Memory x Environment Book Club
Join the Memory x Environment Book Club’s first session on November 17! We’ll read "Same River, Twice: Putin's War on Women" by Sofi Oksanen.
Add to calendar
iCal calendarRThe book is a thought-provoking, informative, and deeply harrowing feminist investigation of sexual violence, genocide, and modern-day threats to democracy. Oksanen, writer of internationally acclaimed novels like Stalin Crows and Purge, revisits her family history to shed light on the systemic violence and crimes ordinary women have endured in the crossfire for nearly a century. Through skilful prose and sober analysis, Oksanen argues that, under Putin, misogyny has become foundational to the state's power in Russia.
Expect a lively group discussion moderated by Marta Marita Lauri and Yana Sinitsyna, doctoral researchers in Studies of Cultures at Tallinn University.
Chapters to be discussed: “The Photograph”, “Animals and Elements”, “Women Will Make More Soldiers”, “The Equality Revolution” and “Export Products”.
About the Memory x Environment Book Club
In our contemporary society, cultural memory is divisive and contested: we clash over different linguistic, cultural, religious, and environmental heritage. The recent pandemic and worsening climate crisis have raised awareness about planetary interconnectedness. Our Book Club is an intellectually enriching space focused on books that raise questions of cultural memory, ecology, history, and human-nature interconnectedness.
We read widely - from non-fiction to literary fiction and sci-fi - and welcome anyone with a passion for reading and critical discussion.
The Memory x Environment Book Club is part of the research project "Memory and Environment: The Intersection of Fast and Slow Violence in Transnational European Literatures" (2025–2029, PI Eneken Laanes, funded by the Estonian Research Council, project No 2592).
