30 Seconds before the Renaissance: The Last Novel of the Middle Ages
WEST GATE Conference Centre, Warszawa
Late 15th century: Europe stands still in anticipation of imminent change. The sunlit Italian genius, little Leonardo, has already spread the oil of the Renaissance across his canvas, and the history of literature is about to change forever.
At this very moment, somewhere in rainy England, a lone knight-prisoner, Sir Thomas Malory, sits at his writing desk in his cell—unaware that he is about to compose the last great novel of the Middle Ages.
In the lecture “30 Seconds to the Renaissance,” we will explore how medieval literature bent but never broke under the pressure of a new era. We will travel to late 15th-century England, where, against the backdrop of the Wars of the Roses, it was not Signor Botticelli’s luminous Renaissance Venus that was born, but Sir Malory’s dark medieval Le Morte d'Arthur—an old-school chivalric epic filled with dense forests and giants, sorcerers and dragons, enchanted swords, and a bloody struggle for an iron throne.
This is a medieval farewell saga. A knight who stood between two eras—and did not let the sword fall to the ground. Together with him, we will descend into the very core of medieval literature, tracing its evolution, marveling at its unique character, and affirming its immortality.
Armen Zakharian – philologist and educator, author of the literary YouTube channel Armen and Fedor.
The event will be held in Russian in Warsaw on May 11 at 17:00 in WEST GATE Conference Centre.
Doors open at 16:30.
Google Maps link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/NqdztQEXzD7WknnM8
After purchasing your ticket, please check your SPAM folder, as the confirmation email may end up there by mistake.
WEST GATE Conference Centre • Aleje Jerozolimskie 92, 00-807 Warszawa, Województwo mazowieckie, Poland
