In November 2022, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora in Brazil hosted Russian Literature and Philosophy: An International Symposium on Religion, Nationalism and Dissidence, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Brazil, November 2022
A review by Bradley Huber Underwood:
Between November 22–24, 2022 scholars of Russian literature, philosophy, and religion descended on the midsized Brazilian town of Juiz de Fora from all over South America, North America, and Europe. The conference was held at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora and co-sponsored by the Northwestern University Initiative for the Study of Russian Philosophy and Religious Thought. Juiz de Fora, nestled amid grassy hills situated three and a half hours north of Rio de Janeiro’s forested mountains, did much to charm its visitors, who convened to discuss the weighty matters of Russian culture in the context of the authoritarianism and violence of our times.
Photo of Rio de Janeiro. Image Credit: Bradley Huber Underwood.
The conference was organized by Professor Jimmy Sudario Cabral of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora, in collaboration with Susan McReynolds of Northwestern University. Cabral stated over a dinner of typically sumptuous Brazilian meats that the conference’s timing was the most important factor in determining the conference’s theme. Of course, the current reality of the Russian invasion of Ukraine was on the forefront of everyone’s mind. One of the goals of the conference was to consider the ways in which Russian religion, literature and philosophy were being used by the Russian government to justify its aims in Ukraine. At the same time, the conference also sought to reflect on how Russian literary, philosophical, and religious traditions can provide intellectual resources to critique and counter Russia’s current imperialist ambitions.
The relevance of the conference’s theme must also be understood in light of Brazil’s recent political events. Several weeks prior to the conference, the former president Jair Bolsonaro lost a highly contested and controversial election to which he has yet to concede. During his years as president, Bolsonaro cut funding for public or “federal” universities, often citing the same reasons which Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, and other authoritarian leaders invoke to justify their power: nationalism, populism, and vague quasi-religious notions of “traditional values.” Professor Cabral estimated that during Bolsonaro’s presidency the funds generally allotted to the Federal University of Juiz de Fora were cut in half. Religion, nationalism, and dissent were anything but esoteric subjects for most of the Brazilian scholars in attendance.
The first panel, “Public Orthodox Theology in the Face of War,” set the tone for the conference. Professor Randall Poole opened with a paper that outlined the Russian Orthodox Church’s official statements on human rights over the past twenty years. Poole argued that the Moscow Patriarchate under Bishop Kirill (Gundiaev) has mishandled Russian Orthodoxy’s otherwise venerable tradition of universal human dignity in a way that helped to justify rather than to resist the war. Metropolitan Job (Getcha) of the Ecumenical Patriarchate followed Poole with an insightful explanation of how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine violates Eastern Orthodoxy’s tradition of inquiry into the nature of just war.
Photo of Randall Poole preparing for presentations at the conference. Image Credit: Bradley Huber Underwood.
Later that day, Professors Caryl Emerson, Gary Saul Morson, and Paul Contino formed a panel on “Ethics, Dissidence, and Russian Literature.” Caryl Emerson argued that the Russian literary tradition is at its best when seeking to articulate alternative worldviews of dynamic, sideways movement, instead of top-down, totalizing ideological frameworks.
Photos of presentation by Caryl Emerson (above), Gary Saul Morson (below), and Paul J. Contino (second below) at the conference. Image Credit: Bradley Huber Underwood.
Priscila Nascimento Marques, Professor of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, summed up the spirit of the conference with the following words: “I don’t think it is possible to just keep repeating Dostoevsky’s ideas without considering the present moment and the necessary critical spirit that, at any time, should underlie all academic reflection.”
Marques’ comments focused specifically on Dostoevsky, but in the context of the conference’s larger theme, they could easily apply to the rest of Russian literature or philosophy. Scholars thus agreed that there needs to be an honest reckoning with the ways that certain ideas or currents in Russian culture can have devastating political consequences, coupled with appreciation that this same culture offers effective ways to resist power, violence, and injustice.
The conference in Juiz de Fora came to a fitting end Thursday afternoon with Brazil playing and winning its first soccer game in the 2022 World Cup by a score of two to zero against Serbia. It was not only the final score but the person who scored the goals that made the match so significant. As many of the Brazilian scholars pointed out, this player was Richarlison de Andrade. Richarlison was among the only players to dissent from Bolsonaro’s attempt to curry favor with and politicize the Brazilian national soccer team for his own nationalistic aims.
The author and Randall Poole in Brazil. Image Credit: Bradley Huber Underwood.
Bradley Underwood, an ordained Baptist minister, is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Northwestern University and Associate Director of the Northwestern University Research Initiative for the Study of Russian Philosophy and Religious Thought. Prior to studying at Northwestern, Bradley received a Master’s Degree in Theological Studies from Duke Divinity School at Duke University as well as a Bachelors of Arts in History from Baylor University. Bradley studies nineteenth-century Russian literature, and he is especially interested in the relation between literature, philosophy, and theology. Bradley is currently writing his Master’s thesis under the direction of Susan McReynolds on anagogy, iconography, and Christ in Nikolai Gogol’s The Inspector General.
Stay tuned for our next posts, which will contain some of the presentations given at the conference.