The Borderlander - Tomas Venclova

We are delighted to dedicate the coming two years to the popularization of Tomas Venclova's life and work. He is a citizen of Lithuania, our closest neighbor. Josif Brodski once called him "the son of three literatures, and a grateful one, too" reflecting "that he preserved for himself "three mother tongues": Lithuanian, Russian and Polish".

Notwithstanding all the ravages of nationalism and communism in the 20th century, Venclova remained a true citizen of Vilnius, striving to preserve the multicultural traditions on which the greatness of the city is founded, and working tirelessly to foster ongoing and ever more profound intercultural dialogue.

Although he thereby exposed himself to petty annoyances, whether from the state or the ethnic majority, he used his masterly pen to defend those who were weaker, forgotten, in the minority or unjustly accused. It cost him much to remain a good neighbor of eastern and central-eastern European dissenters, Poles, Jews, Home Army soldiers, Russians, members of ethnic minorities, and followers of different traditions. Together with Czeslaw Milosz ż in the milieu of the Parisian Kultura, and later in our young democracies, he has spared no effort to repair the broken-down Polish-Lithuanian bridge.

Professor Venclova"s academic career as historian and literature scholar has been mostly dedicated to the works of these "neighbors": Alexander Wat, Marina Cvetaeva and other Polish and Russian writers. A professor at Yale University, he lectures on both Polish and Russian literature. He has also published numerous brilliant translations from these literatures into Lithuanian.

But first and foremost, he is a great poet, present in our literature in Poland thanks to the wonderful translations of Stanislaw Baranczak. The close cooperation of both dissidents and emigrés, best known in Poland from the pages of Zeszyty Literackie ("Literary Notebooks"), is yet another aspect of the mutuality of fate which extends throughout the life and work of Tomasz Venclova.

The conference devoted to the new Borderland laureate Tomas Venclova will take place from 30 August to 2 September 2001 at Borderland House, the White Synagogue of Sejny and the Monastery of Wigry.

Participants will include friends and researchers from Lithuania, Russia, Israel, the USA, Poland and other countries. There will be poetry readings, exhibitions, theater performances, and film shows. These will adorn the central event, the conference "Poet Tomas Venclova and the Multicultural Dialogue of Central and Eastern Europe".

Program of meeting

SEJNY, WIGRY
30 August -2 September 2001

20:00 welcoming dinner (Monastery at Wigry lakeside)
22:00 film presentation on Tomas Venclova

8:00-9:00 breakfast (Monastery at Wigry lakeside)
10:00 opening and the first seminar session: "Tomas Venclova - in the context of the history the intercultural dialog in Central and Eastern Europe" (White Synagogue in Sejny)
14:00 lunch (Lithuanian House in Sejny)
15:30 second seminar session (White Synagogue in Sejny)
19:30 dinner (Monastery at Wigry lakeside)
20:30 "Homage a Tomas Venclova" by Stasys Eidrigevicius (Monastery at Wigry lakeside)
22:00 evening poetry reading dedicated to Tomas Venclova (Monastery at Wigry lakeside)

8:00-9:00 breakfast (Monastery at Wigry lakeside)
10:00 third seminar session (White Synagogue in Sejny)
14:00 lunch (Lithuanian House in Sejny)
16:00 "Winter Conversation" - Tomas Venclova authorial evening (White Synagogue in Sejny)
17:30 ceremony of awarding Tomas Venclova the title "Borderlander" (White Synagogue in Sejny)
18:00 concert dedicated to the Laureate (White Synagogue in Sejny)
20:30 ceremonial dinner (Monastery at Wigry lakeside)

9:00 breakfast (Monastery at Wigry lakeside)
10:30 farewell meeting with Tomas Venclova

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Program of seminar: Tomas Venclova - Poet, History and Multicultural Dialogue in Central-Eastern Europe

Ludmila Aleksiejewa (Moscow): Co-operation between Moscow and Lithuanian Helsinki Groups
Natalia Gorbaniewska (Paris): Polish as an Underground Esperanto in Eastern Block
Natalia Trauberg (Moscow): Some Memories of the 60s in Lithuania
Georgij Jefremov (Moscow): Dignity as a Form of Spiritual Life
Olga Revzina (Moscow): A Case of Tomas Venclova: Personality and Science
Valentina Brio (Jerusalem): Contexts of Tomas Venclova's Poetry
Rimvidas Šilbajoris (Columbus/Ohio): The Beginning of the Word After the End of Hope in Tomas Venclova Poetry
Bronius Savukinas (Vilnius): Social and Cultural Aspects of Tomas Venclova's Poetry

Donata Mitaite (Vilnius): The Metaphysical Dimension of Tomas Venclova's Poetry
Algis Kaleda (Vilnius): Tomas Venclova as an Initiator of Polish-Lithuanian Literary Bonds: A New Stage
Marcelius Martinaitis (Vilnius): Poetry of Tomas Venclova in a Context of Lithuanian Poetry
Victor Kulle (Moscow): Polylogue of Cultures: the Importance of Venclova's Work for Contemporary Russian Poetry
Evgienij Rein (Moscow): Brodsky and Venclova - poetic connections
Klaudia Sinnig (Moscow-Berlin): Tomas Venclova's Poetry as a Stoic Equilibrism
Anna Nasalska (Lublin): The Poetic Geography of Tomas Venclova
Alina Kuzborska (Olsztyn): The Poetic Language of Tomas Venclova
Paweł Huelle (Gdansk): Meditation on a Poem and the Poet

Alina Kowalczykowa (Warsaw): About the Correspondence of Alexander Wat
Stefan Chwin (Gdansk): The Mystery of the "Good Evil"
Nikolaj Kotrelev (Moscow): A Solovyev's Journey to Vilna
Svetlana Evdokimova (Petersburg-Providence): About Chekhov
Vladimir Golstein (New Haven): Cultural Subtext and Poetic Structure of Sophia Parnok's "Trudno, trudno, brat..."
Julia Brodovskaja (Petersburg): Platonic and Neoplatonic Motives in Tsvetaeava's "Poema Kontsa"
Tatjana Nikolskaja (Petersburg): Tomas Venclova and Ilia Zdanevich as Borderlanders
Silvija Velaviciene (Vilnius): Tomas Venclova and National Library of Lithuania
Ilze Eglite (Riga): The Influence of Tomas Venclova's Work for the Democracy in Latvia