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Book Talk by Emil Draitser: In the Jaws of the Crocodile
24 May 2021, 6:00 pm–7:30 pm
A UCL SSEES Russian Studies Seminar Series Event with Emil Draitser, Professor Emeritus at Hunter College, New York
This event is free.
Event Information
Open to
- All
Availability
- Yes
Cost
- Free
Organiser
-
SSEES
Emil Draitser spent a decade contributing to Crocodile (Krokodil), the Soviet Communist-Party-sponsored satire magazine known for its sharp-tongued essays and pointed cartoons. After he got in trouble for criticizing an important Soviet official, he began weighing the heavy decision of whether to emigrate. In this talk about his memoir In the Jaws of the Crocodile, Draitser will explore what it means to be a satirist in a country lacking freedom of expression. He will provide a window into the lives of a generation of artists who were allowed to poke fun, as long as they toed a narrow, state-approved line.
About the Speaker
Emil Draitser is an award-winning author of fiction and nonfiction. Born in Odessa, Ukraine, as a freelance journalist in the former Soviet Union, under the pen name "Emil Abramov", he published his work in the leading periodicals, such Literary Gazette and Crocodile. In 1974, blacklisted for a satirical article, he immigrated to the United States and earned a Ph.D. in Russian literature at UCLA. A professor emeritus of Russian at Hunter College in New York, besides his sixteen books of artistic and scholarly prose, he has published his work in the Los Angeles Times, Partisan Review, North American Review, Prism International, and many other American and Canadian periodicals. His fiction has also appeared in Russian, Polish, and Israeli journals. A three-time recipient of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts fellowships in writing, he has also received multiple grants for writing from the City University of New York. (For more info, please consult the author’s website: www.emildraitser.com)