Title: When Does the Past End? Representation of the Middle Ages in Contemporary Eastern European Cultures
Lecturer: Adelina Angusheva (Research Fellow in Russian and East European Studies, The University of Manchester)
Chairperson: FAN Jing (Professor of Comparative Literature, East China Normal University)
Date: 2 pm, March 30th, 2016 (Wednesday)
Venue: Room 5303, Building of School of Humanities, Minhang Campus, ECNU
Sponsor: Si-mian Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities, ECNU
Abstract of the Lecture:
When does the Past End? Is it only the course of time and generational change that mark a certain period as finished? If so, why do we constantly evoke the past in scholarly studies, literary works, films, visual art, museums, and even merchandise and advertisements? What kind of cultural processes do we trigger when using the images of the past in a contemporary context? I address these questions with specific reference to contemporary uses of the Middle Ages by examining the intersection of three different cultural discourses: those of history as science and educational practice; of artistic endeavours in cinema, visual arts and literature; and of popular commercial practices (e.g. advertisement). My task is to present the common patterns and trends, as well as the distinctive features in the uses and incorporation of medieval past in various national cultural contexts in Eastern Europe.
Brief Introduction of the Lecturer:
Dr. Adelina Angusheva is since 2007Research Fellow in Russian and East European Studies, The University of Manchester; 2005-2007 Lecturer (0.2 FTE), Department of European Languages and Cultures, Lancaster University;2002-2005 Part-Time Teaching Assistant at the Department of European Languages and Cultures and Research Fellow and Part-Time Teaching Assistant at the History Department, Lancaster University; 2000-2002 Andrew Mellon Research Fellow, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of Toronto; 1995-2000 Senior Assistant Professor in Medieval Slavic Studies, Sofia University. Her publications include: 1. Gadatelnite knigi v starobălgarskata literatura [Books of Prognostication in Mediaeval Bulgarian Literature], Sofia: Vreme, 1996. 2. Starobălgarska literatura [Mediaeval Bulgarian literature], Sofia: Anubis, 1998. As a native speaker of Bulgarian, she has near native command of English, Macedonian and Russian, Latin, ancient Greek and old Church Slavonic as major tools of research and fair command of Serbian Croatian, French and reading knowledge of Polish, Spanish, and Italian.