From: Russian and East European Cultures at Hunter <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, Feb 7, 2019, 10:20 PM
Subject: Today's lecture by Dmitry Bykov at Hunter


Dear friends of Russian and East European Cultures at Hunter!

Thank you all who came today to Dmitry Bykov’s lecture at Hunter! We are sorry to have to send this email, but please accept our sincere apologies for the rather exclusive and otherwise unpleasant approach our guest speaker, unfortunately, assumed. The lecture was announced to be English by Mr. Bykov himself (the other option was to speak Russian with English translation). All our events are designed, first of all, for students of Hunter College and CUNY, who come from all kinds of backgrounds and speak at least 50 different languages in their homes. Clearly, they do not have to be fluent in Russian to attend the events – much as we, their professors of Russian language, literature and culture, would like them to. Our sizeable audience also includes students and colleagues from other disciplines, as well as the general New York public. This is why, if there is at least one person in the audience who does not understand Russian enough to benefit from the event intellectually and culturally, the event is in English or with an English translation. We are sorry about Mr. Bykov’s “compromise decision” to speak Russian upon hearing that there is indeed at least one such person in the auditorium (there were, of course, others, mainly students). We find unacceptable a format in which the guest speaker suggests that he retells his lecture in English – “or even in French” – “in a shorter form for our only single listener who does not understand Russian.” Nor do we think that it is such a “horrible hypocrisy” to talk about Russian literature in English, even when everyone around understands Russian.

We hope you join us for many more exciting events this semester!

https://www.reechunter.com/current-events.html

As always, we're looking forward to seeing you at Hunter!

Hunter College, CUNY
Division of Russian & Slavic Studies
Department of Classical & Oriental Studies
695 Park Ave, Suite 1425 HW
New York, NY 10065
Email: [email protected]