Zen Buddhism short stories by Jerome David Salinger
St Petersburg University and its Representative Office in Barcelona invite you to an online lecture on the famous collection of nine short stories by Jerome David Salinger, published in 1953. The lecture will be delivered by Nina Shcherbak, Candidate of Philology.
One of the most famous American writers of the 20th century, Jerome David Salinger preferred solitude to publicity, lived a secluded life and never gave interviews. To better understand what he wanted to talk to the reader in his works, it is important to know that the author was a follower of Zen Buddhism, a religious and philosophical doctrine based on meditation. Through meditative practices, each person is able to find his or her own path to enlightenment, revealing the true meaning of existence.
J.D. Salinger became interested in Zen philosophy after the end of World War II. The post-war period was marked by a complete collapse of strength and hope, and Zen philosophy is characterised by a resolute acceptance of life without any desire to bring explanation to it. For J.D. Salinger himself, the teachings of Zen would become one way of overcoming the mental disorder he suffered after taking part in the war effort.
His Nine Stories break the usual pattern of cause and effect. The cycle is based on the Zen kōan ’One Hand’, which among other kōan riddles was developed by preachers to awaken intuition in their disciples, a shift from formal-logical thinking to poetic-associative thinking.
You know the sound of two hands clapping;
tell me, what is the sound of one hand?
Hakuin Ekaku
In his stories, J.D. Salinger generalises the emotional, mental and spiritual life of human beings, reflecting the main range of human moods, experiences and passions, thereby likening the work of art to organic nature (or, in terms of ancient Indian philosophy, to ‘the city of nine gates’). The ancient Indian interpretation above all points to the structural peculiarity of J.D. Salinger’s prose, his preference for the mirror-isomorphic form, the juxtaposition of disparate events and the likening of a work of art to nature and natural laws beyond human comprehension.
During our next lecture, we will discuss in detail the nine stories by Jerome David Salinger, after the publication of which he announced his retirement from literature at the height of his career.
Speaker
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.