Svetlana Cecovic - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Svetlana Cecovic

Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire, 2014

Čečovič Svetlana, Béghin Laurent. Quelques aspects de la présence littéraire russe dans les revue... more Čečovič Svetlana, Béghin Laurent. Quelques aspects de la présence littéraire russe dans les revues belges de la langue française de la fin du siècle. In: Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire, tome 92, fasc. 3, 2014. Langues et littératures modernes Moderne taal en lettrekunde. pp. 877-891

Quaestio Rossica, 2021

The role of Belgium in the reception of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s works in the West is far less known t... more The role of Belgium in the reception of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s works in the West is far less known than that of France. Eugène Hins (1839–1923), a philologist, freethinker, freemason, secretary of the Belgian section of the First International, and anarchist close to Мikhail Bakunin, was a major literary translator from Russian into French in Belgium in the second half of the nineteenth century. Hins, whose ideas of Russia and its culture were close to those of the French Catholic viscount Eugène-Melchior de Vogüé (1848–1910), wrote a novel entitled Les Confessions d’un assassin (Confessions of a Murderer) (1884–1885). After the Literary Awards Committee in Brussels suspected him of having plagiarised Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, the reasons which led Hins to “adapt” Dostoevsky’s novel for the Belgian cultural milieu suddenly emerged. This article focuses on Les Confessions d’un assassin in light of an unpublished document – a preface that Hins wrote in order to justify his enterprise. Just like his Parisian counterpart É. Halpérine-Kaminsky (1858–1936), translator of The Brothers Karamazov and admirer of E.-M. De Vogüé, Hins was convinced that Belgian readers were not able to understand Dostoevsky’s work. For that reason, it was necessary, according to Hins, to “recreate” Dostoevsky’s novels in a Belgian (Western European) context. However, Hins was not only the author of a “bourgeois” version of Crime and Punishment, but also one of the significant promoters of anarchism in Western Europe in the late nineteenth century. His anarchist views greatly influenced his “transfer” of Dostoevsky’s ideas to the West. In addition, this article highlights different forms of the reception and transformation of Dostoevsky’s works in France and Belgium.

Lendemains - Études comparées sur la France, Tuebingen Vol. 45, Iss. 177, (Dec 2020): 87-99., 2020

Thèse de doctorat, Université catholique de Louvain, 2016

Textyles Revue Des Lettres Belges De Langue Francaise, May 1, 2015

Revolutionary Russia, 2019

This article studies the images of Russia in French-speaking Belgium after 1917. It focuses on ... more This article studies the images of Russia in French-speaking Belgium after 1917. It focuses on a number of Belgian intellectuals and travellers to Russia: the socialist politician Jules Destrée; the journalist Pierre Daye who sympathized with fascism; Charles Sarolea, the Belgian consul in Edinburgh and a propagandist of the Belgian cause; the famous literary critic Louis Dumont-Wilden; and the (French) Jesuit Bishop Michel d’Herbigny, who oper- ated from Belgium. They all comply with the reigning Western image of Russia as the ‘fun- damental other’ (E.Adamovsky). However, despite the domination of clichés, Russia after 1917 was not only a timeless and unchangeable object of imagination. Russian émigrés such as princess Zinaida Schakhovskoy and the translator and critic Benjamin Goriély tried to overcome the polarization between Russia and the West and offer a conciliatory voice.

RLC - Revue de Litterature Comparée, 2018

The 1917 revolution triggered in France a new flow of images around 'the floating Russian soul' a... more The 1917 revolution triggered in France a new flow of images around 'the floating Russian soul' analysed by the Viscount Eugène-Melchior de Vogüé (1886). In Belgium, which was constantly affirming its Belgian cultural identity vis-à-vis Paris, Russia was the topic of various discourses and genres: travelogues, reports, theatrical performances, fiction. This article will shed light on the image of Russian emigration in the novel La Matriochka (1945) by Charles Plisnier (the first Belgian who won the prestigious Goncourt prize in 1937 for his novel False Passports ). Torn between communism and Catholicism, Plisnier created a series of both original and stereotypical images of Russia 'incarnated' by the main character of the novel, a curious Russian prince Ilya Ossokine.

in Martina Stemberger et Liudmila Chvedova (dir.) Littératures croisées: La langue de l'autre. Fragments d'un polylogue franco-russe (XXe-XXIe siècles). PUN-Éditions universitaires de Lorraine, 2017. pp,. 139-158., 2017

Among the emigrated Russian population, a large number of writers and critics participated in the... more Among the emigrated Russian population, a large number of writers and critics participated in the centenary celebration of the death anniversary of the great Russian poet, Alexandre Sergeevitch Pouchkine (1799-1837). The Russian princess, Zinaïda Schakhovskoy (1906-2001), a remarkable mediator of Russian culture in the literary and ideological circles of Brussels and Paris, played an important role in that event. Her work and flexibility in relations with representatives of different ideological and religious movements contributed to diminish stereotypes descending from African origins of the great Russian poet. In this article an interaction between the myth of an “African Pouchkine” and the image of Russia in Belgian culture will be further analyzed.

