PSU Student from China Researchers War Literature, Gets PhD
The Faculty of Philology at Perm State University congratulates the graduate student Song Tianyao (China) on the successful defense of her PhD thesis in Russian Literature.
According to Professor Svetlana Burdina, tutor of Song Tianyao, her research might be regarded as significant, since, for the first time and in one paper, as it tracesthe influence of Russian military prose on Chinese literature of 20-21 centuries.
Throughout her studies and research activity at PSU, Song Tianyao worked as an assistant at the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, and taught Chinese to students in Philology, Geography, Modern Foreign Languages and Literature (2018-2021). She previously graduated from Shandong University (China) in 2012, and further studied philology at Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (Moscow).
The thesis by Song Tianyao, titled “Artistic Reception of B. Vasiliev’s Military Prose in China”, has already received recognition by scholars from Tver and Moscow, Russia – praising her level of training,decent quality of translations and excellent command of the Russian language.
“The members of the dissertation council and thesis critics have been attracted by Song Tianyao’s revelation that a prose by a particular Russian writer became a ‘prism’ for the Chinese appreciation of war – serving a source for further interpretation in literature and film scripts,”
noted Dr. Boris Kondakov, Dean of the Faculty of Philology, PSU.
The thesis defense took place at the Dissertation Council for Philological Sciences of Tver State University. The tradition of defending a PhD thesis at some other university, other than the university of initial research, is quite frequent in Russia. As elsewhere globally, departments of Russian universities specialize in particular research problems. This leads to discipline-based dissertation councils– building research collaborations and acquiring graduate’s interests across the country.
To Remind,
In autumn, 2021, 15 students from the Chengdu Institute of the Sichuan University of Foreign Languages (China) came as future teachers of the Russian language to study at PSU. Their arrival had been inspired lead by another PSU alumnus, Li Wenxu, who graduated from the Faculty of Philology, PSU in 2018.
“In their research, students from China particularly compare Russian and Chinese literature, examine the influence of the former on the latter, and study the literature of ‘eastern’ Russian emigration in 20th century,”
says Ekaterina Klyuikova, Deputy Dean for International Affairs, Faculty of Philology.
“Here at PSU, I learned to appreciate Russian military prose and rural writers. In Perm, I felt a real Russian spirit I missed to appreciate in the capital cities. The local culture brings us closer to nature and tradition,”
says Song Tianyao, PSU post-graduate in Philology.
