May 27 marks the 25th anniversary of the Department of Literary and Artistic Criticism of the Faculty of Journalism of the Belarusian State University. This event is considered a holiday by many people related to journalism, cinema, film criticism and pedagogy. As a “small homeland,” the department became their “small” alma mater, a launching pad for professional formation and development. Our magazine has the most direct and, let’s not hide, the most cordial relationship with the Department!
DEPARTMENT
“Art and criticism are inseparable concepts. Objective criticism is a necessary and sufficient condition for the long-term development of national culture.” Most likely, this is how one could briefly formulate the motivations that guided Vasily Petrovich Vorobyov (at that time the dean of the faculty, as well as the luminaries of Belarusian journalism Efrosinya Leonidovna Bondareva and Tatyana Dmitrievna Orlova, who stood at the very origins of the department. They were and remain to this day day Teachers for journalists who have devoted their lives and creative energy to the analysis and popularization of the most significant phenomena of national culture in the field of literature, cinema, theater, music, and fine arts.
Today we can say with absolute confidence: the decision to create the Department was timely and necessary. The creation of this segment in the structure of the country’s main university became an unpretentious, but significant milestone in the modern history of national culture. The presence of a creative department in the heart of the most creative university faculty can be equated to the existence at BSU of a branch of the Literary Institute and VGIK. It is significant that today there are specialized departments of literary and artistic criticism in the territory of the former USSR at two universities – Moscow State University (Russian Federation) and BSU (Republic of Belarus).
A remarkable contribution to the future was the decision to appoint Lyudmila Petrovna Saenkova to the position of head of the department. The management was able to discern in the young teacher, a graduate of the Faculty of Journalism and VGIK, the serious potential of not only a promising scientist, but also an authoritative leader who, thanks to his professional and personal qualities, would be able to unite and unite a team of like-minded people.
Today Lyudmila Petrovna Saenkova-Melnitskaya is a leading Belarusian film critic, a long-term observer of the Listapad International Film Festival, a member of the Republican Council for the Development of Cinematography, a current author of the magazine “On the Screens”, a Doctor of Philology and still the head of the department of literary and artistic criticism of the Faculty of Journalism of BSU . It was she who owned the idea, concept and creative regulations of “the most cultural department of the Faculty of Journalism”; it was she who thought through and brought it to life in creative collaboration with her colleagues.
…The university, despite its considerable age, is forever young. The quarter of a century that has passed since the opening of the department has flown by for this forge of the intellectual elite in an instant. It really flew by: the energy of the student environment, the spirit of youth that hovers in the atmosphere of the university, creative enthusiasm, and thirst for discovery are truly inspiring! Here, at this department, they “put on the wing” those who today work in the field of film journalism.
The staff of the Department, in its current composition, took shape gradually. The departed teachers, patriarchs and founders were replaced by their students to continue the best journalism traditions and implement the basic principles laid down by Professor Efrosinya Leonidovna Bondareva. One of them sounds like this: “The love of cinema requires special responsibility from those whose profession is directly related to cinema – film critics, film scholars, journalists writing about cinema and for cinema.”
…Continuity is another unshakable principle that determines the scientific orientation and pedagogical component of the department’s activities. It is symbolic that one of the faculty’s classrooms now bears the name of Professor E.L. Bondareva. This auditorium, opened on the initiative of the head of the department L.P. Saenkova-Melnitskaya, became both a kind of museum and an active creative workshop for future critics.
Over time, the style of work of the Department was determined: strict scientific discipline and creativity without restrictions, theory and practice, academicism and innovation. All this still arouses respect and interest, attracting creative youth to the Department – both students who are passionate about creativity, and those who feel the strength and desire to devote their lives to pedagogy. There are no random people here – they don’t fit in. But whoever stays stays forever.
The pulpit is a unique place where they not only “sow what is reasonable, good, and eternal,” but also see the fruits. Those who at one time defended their term papers, diploma projects, and prepared scientific dissertations at the department of literary and artistic criticism, today constitute the vanguard of Belarusian art journalism. Among them are eminent teachers and authors of outstanding publications in authoritative publications in Belarus and abroad.
…Criticism is an exclusive profession; it is simply impossible to put it on the conveyor belt. But the need to train such specialists cannot be disputed: as long as civilization and culture exist, criticism must also exist. It is relevant at all times, just as objectivity and integrity are integral components of professionalism. The Department of Literary and Artistic Criticism, forming a creative elite, continues to work for the future of our culture.
At the beginning of glorious deeds. In the center are Professor E. L. Bondareva and her student L. P. Saenkova. In the library at the stand of scientific novelties by T. D. Orlov and L. P. Saenkov.
