The Slavic Literature Pod

Show Notes:This week, Matt and Cameron explore Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1972 film Solaris. They talk genre, they talk the meaning of the soul, and they draw a couple points from — hold on, what do you mean he wrote a book about it? I did all this research and he just…he just wrote a book? Okay, that’s fine. Well, they’ll cover what he has to say, where they agree and disagree, and what it means to become human. Major themes: The only genre is film, ears: the road to the soul, “just be happy doing chores”02:43 - 1968, not 1969. The music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube. Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠ Socials: Instagram⁠ | Twitter⁠ | FacebookDslaviclitpod@gmail.com or call our voicemail at 209.800.3944Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Show Notes:This week, Matt and Cameron track the (alleged) Devil’s progress through Moscow through his debut at the Variety Theatre and beyond in Chapters 10-18 of Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita. Grab your hidden speculative currency and turn in to follow the aftermath of Woland’s arrival, his magic tricks, and — finally — the arrival of The Master into the plot. Major themes: Referential mania, a theoretical Margarita, Is the Soviet Man actually new?13:45 - Nathan for you clipEnding - Bojack and DanielThe music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube. Buy this book with our affiliate links on ⁠Bookshop⁠ or ⁠Amazon⁠!Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠ Socials: Instagram⁠ | Twitter⁠ | FacebookQuestions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at slaviclitpod@gmail.com or call our voicemail at 209.800.3944Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Pick up a copy of Drs. Karpukhin and Vergara’s edited collection of pedagogical essays, Reimagining Nabokov: Pedagogies for the 21st Century here!Show Notes:This week, Matt and Cameron tackle “Signs and Symbols” by Vladimir Nabokov and are joined in this effort by Drs. José Vergara and Sara Karpukhin. Dr. Vergara is both a returning podcast guest and an Assistant Professor of Russian on the Myra T. Cooley Lectureship at Bryn Mawr College, and Dr. Karpukhin is a Lecturer in Russian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Both of them, who co-edited a new collection on Nabokov which you can get here, shared a lot of insights on reading not just this piece, but on approaching Nabokov as a whole. Note: This podcast contains some discussions of suicide. Skip sections 5:10 - 5:21 and 34:40 - 34:52 if you would rather not listen to that.Major themes: Reparative epistemology, The ol' New Yorker switcheroo, Open access scholarship8:08 - “Symbols and Signs” in The New Yorker47:14 - Dr. Vergara’s student websiteThe music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube. Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠ Socials: Instagram⁠ | Twitter⁠ | FacebookQuestions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at slaviclitpod@gmail.com or call our voicemail at 209.800.3944Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Show Notes:This week, Matt and Cameron debut the first episode of a new series we’re calling “Office Hours.” Sit down with us as we catch up about our lives, talk about Matt’s thoughts on Reddit and bookstagram, and stray into Cameron’s fascination with a particular alternate history author. We recorded this episode while sipping on Espresso Martinis, per the request of our supporter Kaitlin.Major themes: What is fiction anyway?, Rodion “Richard” Raskolnikov, Suspicious Civil War literature2:59 - First mis-speak of the episode and I wasn’t even drunk yet. “IBM” not “IGM.”3:08 - A fun little tale of Hobby Lobby, stolen artifacts, and tangentially ISIS30:55 - Politely and Calmly Discussing 1984The music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube. Check out the work of Shae McMullin, who did our wonderful podcast art. Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠Socials: Instagram⁠ | Twitter⁠ | Facebook | ThreadsQuestions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at slaviclitpod@gmail.com or call our voicemail at 209.800.3944Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Show Notes:This week, Matt and Cameron kick off their next big read, The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, covering chapters one through nine. Join us as we talk about how the devil definitely doesn’t exist according to the USSR, how the devil definitely does exist according to the Devil, and the true story of the Gospels (at least, if you believe the Devil). Oh, also there’s a lot to say about Soviet life. And, somehow, all these features come together much more neatly than you’d expect. But you’ll have to tune in to learn how. Major themes: Speculating on currency, writing in the USSR, The Devil as chance02:31 - Our episode on Mikhail Bulgakov’s “Morphine”02:33 - Our episode on “Heart of a Dog” by Bulgakov11:08 - A quick background on the Komsomol39:58 - Check out our episode on Leviathan here42:38 - “Satan in Moscow: An Approach to Master and Margarita“ by A. C. Wright43:52 - “Neither God nor Devil: A New Theological Approach to Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita” by Hannah SchneiderThe music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube. Check out the work of Shae McMullin, who did our wonderful podcast art. Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠Socials: Instagram⁠ | Twitter⁠ | Facebook | ThreadsQuestions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at slaviclitpod@gmail.com or call our voicemail at 209.800.3944Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Show Notes:This week, Matt and Cameron dive into a work that’s been on the sidelines for far too long: The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy, along with the extremely helpful Dr. Tatyana Gershkovich. She is the author of Art in Doubt: Tolstoy, Nabokov, and the Problem of Other Minds (Northwestern UP, 2022), and essays published in PMLA, The Slavic and Eastern European Journal, the Journal of the History of Ideas, the Paris Review, and more. Come along with us to understand the unreliability of the narrator.Major themes: Moral Tracts, suspicious reading, bad marriagesThe music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube. Buy this book with our affiliate links on ⁠Bookshop⁠ or ⁠Amazon⁠!Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠ Socials: Instagram⁠ | Twitter⁠ | FacebookQuestions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at slaviclitpod@gmail.com or call our voicemail at 209.800.3944Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Show Notes:This week, Matt and Cameron dive into the short story “The Performance,” from Sergei Dovlatov’s book The Zone. Get ready to dive into the most underrepresented point-of-view in the Soviet camp system: the guards. Well, kind of. Get ready to get stagnant and talk a bit about the state of the Soviet Union in the 1970s, but mostly about a play in a prison camp where all the old Bolsheviks are played by prisoners. Ideological confusion abounds. Major themes: The real no-termers, dirty reality & brilliant falsehood, theater of absurdity06:29 - The Russians by Hedgewick Smith06:39 - Antiheroes in a Post-Heroic Age: Sergei Dovlatov, Vladimir Makanin, and Cold War Malaise by Angela Brintlinger08:12 - Part 1 of our two-part series on Zuleikha by Guzel Yakhina (I won’t link the second part here, because Part 2 has more listens than Part 1. Who are you people listening to just Part 2? Show yourselves. Explain.)8:15 - Our episode on Varlam Shalamov’s Kolyma Tales. 27:43 - Unfortunately it’s only available in Russian, but check out the Prep Guide for the episode on our website for a relevant except32:50 - Philosophy experts please don’t come for my neck. Also, for laypeople: you should be aware that this idea was not specifically applied to the progression of history, but was rather applied to gaining knowledge. The idea, however, later came to be applied more broadly by others. The music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube. Check out the work of Shae McMullin, who did our wonderful podcast art. Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠Socials: Instagram⁠ | Twitter⁠ | Facebook | ThreadsQuestions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at slaviclitpod@gmail.com or call our voicemail at 209.800.3944Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Show Notes:A quick note: this episode will contain some references to suicide throughout along with one mention of rape.  This week, Matt and Cameron quietly consider the movie Leviathan (2014), directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev, while standing on the edge of a cliff. Come along as they talk about a dismal family story that may or not have a lot to do with the biblical Book of Job and institutions of good and evil. Grab an entire bottle of vodka and your military surplus AK-style rifle, then tune in! Major themes: “It’s a bleak boy,” Job’s lament, God in silence01:36 - Watch This Tonight 2:26 - A little info on Marvin Heemeyer’s rampage49:45 - Check out our episode on Solzhenitsyn’s “Matryona’s House.”56:21 - I was actually thinking of “Roy Medvedev.” The music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube. Check out the work of Shae McMullin, who did our wonderful podcast art. Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠Socials: Instagram⁠ | Twitter⁠ | Facebook | ThreadsQuestions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at slaviclitpod@gmail.com or call our voicemail at 209.800.3944Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Show Notes:This week, Matt and Cameron get into something a little more modern with a short story from Ukrainian writer and translator Sophia Andrukhovych, “An Out-Of-Tune Piano, An Accordion.” Come join in as they debate the meaning of the fantasy or dream (or maybe terrifying reality?) of a woman named Viola as she stumbles upon a sort of danse macabre in the midst of worrying about her dying husband, Renat. Major themes: Dreams, Cats = good/bad?, “Diseased predator”02:04 - The White Chalk of Days26:45 - Sophia Andrukhovych In Dialogue With Orhan Pamuk28:58 - A Curse on Dostoevsky40:32 - Symphonie Fantastique41:13 - A composer, I should have said42:42 - Watch this Tonight w/ our own Matt GerasimovichThe music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube. Check out the work of Shae McMullin, who did our wonderful podcast art. Our links: Website | ⁠Discord⁠Socials: Instagram⁠ | Twitter⁠ | Facebook | ThreadsQuestions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at slaviclitpod@gmail.com or call our voicemail at 209.800.3944Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Nadezhda Khvoshchinskaya, author of the short story 'On the Way: A Sketch,' is discussed in this episode. The hosts talk about childhood, nostalgia, and the forgotten high-paid author of late 19th-century Russia.