Events

Ilia State University Institute of Social and Cultural Studies is organizing a public lecture "Literary origins of Georgian feast: Cosmopolitan poetics of national tradition" on June 24, Wednesday, 19:00, at ISU Book House "Ligamus" to be presented by Professor Harsha Ram of University of California (Berkeley). The lecture will be held in English, with simultaneous translation in Georgian.

Harsha Ram - Associate Professor of Department of Comparative Literature, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures of Berkley University (University of California). Harsha Ram's academic activity and interest is scattered over numerous disciplines, centuries and nearly half of the world, including Russian, Georgian, Indian and Italian literatures, as well as comparative modernism and nationalism, and imperialism and cosmopolitism theories. His works consider Russian and European romanticisms, symbolism and avant-garde. His recent publications include "The Imperial Sublime: A Russian Poetics of Empire" (2003). His forthcoming book is entitled "City of Crossroads: Tiflis Modernism and the Russian-Georgian Encounter".

"Literary origins of Georgian feast: Cosmopolitan poetics of national tradition"

By combination of festivity, drinking and toasting Georgian feast has gained status ofa national feature. But how unique the Georgian feast really is? It would seem that the Georgian toast practice isproduct a deep literary exchange that goes far beyond the Caucasus region and is pointing to the romantic poetry in Russian and British traditions. Study of this genealogy shows how "national" customs were shaped during nineteenth-century from the pagan social interactions between Russian and Georgian elites. Thus, my lecture is a contribution to the ongoing debate on correlations among national, imperial and cosmopolitan as it attempts to demonstrate how history of literature and philology can conduct a productive dialogue with the post-Soviet anthropology and "imperial return" of Russian historiography.

Time: 24 June, 19:00
Venue: Book house "Ligamus"

Attendance is free.