Pedro Aullón de Haro, Alfonso Silván (Eds.) Translatio y cultura, Madrid, Colección: Clásicos Dykinson, 2015

The reception of Russian literature in the French-speaking world since the end of the XIXth centu... more The reception of Russian literature in the French-speaking world since the end of the XIXth century is not a phenomenon strictly related to France. Indeed, the role of Belgium in this process illustrates some specificities, as is shown in the example of « La Cité Chrétienne », a periodical of Catholic, Christian-Democrat orientation. The presence of different ideologies makes the « Russian question » very delicate, especially in the cases of Vladimir Soloviev and Alexandre Pouchkine. Translations of their work in French and critical works about them reveal a phenomenon of appropriation by mediators like princess Zinaïda Shakhovskoy or Michel D’Herbigny, a catholic bishop. The reception of Russian literature is also complexified by many considerations related to the discussions on the fascist and communist movements, which appear in the periodical within the context of the Personalist movement, an ideology which was developing in France at that time.

Slavica Bruxellensia , 2014

Benjamin Goriély, traducteur et publiciste, a joué un rôle important dans la médiation de la pen... more Benjamin Goriély, traducteur et publiciste, a joué un rôle important dans la médiation de la pensée russe en Belgique dans l’entre-deux-guerres, en particulier entre 1925 et 1930. Grâce à son séjour à Moscou pendant la révolution de 1917 et à Berlin par la suite, il devint un acteur important des rapports triangulaires Belgique-Allemagne-Russie. Sa collaboration avec le périodique étudiant L’Universitaire et les acteurs principaux du mouvement prolétarien belge comme Augustin Habaru, Pierre Hubermont, Charles Plisnier et Albert Ayguesparse lui permettent d’accéder au Drapeau Rouge, le quotidien communiste, ainsi qu’aux revues importantes (quoique éphémères) comme Prospections et Tentatives. Progressivement, Goriély devient un des pionniers de la littérature prolétarienne en Belgique autour d’un modèle soviétique. Le futurisme russe qui occupe une place privilégiée dans le travail de ce médiateur, il le considère comme un mouvement transitoire vers la littérature prolétarienne. À part ses travaux sur la littérature et la révolution russes, Goriély suivait attentivement la littérature allemande et inspira son épouse Hélène Temerson-Goriély, pour qu’elle consacre, à l’Université Libre de Bruxelles, une première thèse de doctorat qui porta sur Carl Sternheim, l’écrivain expressionniste allemand. Son interprétation précieuse du futurisme russe et des expressionnistes allemands exprime la nécessité d’une littérature entièrement nouvelle et révolutionnaire. Malgré son départ définitif à Paris en 1930, suite à la mauvaise fortune du mouvement prolétarien en Belgique, le travail de Goriély a largement contribué à un éclairage unique du phénomène de la « poésie révolutionnaire ».

Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire. Belgisch tijdschrift voor philologie en geschiedenis., 2014

France discovered Russian literature at the end of the 19th century. The articles on the main Rus... more France discovered Russian literature at the end of the 19th century. The articles on the main Russian novelists published by E.M. de Vogüé in La revue des deux Mondes between 1883 and 1885 mark the beginning of the French fascination with Russian culture. Although scholars paid very little attention to it, the same phenomenon occurred in French-speaking Belgium at the same time. The Belgian reviews of the Fin de siècle published a large number of translations from Russian and many studies about Russian writers. Some cultural mediators played an important role in the Belgian reception of Russian authors. Thanks to their work, the Belgian readers were able to improve their knowledge of Russian literature.

Books by Svetlana Cecovic

Presses Universitaires de Louvain, 2018., 2018

Les transferts culturels de la Russie à la France et à la Belgique – et inversement – furent nomb... more Les transferts culturels de la Russie à la France et à la Belgique – et inversement – furent nombreux à la fin du XIXe siècle et au début du siècle suivant. Ce volume s'attache à défricher le terrain, encore peu exploré, des transferts s’effectuant le long de cet axe géographique, et ce dans le contexte plus large des échanges européens.
Les transferts culturels de la Russie à la France et à la Belgique – et inversement – furent nombreux à la fin du XIXe siècle et dans les premières décennies du siècle suivant. Ils touchèrent à des domaines aussi variés que la littérature, la philologie, le théâtre ou la philosophie. Ce volume s'attache à défricher le terrain, encore peu exploré, des transferts s’effectuant le long de cet axe géographique, et ce dans le contexte plus large des échanges européens.
La circulation dans la durée des « grands classiques », notamment Dostoïevski et Tolstoï, constitue un volet important de cet ouvrage. D’autre part des figures éminentes de la médiation intellectuelle belgo-franco-russe, comme Nicolas Gronsky, Zinaïda Schakovskoy ou Maria Vesselovskaïa (la traductrice de Georges Eekhoud, Franz Hellens et Georges Rodenbach), sont mises en exergue.
Enfin, et au-delà des études de cas abordées, on s’attachera à une réflexion sur la problématique plus vaste de la médiation culturelle. Le lien particulier tissé avec les images d’un pays transmises par les médiateurs (exilés, traducteurs, enseignants, critiques ou voyageurs) fait ainsi l’objet d’une attention spécifique, de même que les modalités de la réception comme processus de « resémantisation ».

Book Reviews by Svetlana Cecovic

Zbornik Matice srpske za slavistiku, Novi Sad, 97, pp. 282-284. UDC 821.09(082)(049.32), 2020