Log in
Donald Rayfield's biography of Chekhov, Anton Chekhov: A life has transformed Russia's understanding of its cultural icon, as attested by the fact that the Russian government has bought 200 copies of it to disseminate among higher education institutions. The biography has achieved this: 1. by challenging myths about the great humanity of the playwright and stimulating public debate around this — both in Russia and further afield — in light of the facts it unearthed about Chekhov's tumultuous private life, which had been excised from Soviet editions of his works and correspondence; and 2. by inspiring filmmakers, theatre directors and actors to create new works that disseminate new interpretations of Chekhov's personality and of the relationship between his writings and his life.
Professor Figes's research on private lives in Soviet Russia has played a significant role in transforming public understanding of Soviet history in the UK and internationally. Two of his books are at the heart of this case study: The Whisperers (2008) and Just Send Me Word (2012) with combined international, multilingual sales of over 170,000. Between them, they have impacts both in cultural life — introducing a new understanding of life in Soviet Russia and new resources for education and research — and, as publishing successes, in economic terms. His research also provided the basis for retrieving archive materials belonging to the Russian NGO, Memorial, from a raid by Russian authorities.
Professor Kelly`s studies of national identity in Russia seek to challenge stereotypes about enduring traditions of political oppression and social decay as the culture`s main characteristics. Focusing on everyday life rather than high politics, they work towards an understanding of change within Russian culture, and of the part played by factors such as generation and locality in producing often very diverse forms of self-expression and self-understanding. A central topic is the role of social memory, whether as a force of solidarity or as an engine of argument. Kelly`s work draws directly on collaborations with Russian scholars and informants and has been widely noted in media and online discussions within the country, as well as informing media discussion of Russia and social policy work in the UK and elsewhere in the West.
Francis Spufford's book Red Plenty has been acclaimed as an ironic reflection on contemporary problems, despite being apparently devoted to the deadest of issues: central planning in the former USSR. The book has helped stimulate debate about alternative economic strategies, with the title becoming shorthand for non-market forms of organisation, and has contributed to rising interest in Soviet history. But besides achieving these topical resonances, it has been saluted for its innovative fusion of fiction and non-fiction, and its contribution to an ongoing erosion of literary boundaries. It has been released in eight languages and in the USA, with in excess of 25,000 copies sold to date; it has been shortlisted for several major book prizes. Spufford has engaged in extensive public discussion of the work, both at live events and in the broadcast media, and this has sparked voluminous on-line commentary from the wider public.
Andrew Biswell's research since 1995 has focused on the literature of Anthony Burgess. This work has brought about an international resurgence of public interest in Burgess's artistic legacies, with particular emphasis on his novels, short stories, letters and music. The underpinning research has generated demonstrable impacts in cultural life (enriching the lives and imagination of readers); school education (the creation of educational IT resources for school-age students); public discourse (contributing to a debate about crime and society); tourism (creating visitor experiences through a public exhibition); commercial activity (development of an innovative electronic resource); and commemoration and remembrance (concerts on BBC radio and at the Imperial War Museum North).
There is enormous public interest in the Russian Revolution and Soviet Communism. Robert Service's biographies of the three early Soviet leaders - Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky - together with his general histories of twentieth-century Russia have reached an international mass public and, in particular, have had a deep influence on the teaching of the subject in secondary schools and universities through the central place they occupy on A-level and degree-level history syllabi. In addition, Service is regularly invited to lecture to parliamentary select committees, the FCO, the Defence Academy and national business organisations.
The Oxford World's Classics (OWC), re-founded in 1980 as a paperback series and now also available electronically, includes many new translations from European languages with introduction and notes written for a non-expert reader by scholars drawing on their academic research. Three members of the Oxford Modern Languages Faculty (Cronk, Kahn, Robertson) have been particularly active in translating and/or editing volumes and in advising the Series Commissioning Editor on the basis of their respective research expertise. The impact is partly economic (sales, including export sales), partly cultural in making key works of European literature accessible to an Anglophone public reliant on translations and partly educational as the editions are adopted worldwide on secondary school, undergraduate and graduate reading lists. The OWC editions have made classic European literature available to an international market, reaching out to new audiences.
Public understanding of the national past has been expanded by the creation, updating, and widespread use of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB). It is the most comprehensive biographical reference work in the English language and includes (in May 2013) biographies of 58,661 people over two millennia. The ODNB is the `national record' of those who have shaped the British past, and disseminates knowledge while also prompting and enhancing public debate. The Dictionary informs teaching and research in HEIs worldwide, and is used routinely by family and local historians, public librarians, archivists, museum and gallery curators, schools, broadcasters, and journalists. The wider cultural benefit of this fundamental research resource has been advanced by a programme of online public engagement.
Research on the life of Sophie Scholl as a model of civil courage and its subsequent impact in the UK and beyond has led to:
The impact activities described in this document are dedicated to altering cultural perception of the creation, production, and performance of modern literature through re-presentation of the work of the Irish writer Samuel Beckett in a variety of informed contexts. Beckett research at Reading is underpinned by the university's exceptional archival resources, which include manuscripts of his writings alongside rare editions, letters, production notes for his dramas, and intriguing ephemera. Our impact-generating activities around the archive are focused upon the deployment of those resources in ways which enhance understanding of the processes behind the creation of literary works and dramatic performances. This approach to impact has involved researchers in the Department of English in the curation of exhibitions relating to the archive; in giving talks at sites crucial to Beckett's literary development; and also in the digitization of materials relating to Beckett's major works. Out of this has come testimony from a variety of people and organisations to the change that has come about in their attitude and response to a variety of creative phenomena.