When: Monday, October 30, 2023, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PMWhere: Montagu Lecture Theatre, Graduate Centre (GC601) Mile End Road London E1 4NS United Kingdom
The Many Voices of Ukraine: A Multicultural Literary Space in the Context of Empire and War - Dr Uilleam Blacker (UCL)
Today, as in the past, Ukrainian culture is one of the main targets of Russian imperialist aggression, with museums and monuments destroyed or damaged, artworks stolen or lost forever, and people tortured and executed for wearing blue and yellow ribbons. This organised and coordinated destruction of the Ukrainian culture is not unforeseen, but, argues Blacker, continues a centuries-old tradition of oppression and a systematic obliteration of the Ukrainian language and culture throughout the Soviet Union and the Russian empire. In the face of ongoing aggression, Blacker's latest research puts a spotlight on the rich, multicultural and multi-layered literary and cultural heritage of Ukraine.
About the Speaker: Uilleam Blacker
Uilleam Blacker is Associate Professor of Ukrainian and East European Studies at UCL SSEES. He is the author of Memory, the City and the Legacy of World War II in East Central Europe: Ghosts of Others (2019) and co-author of Remembering Katyn (2012). His current research, which is funded by a Leverhulme Research Fellowship, explores Ukraine as a multi-lingual literary landscape in the 19th and 20th centuries. He is also a translator of Ukrainian literature and has published translations in, among others, The White Review, Modern Poetry in Translation, Words Without Borders and London Review of Books.