Meeting with Olga Chiliaeva
Session presentation
For its third session of the year, the "Observatoire du sensible" seminar welcomes playwright Olga Chiliaeva, her translator Pascale Melani, for a discussion of the play 28 jours, tragédie du cycle menstruel, recently published by Sampizdat. The discussion will be held in the presence of the publisher, Antoine Nicolle, and will be accompanied by a reading directed by Elena Gordienko, co-artistic director of the Lioubimovka festival, and Cécile Geindre, professional actress.
General presentation of the Seminar
The invasion of Ukraine in which Russia engaged on February 24, 2022 is prompting new reflections in a variety of research fields, including history, political science, sociology and memorial studies. This aggression raises questions about the deep-rooted, long-lasting processes that led to its acceptance and support among a significant part of the Russian population, as well as to the widespread use of war crimes (murder of civilians, use of rape as a weapon of war, pillaging). At a time when our gaze is riveted on the battlefields and the exactions as such, a reflection is emerging on the systemic nature of a violence that manifests itself not only on the military field, but also in a more diffuse way in public discourse as well as in the private sphere, notably against women and minorities. To provide food for thought, we propose to examine the traces that can be perceived of this violence through the echoes it elicits from the pens of writers.
This "observatory" is designed initially to open up a space for dialogue on the occasion of a cycle of meetings with contemporary authors invited to share the view they take of Russian society in their texts. In the course of these encounters, we propose to explore contemporary literature in order to "take the pulse" of this society, to feel its particular atmosphere in the Putin era of the war years and those that preceded. Indeed, literature can help us to grasp certain phenomena and developments in society, through the sometimes direct evocation of decriminalized and trivialized violence, as well as through revealing "little nothings" (poustiaki): details of everyday life, snippets of conversations overheard, behaviors observed. A special place will be given to women's words and views, not least because violence against women, pre-existing and observed over the long term, is part of the strategies of destruction in this war, and seems to nourish in Russia a symbolic and rhetorical arsenal reinvested in the public discourse on war.
The writings of the authors invited to this cycle of encounters will help to build a corpus on the basis of which a collective research project is to be constructed in a second phase.
For this new season, the Observatoire du sensible becomes an interlaboratory cycle, organized by the UMR Eur'Orbem (Sorbonne Université/CNRS) in partnership with the ULR CECILLE (Université de Lille) and the EA CREE (Inalco).
Seminar program
- Thursday, March 13, 2025 : Meeting with Vera BOGDANOVA (Toxic season for fetuses, Actes Sud, 2024) and her translator Laurence FOULON.
- Wednesday, April 16: Meeting with Alexeï VOÏNOV (Hiver sans neige, Éditions du bout de la ville, 2025) and his translator Guilhem POUSSON.
- Tuesday, June 24, 2025: Meeting with Polina BARSKOVA (Tableaux vivants, Éditions Noir sur blanc, 2025) and her translator Marianne GOURG-ANTUSZEWICZ (to be confirmed).
Organization
- Sylvia CHASSAING (CREE, Inalco)
