Online
07:30 PM - 08:30 PM
Free Admission
About the Programme
Inheritance, hidden rivalries, a love triangle and tyranny – add in murder and we get a perfect plot-full stew to examine humanity when pushed to the extreme.
In this gripping patricide, The Brothers Karamazov presents as a profound whodunnit, where investigating the crime means confronting the soul. In this lecture, we will embark on a journey of philosophical investigation, considering the timeless dilemmas between freedom and happiness, faith and doubt.
About Season 7: What It Means to be Human
What does it mean to truly live? Do we control our destiny, or are we prisoners of circumstance? How do we find meaning in suffering?
Russian literature tackles these universal questions head-on. From Tolstoy's sweeping epics that inspired modern writers like Zadie Smith, to Dostoevsky's psychological masterpieces that still get referenced in criminal psychology courses, these authors have laid bare the human soul with unflinching honesty. Join Season 7 of A Bridge to the Classics as we explore love, suffering, morality, and meaning through some of literature's most passionate and philosophical stories.
About the Speaker
Dr Olga Sobolev is Director of the Language, Culture and Society Programme at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research interests lie in comparative studies and concern nineteenth- and twentieth-century Russian and European culture. She has published extensively in the field of comparative literature, as well as on the writings of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, and Chekhov, including the recent books and chapters in the edited volumes: Film Adaptations of Russian Classic (2024), ‘Vekhi - the Russian Intelligentsia at a Crossroads’ (2025), ‘Tolstoi’s Resurrection on the Russian Stage’ (2021), Anna Karenina- the Ways of Seeing (2021).