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The Big Read: C-U takes on Tolstoy's "Death of Ivan Ilyich"

By mmestre
Published: Saturday, April 5, 2008 - 1:56am
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CHAMPAIGN-URBANA BIG READ
A community reading of
Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilyich"

  • When: March 30 to April 27
  • What: A series of community events designed to encourage people to read and reflect on a work of classic literature
  • Why: Part of the National Endowment for the Arts' campaign to revitalize literary reading
  • Where: See calendar of events

IVAN ILYICH IS dead, but you can friend him on Facebook — or at least the graduate student who maintains the fictional character’s Web page.

It's all part of the Champaign-Urbana Big Read, which began Sunday, March 30, and will last until April 27.

In a series of community events ranging from a panel discussion on translation to a film festival on death and the meaning of life, C-U residents are being encouraged to read and reflect on a classic work of literature — Leo Tolstoy's 1886 novella, “The Death of Ivan Ilyich.”

Uni High is one of more than 30 local schools and businesses, U of I campus units, and other institutions that have partnered with the National Endowment for the Arts, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and Arts Midwest to promote the C-U Big Read.

The NEA launched a nationwide Big Read campaign in 2007 to encourage the reading of classic literature.

The initiative came in response to a 2004 NEA report titled “Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America,” which documented a decline in the reading of literature, especially among young people.

The C-U program is one of 127 community reading projects that the NEA is supporting with a Big Read grant during the first half of this year. By 2009, some 400 communities around the country will have hosted a Big Read, according to the NEA.

The U of I’s Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center is one of the main organizers of the C-U program, along with the U of I department of Slavic languages and literatures, the School of Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics, and the Center for Translation Studies.

The involvement of the U of I's Russian scholars isn't surprising, since Champaign-Urbana is also one of four communities participating in a subset of the Big Read — “Big Read Russia.” In October 2007, residents of the Russian regions of Ivanovo and Saratov read Harper Lee's “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Now residents of C-U — as well as people in Muncie, Ind., Enid, Okla., and Ephrata, Pa. — will read Tolstoy's classic.

“The Death of Ivan Ilyich” was selected because it is an accessible novella that has a universal theme. The plot follows a magistrate in 19th-century St. Petersburg who falls painfully ill. When he realizes his illness is terminal, he begins to question how he lived his life as he falls into a spiritual crisis.

To find out more about the C-U Big Read, the Gargoyle sat down with Frances Jacobson Harris, the head librarian at Uni.

Harris recommends “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” for high school students because it is short and not too difficult.

The Uni Library’s role in the Big Read is to publicize the event and supply copies to students who are interested in the book. There is also a reader’s guide, teacher’s guide, CD, and poster.

Some local schools are reading the book in class. There is also the opportunity to participate in a panel on local access television on Thursday, April 10. Harris was asked to nominate one student and an alternate from Uni and therefore sent an e-mail out to Uni students asking who would like to participate.

Other area schools have incorporated the book into their lesson plans. Champaign Central High School put on a play interpretation of the novella Friday night, and Centennial and Judah Christian have other events scheduled at their schools.

Harris notified Uni teachers about the Big Read early on, but it did not fit into the curriculum of classes here as it did at other high schools.

“Sometimes in the bigger schools, where they have more sections of things, there’s a little more room there [to incorporate the book],” said Harris. “I think what it comes down to is [Uni has] four or five English teachers and the other schools have more. And so there are probably one or two classes at each of those schools that it worked out for.”

Harris said Uni's involvement in the Big Read would probably be greater if the school still had a Russian program.

Uni is more involved in Get Inspired! Meet a Hero @ Your Library, which began in February and continues through this month. This is another community reading program, but it is not affiliated with the Big Read. Since Uni has an English class that focuses on the “Hero’s Journey,” Harris was able to apply grant money from the Get Inspired! program to buy books for the class.

If students wish to become more actively involved in the C-U Big Read, Harris suggested joining a book group at Borders, proposing Tolstoy's novella as a topic at RifRaf (Uni's reading discussion club), adding “Ivan Ilyich” to your friends on Facebook, joining his Facebook group, or taking part in the local access television panel scheduled for April 10, for which Harris is still in need of a candidate and alternate.

“It would be interesting to know how much any of these programs really change people’s behavior,” said Harris. “And do they reach people who otherwise, you know, wouldn’t be reading anyway? That’s kind of an open question.”

Calendar of events: Champaign-Urbana Big Read 2008

Links:
Champaign-Urbana Big Read official site
Complete text of "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" (translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude)

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