites you to an online lecture on "Pushkin’s poetry and his mystical works." The lecture will be given by Nina Shcherbak, associate professor in the Department of English philology and cultural linguistic of St Petersburg University, author and screenwriter.
Vasily Zhukovsky’s famous quote "To pupil-winner from defeated teacher" strongly emphasizes undeniable and unique talent of Alexander Pushkin. This phrase reflects not only the recognition of the poet’s outstanding skill by his contemporaries, but also a turning point in history of Russian literature, which spoke the language of Pushkin.
Pushkin’s poetry differs significantly from other writers’. Alexander Pushkin not only creates inimitable beauty of Russian speech, but imbue it with new shades and sounds. There is no pupilage Pushkin’s creative path, his poems were mature from the very beginning, without any awkwardness of first steps and abrupt changes in the later stages of creativity. Even the grammatical deviations he makes are conscious artistic techniques rather than errors of ignorance.
Working on his works, Pushkin step by step brings the reader closer to the world of the poet-singer, which at first seems distant and unattainable. He excellently master the Byronic theme, reinterpreting the motifs of the famous British writer and filling them with his own unique content. This is particularly evident in his poem "Eugene Onegin."
Pushkin’s prose is in many ways written in the spirit of Walter Scott: an abstract narrator appears, and in The Queen of Spades several narrative projections emerge at once. At the same time, The Captain’s Daughter is often referred to as a work that shows the "chain reaction of evil." This idea is revealed through the fates of the characters, whose actions and mistakes inevitably lead to tragic consequences. Pushkin vividly demonstrates how violence and injustice become a destructive force capable of affecting entire generations.
Lecturer
Nina Shcherbak is Associate Professor in the Department of English Philology and Cultural Linguistics at St Petersburg University, Master of Arts (the United Kingdom), a writer and screenwriter. She is also a scriptwriter for science television shows, author of fifteen monographs, and books on linguistics, literature, language philosophy, and English literature.
The lecture will be held as part of the events to mark the 300th anniversary of St Petersburg University, the oldest university in Russia.
The meeting will be held online in Russian with simultaneous interpreting into Spanish.