Global Literature Online Book Group: Session Six with the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies

 

 

Online book discussion for educators and the general public on The Accompanist with Professor Julie Buckler and the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies.  Written right before the height of Stalin's purges by a Russian émigré living in Paris, this novella explores the tangled relationship between an opera singer, her husband, and her accompanist.  The accompanist of the title is Sonechka, an 18-year-old girl, talented but impoverished and self-deprecating by reason of her lowly origin. She is abruptly lifted from her bleak life in St. Petersburg when a famous soprano, Maria Travin, employs her as a traveling companion.  This books offers insight to Russian literary style, life in the USSR as both a have and a have-not, as well as the Russian émigré lifestyle of the 1930s.  

 

Session Format

The online session will include a combination of presentation and discussion. It will be conducted in an Adobe Connect virtual classroom space and can be accessed from any computer equipped with the latest version of Flash. An external headset and webcam is encouraged but not required for participation. Before a session test your internet connection and version of Flash for compatibility with AdobeConnect at this diagnostic link. Drop-in orientations to the virtual classroom space will be provided. The session will include a chance to discuss the novel with fellow educators and talk live with a specialist in Russian history.  

Register for this program.

Pre-Reading

Participants are required to complete read the novel before the session. The sessions is free, but the book is not provided. The Accompanist  is available via online book sellers and library systems.   This event is part of an ongoing global literature online book group. A partnership of international study centers on Harvard's campus, this online reading series for K-12 educators explores literature from five global regions: Africa, Latin America, Russia, the Middle East, and the Islamic World. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to discuss works of global literature with experts and authors in monthly, online conversations. http://cmes.fas.harvard.edu/k-12-resources/global-literature-online-book-group-educators. 

Contact: Anna Mudd
Sponsors: Harvard Committee on African Studies, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program at Harvard, Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies Outreach Center

As a Title VI National Resource Center, CMES is partially funding this program with U.S. Department of Education grant funds. The content of this program does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department of Education.