The Cultural and Education Section of the British Embassy in Moscow and Yasnaya Polyana, the Estate Museum of Leo Tolstoy, collaborated again to organize the 4th annual British Literature Today Seminar which took place at Yasnaya Polyana on 18-21 July 2019.
The seminar was first held in 2016 as part of the UK-Russia Year of language and literature. Click on the following links for videos about the seminar in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
This year’s seminar was part of the UK-Russia Year of Music. It explored the deep and rich connections between literature and music, as two art forms that inspire, influence and nourish each other.
During a programme of ‘in conversation’ sessions, panel discussions and practical seminars, the participants explored the intersection of music and literature, including music journalism and non-fiction, biography, and interdisciplinary work uniting music and text, including libretti. Special attention was be paid to poetry – page, performance and song – with poets whose work is connected with music. The participants also examined music in fiction, as a creative influence for authors, a structural or rhetorical device, and a means of codifying aesthetic or political values.
The seminar brought together six noteworthy British authors and fifty Russian participants with a professional interest in publishing, translation, creative writing, literary criticism, academic studies, journalism, musicology or cross-disciplinary work.
The programme included each of the British authors in conversation with the chair, panel discussions and practical sessions, as well as a guided tour around the Yasnaya Polyana estate and a social programme.
Moderator of discussion – Yury Saprykin.