Research: Japanese culture and imagination in the literary production of Boris Akunin
Sabrina Gallo is a Ph.D. student in Russian literature at “Sapienza” University of Rome.
In 2018 she graduated with top marks in Comparative languages and cultures at the University of Naples "L’Orientale”, with a dissertation about the allusions, the quotes, and the references to classical Japanese literature in the short stories Takekurabe and Nigorie written by Higuchi Ichiyō.
In 2021 she finished cum laude her MA in Comparative literatures and cultures at the same university, with a dissertation about the effects of the dissolution of the Soviet Union on contemporary Russian literature through the novels and the literary activity of the contemporary Russian writer Dmitrij Bykov.
In 2019 she won two student mobility scholarships, the first at Tver’ State University (TvGU), and the second at Ural Federal university (UrFU). She spent a semester at Ural Federal University in Ekaterinburg.
Her research interests concern the comparative study between Russian literature and Japanese literature, the effects of the post-soviet trauma on contemporary Russian literature and the study of Soviet SF.
Conferences:
- “Contemporary Russian literature meets the world”, University of Naples “L’Orientale” (Naples, 27-28 October 2022), with the paper “Japan in the novel Almaznaja kolesnica written by B. Akunin”.
- “Rethinking Catastrophe in Precarious Times”, “Sapienza” University of Rome (Rome, 6-7 July 2023), with the paper “Working-through of the Soviet catastrophe in the novel Empire V written by V. Pelevin”.
- Roundtable “Soviet Science Fiction: Science, Magic, and Philosophy of Closed Space(s)” at 55th ASEEES Annual Convention (Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, Philadelphia, November 30-December 3, 2023), with the paper “The concepts of closed space and open space in the novel Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale by Ivan Yefremov”.
- “Graduate Student Conference in Russian Language and Literatures (Helsinki — Tallinn — Tartu)”, University of Tartu (10-12 May 2024), with the paper “The image of Japan in contemporary Russian literature: a case study on The Adventures of Erast Fandorin series written by Boris Akunin”.
- “2024 Conference of the Utopian Studies Society. Utopia and Democracy", Central European University of Budapest (3-5 July 2024), with the paper “Visions of communist utopias: a study on Ivan Yefremov's SF novel Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale”.
- Roundtable “ Reconsidering Utopia and Dystopia in Soviet Science Fiction”, at the “56th ASEEES Annual Virtual Convention” (October 18, 2024), with the paper “Reconsidering Ivan Efremov's communist Utopia in the novel Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale”.
She spent the month of June 2024 as a Visiting Doctoral Researcher at the “Eur’Orbem” Research Center (Sorbonne University, Paris), to carry out research related to the topic of her doctoral thesis. She is currently spending her research period abroad at Sophia University in Tokyo.