Russia in American Literature 

British Library – 13 July 2017

2017 will mark the anniversary of the Russian Revolution, one of the defining political events of the past century. The conference ‘Russia in American Literature’ aims to explore the literary relationship between Russia and the United States during the long twentieth century. From the influence of Soviet literary criticism on the American writers associated with the Left during the 1930s, to the spy fictions of the Cold War, we aim to examine how the politics and culture of Russia and the Soviet Union have been represented and reimagined in American literary texts.

The conference is a companion event to the British Library’s summer 2017 exhibition ‘Russian Revolution: Hope, Tragedy, Myths’. Subjects could include (but are not limited to):

-Parallels between the Russian and American traditions

-The influence/impact of Russian literature on American writers

-Dostoevsky and American literature

-Representations of Russia in émigré literature

-US debates around literary models and ideas such as Socialist Realism, Revolutionary

Romanticism and proletarian literature

-American travel narratives of Russia

-Writers and McCarthyism

-Cold War literature, including popular fiction, science fiction and spy novels

Keynote speaker: Dr Sue Currell (University of Sussex)
Please email Mercedes.Aguirre@bl.uk with any questions about the event.