Join us on November 4 at 11 am for the virtual Sawchen Lecture Series, featuring Ilya Vinkovetsky of Simon Fraser University.
View the recording of this talk here:
Title: “Using Literature in History, and History in Literature”
Abstract: This talk recounts how, in teaching history courses, I have drawn on works of literature — most notably the novels of Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and Hadji Murat. My conviction is that historical literature can provide a particularly effective gateway to historical study. Similarly, historical context can enhance and enrich the study of literature.
Bio: Ilya Vinkovetsky is associate professor in the History Department at Simon Fraser University. His book Russian America: An Overseas Colony of a Continental Empire dealt with Alaska as a colony within the Russian Empire, the relations between Russian colonists and North American First Nations, and the reasons for the decision to sell Alaska to the United States in the 1860s. He has also written about nation-building in the Balkans following the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878. His current work examines the history of Russia’s roads and transportation networks before the advent of the railroad.
