Colleghi e studenti sono cordialmente invitati

alla conferenza del Professor

Igor Vishnevetskiy

Russian State University for the Humanities

dal titolo:

A Russian Romantic Poet and Theorist in Italy.

The Forgotten Case of Stepan Shevyryov

che si terrà il giorno lunedì

19 maggio 2014 alle ore 16.00 (Aula Forti)

Dipartimento di Filologia Classica e Italianistica
(Via Zamboni 32)

The presentation will discuss a brief yet important episode in the long and mutually rewarding history of Russian-Italian cultural exchange — the two and a half years, which young Russian Romantic poet, translator, literary scholar, and critic Stepan Shevyryov (1806—1864) spent in Italy between 1829 and 1832.  Shevyryov’s keen interest in Italy’s medieval past and modern present resulted in his own, highly idiosyncratic project for Russian culture.  Based on what he had learned in Italy, Shevyryov came forward with a set of ideas which combined awareness of one’s own cultural heritage, longing for a new national epic, keen interest in “Old Europe”’s Christian art, strong anti-capitalist sentiment, support of national revolution, and rather paradoxical monarchism. Elements of this project will be traced through the uncensored versions of Shevyryov’s poems, which he composed in Italy (some of them still await publication), his verse translations from Dante and Tasso, the “Letters from Italy,” which he published in various Russian periodicals, and the lectures, which Shevyryov delivered upon his return at the Moscow Imperial University.  Special attention will be paid to Shevyryov’s unusually detailed and perceptive essay on Bologna’s Pinacoteca, which, he believed, could serve as a model for a future public art museum in Moscow.