We invite you to the lecture of prof. Zakhar Ishov (full-time lecture in English) titled “Dangerous Russian Poets and the story of their solidarity with the Polish cause: the case of Natalya Gorbanevskaya and Joseph Brodsky”. The lecture will take place on April 17th, 2024 (Wednesday) at 12:00 at the Chair of Jewish Studies (ul. Święta Jadwigi 3/4, Prof. J. Woronczak’s auditorium). The lecture will show a new perspective on the role of poetry as a vehicle of opposition to the oppressive regime. Of particular importance in the Wrocław context is the analysis of the work of Natalia Gorbaniewska, who, as we know, had special connections with Wrocław.
The lecture is also a masterclass for doctoral students of the Doctoral College of the Faculty of Letters.
Bio
Prof. Zakhar Ishov, literary scholar, translation expert, philosopher, world-class expert on the poetry of the Nobel Prize winner, Josif Brodsky. In 2008, he obtained a Ph.D. in English literature from the Free University of Berlin with a thesis entitled “Brodsky Translating Brodsky” (summa cum laude), and in 2015, he obtained a Ph.D. from Yale University on the basis of a thesis entitled “Joseph Brodsky and Italy” directed by the renowned Lithuanian poet and researcher, Tomas Venclova. He worked at the University of Tübingen as part of the Excellence Initiative program, and is currently a researcher at the Institute for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Uppsala University. Author of, among others, monograph Brodsky in English (Northwestern University Press, Evanston, Illinois, 2023) and articles in the best humanities journals in Europe and the USA (e.g. PMLA Cambridge, Comparative Literature Studies Penn State), winner of numerous grants (including the project titled “Dangerous Russian Poets”, Swedish Research Council, 2022). In 2009, he received the Charles Hall Grandgent Award from The Dante Society of America for his essay “Introduction to Poetry in the Form of Poetry: Dante Read by Mandelstam”. His translations of Josif Brodsky’s poems (in collaboration with the British poet Glyn Maxwell) were published by “The New York Review of Books” (2013).
Translated by Joanna Grabowiecka (student of English Studies at the University of Wrocław) as part of the translation practice.
