Oct 25
Literature of the Polygon: A Woman’s Account of Nuclear Testing in Kazakhstan
Fri, October 25, 2024
• 4:30pm
- 6:00pm (1h 30m) • LDC 314
A talk by Diane Nemec Ignashev, Class of 1941 Professor of Russian and the Liberal Arts, Emerita, in celebration of her retirement.
In 1949–1989 Soviet scientists conducted 456 nuclear tests at the Semipalatinsk Test Site (Polygon) located in an area Soviet security considered uninhabited, but Kazakhs revere as the seat of indigenous Kazakh culture. Since 2017 Kazakh writer Saule Doszhan (1959-) has devoted her talent to informing fellow Kazakhs and the world of the devastating effects of radiation poisoning that resulted from nuclear testing, combined with the socio-economic hardships of newly independent Kazakhstan in the 1990s, especially as experienced by Kazakh women. Professor Nemec Ignashev has completed a translation of Doszhan’s novel, tentatively titled Ayaulim of the Forty Candles, from Kazakh into English. Her talk will address the vision of Kazakh life Doszhan created for Kazakh readers, problems of translation, and the serendipitous route by which the writer and translator found each other.
from Russian Department
Event Contact: Laura Goering