In Search of European Christian Humanism

On January 28th French scholar Dominique Millet-Gérard delivered an open lecture on ‘France and Russia in the 1930s: In Search of European Christian Humanism’  in the Academic Thursday Series at HSE Nizhny Novgorod.

Dominique Millet-Gérard is a renowned expert in comparative literary studies and Professor of French Literature at the Sorbonne Paris VI. In a brief review of works by Russian and French authors of the early twentieth century she presented their views on Russia and France and their attempts to compare two seemingly different cultures.

In her talk Professor Millet-Gérard covered works by Boris Zaytsev, Nikolai Berdyaev, Alexey Remizov, Pierre Lafue and Jacques Rivière . Her key topics were spirituality in literature and art in general. The theme of ‘cultural crisis’ in the 20th and 21st centuries aroused great interest.

The lecture was delivered in French with simultaneous translation in Russian. Not only HSE students and lecturers, but students from the University of Franche-Comté (France) and interested Nizhny Novgorod residents  took part in the event. The French students admitted that the lecture helped them to see both Russia and France in a new way.