| Date&Time | Tuesday, December 19, 2023, 13:30-14:30 |
| Method | Online | Participant | 12 people |
| Lecturer: Artem Suslov, PhD Candidate (Graduate School of Humanities and Human Sciences, Hokkaido University) Presentation Title: Imaging Arctic and Polar Seas in Naval Fiction about Arctic Convoys Abstract: Arctic convoys during World War II represented one of the most hazardous yet vital routes for Lend-Lease supplies from the United States to the USSR. Navigating through the perilous Polar Ocean, these ships faced threats from both pack ice and German U-boats. Being a part of traumatic war experience, Arctic convoys found their place in fiction rather early, in 1950-1970. Three naval writers, N. Monsarrat, A. MacLean in Britain and V. Pikul in the Soviet Union comprehended that combined experience of risky strategic enterprises, tensed interpersonal relationships aboard and unfriendly Northern nature. Instead of delving into the historical details of the Arctic convoys, this presentation focuses on the depiction of the Arctic region itself. It explores how the geographical boundaries in these narratives are often confined to the pack ice’s northern border, the German Navy’s control zone in the Norway Sea, and abruptly terminate at Murmansk in the East. Despite portraying the Arctic as a hostile force, more lethal than the enemy, these authors also present it as a terra incognita, known only through the perilous journey of the convoys. |
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