Tolstoj’s sincerity

Venue: Gargnano (Italy)
Period: April 7-9, 2010

The conference is organised to celebrate the centenary of Lev Tolstoj’s death and in this occasion  some of the best specialists from Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy will gather to attend the event.

The title, “Tolstoj’s sincerity”, focuses the attention on the idea of “sincerity” that Tolstoj himself judged as a central concept not only when referred to the ethic field but also to the aesthetic one, and for what pertains  to this conference, the literary one.
Some speakers will deal with Tolstoj’s attitude toward the concept of sincerity in general, underlining the writer’s strategies to adhere to sincerity in both his works and private life. Other speakers will focus on some characters of  Tolstoj’s novels and their attitude toward sincerity: Levin of Anna Karenina, the protagonist of  Resurrection or the freemason Bazdeev as a marginal character of War and Peace. Finally, other participants will speak about Tolstoj’s concept of sincerity as related to political issues (the serfs’ liberation, the peasants’ question) or scientific themes (natural history).

A wide part of the conference will be focused on Tolstoj’s personal and intellectual relationship with some of his contemporaries (Apollon Grigor'ev, Certkov, Leonid Andreev) on one hand, and on the reception of his works by the following Russian culture (Andrej Belyj, the first emigration) on the other. Lastly some speakers will analyze also Tolstoj’s success in Italy (relations and influences in the Papini, Prezzolini, Fogazzaro’s works, the Italian movies of the 1960’s based on Tolstoj’s novels, and so on).

For the speakers' list see the conference program (only in Italian and in Russian)

Department of Linguistic, Literary and Philological Studies
University of Milan
Mr. Damiano Rebecchini
Ms. Laura Rossi
address: via Festa del Perdono 7
20122 Milan, Italy
tel.: 0039.02.503.111
e-mail: Damiano.Rebecchini@unimi.it or Laura.Rossi@unimi.it
website: http://users.unimi.it/slavo/ (in Italian only)