There was clearly no crime, but there was punishment. It would be comical were it not so frightening.
Photo: Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky – Heritage Images / Contributor
08 March 2022 | James Porteous | Clipper Media News
Ukraine: Italian university backtracks after cancelling Dostoevsky course
02 March 2022 | Wanted in Milan
First opera, now literature: Russia’s war on Ukraine impacts on the arts in Italy.
Fëdor Dostoevsky has become the unlikely source of a controversy at a Milan university over its decision to drop a course on the 19th-century Russian novelist.
The University of Milano-Bicocca informed the Italian writer Paolo Nori on Tuesday night that his course on the author of Crime and Punishment had been cancelled “to avoid any controversy, in a moment of high tension.”
An incredulous, emotional Nori read the contents of the email during an Instagram live video in which he slammed the university’s decision as “ridiculous”, saying “even dead Russians” are now the target of censorship in Italy.
News of his cancelled course spread rapidly on social media, with criticism directed at the university which soon found itself embroiled in the very thing it had sought to avoid: controversy.
On Wednesday morning the university issued a statement underlining that it is “open to dialogue and listening even in this very difficult period that sees us dismayed by the escalation of the conflict.”
It confirmed that the course on Dostoevsky would in fact go ahead as originally planned and announced that the rector would be meeting Nori next week “for a moment of reflection.”
It is not the first time in recent days that the war in Ukraine has impacted the arts in Milan.
Earlier this week the city’s mayor Beppe Sala “ruled out” the return of Valery Gergiev to the podium at La Scala over the Russian conductor’s refusal to condemn the invasion of Ukraine by his friend Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine: Italian wine merchant bans sale of Russian vodka
Wanted in Rome
Ukraine: Dostoevsky course reinstated after cancellation
06 March 2022 | ANSA
(ANSA) – ROME, MAR 2 – A course on Russian literary giant Fyodor Dostoevsky which had been cancelled at a Milan university due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will now go ahead as scheduled, the university said Wednesday.
Writer and lecturer Paolo Nori had said the matter at the Milano-Bicocca University was a case of unwarranted censorship and that literature should not be punished due to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions.
“Not only is it a fault to be a living Russian in Italy today, but also to be a dead Russian,” said Nori, adding that Dostoevsky, author of Crime and Punishment, the Brothers Karamazov and other classics, had been condemned to death himself in 1849 “because he had read something that was prohibited”.
Announcing the reinstatement of the course, Milano-Bicocca said “we are a university open to dialogue and listening even in this very difficult period which spurs dismay due to the escalation of the conflict.
“We can confirm that the course will take place on the scheduled days and we will discuss the content with the writer.
“Furthermoe, the university’s dean will meet Paolo Nori next week for a moment of reflection”. (ANSA).
