In October Professors József Goretity and Olga Szucs form the Institute of Slavic Studies of the University of Debrecen (Hungary) gave lectures at Voronezh State University. Foreign lecturers were invited to VSU on the initiative of the Culture and Education Centre of VSU.
The first lecturer, the Director of the Institute, literary historian, Professor József Goretity who in 2014 was awarded the medal of A.S. Pushkin for his translations of the works by Sergey Dovlatov, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Andrey Platonov, Viktor Erofeev, Yuriy Polyakov, and other Russian writers told the students from the Faculty of Philology about the peculiarities in understanding and perception of contemporary Russian literature by Hungarian readers.
"The professor's lecture which was addressed to the fourth-year students aroused their genuine interest. The guest told the students about the history of Hungarian translations of literary works created by Russian authors, his career as a translator, and difficulties which both a translator and a researcher of contemporary Russian literature are faced with. It was great to know that in Hungary Russian literature, according to József Goretity, is represented in a more interesting and broad way than, for example, German or French literature. In recent years the attention of our guest has been attracted by realistic prose writers popular in Russia such as Oleg Pavlov, Roman Senchin, Zakhar Prilepin, and Yuriy Polyakov. The professor's fluent Russian ensured interest among the student audience, which was able to appreciate not only the lecturer's high level of knowledge, but also his wit. On the whole, the meeting between the Director of the Institute of Slavic Studies and VSU philologists proves the efficiency and utility of such literary contacts," said Professor Tamara Nikonova, the Head of the Department of Russian Literature of XX–XXI Centuries, the Theory of Literature and Folklore.
The Dean of the Faculty of Philology, Professor Olga Berdnikova was glad to hear that Russian literature is in such demand in Hungary:
"The topic of the lecture is of great interest now. Russian and Hungarian philologists agree in their assessment of contemporary Russian literature in various ways. It was especially great to know that Hungarians show genuine interest in the literary works written by Russian authors."
The speech of the second lecturer, the Head of the Scientific Society named after N.A. Dobrolyubov, Dr. habil. in Philosophy, Professor Olga Szucs fully demonstrated the speaker's extensive field of expertise: culture economics, contemporary art and literature, management studies, postmodern culture, philosophical and social problems of globalisation, Internet aesthetics, postmodern aesthetics, art philosophy, art psychology, and psychoanalysis. The lecture which was delivered at the Faculty of Philosophy and Psychology of VSU naturally combined economic, social, political and art issues.
"Olga Szucs's lecture was devoted to the current problems of today's world. The lecturer covered the main lines of development in culturological and philosophical thought, as well as social and cultural tendencies in modern politics. It was particularly interesting to know the differences between Russian and Western philosophy in terms of the current social and political situation," commented Alisa Kostyuk, a second-year master's degree student of the Faculty of Philosophy and Psychology.
