The Absurdists

The more I think about my trip, the more I find myself thinking about the really amazing wonderful things and being able to overlook the rough or unpleasant parts. Yay.

One of the most surprising results of the program for me was how it revitalized my love of Russian literature and threw me back to my sophomore year of college when I was devouring everything I read in Sasha’s literature classes. We didn’t get a chance to read tons of writing by Russian writers, but there were lectures and Russian professors and Russian writers at the conference and it was just so… refreshing.

One lecture, on the Absurdists, was given by Eugene Ostashevsky. He read the poem Kuprianov and Natasha by Aleksandr Vvedensky and before the poem was done I knew I’d found a new favorite. He’s one of only a few people translating the Absurdists right now, and he told us that it was a good field to get into because it’s more or less untouched, translation-wise. The writings he shared with us were amazing, as were the stories and the history of the Absurdists. Among the other writers in the circle (he said there were only six Russian absurdists) were Daniil Kharms and Nikolai Zabolotsky, neither of whose poetry I’ve had the chance to read yet.

It’s strange… before I left I was writing to professors in the Women’s Studies department here telling them I wanted to minor in it, go to graduate school for body studies and that I’d realized my real passion was Women’s Studies (more specifically, Fat Studies). While I still love fat studies and I’m still a fat lib activist, I think I’ve fallen in love with Russian literature all over again, and it feels great.