Conference Soviet Multinational Literature as an Imperial Practice 2024
Table of contents
TU Dresden, October 24 – 25, 2024
About the Conference
The conference is intended to examine key aspects of Soviet multinational literature as an imperial practice. Despite the common opinion that in the Soviet era there was nothing in the national cultures but oppression and Russification (which were undoubtedly present), we support the premise that in Soviet times the future nations underwent an important stage of cultural rebirth and discovery of their modern cultural identity. In each national case the process of cultural self-discovery proceeded in a different way, but it was this very imperial context in which the basic features of each contemporary nation were shaped: the language, national mythology and history, and a common national - often traumatic and tragic - experience. National literatures played a key role in formation of different Soviet identities.
The discussions to be launched at the conference will allow us to confront the common notions of Soviet multinational literature and culture as a monolithic phenomenon of the erstwhile empire’s dictatorship, devoid of contradictions and individual features. An understanding of the complexity of the origins, life, decay, and death of the Soviet imperial canon in its various national and regional guises can also explain much in the current dramatic collisions in the post-Soviet world.
We gather not only established and early career experts in various national literatures but also specialists with a broader expertise who will capably speak about national literatures as part of the Soviet literary “orchestra.” Following subjects are of particular interest for us: multinational Soviet literary history as an instrument of nation-building; hybrid nature of national canons: their genealogy from local folklore, mythology, historical realisms, and modernisms; hetero-chronical development of national Soviet canons (different historical dynamic 1930s-1980s); networks and cultural transfer within multinational Soviet literature.
Participation
The conference lasts from Thursday, the 24th until Friday 25th of October 2024. The events will take place in a hybrid format – in presence in Science Lab building and online on Zoom.
You can participate online in all events spontaneously by accessing the following Zoom-Link: https://tu-dresden.zoom-x.de/j/69348541260?pwd=NbL73ks56kakQMi7iC5zhM5bWMF3BD.1 Meeting-ID: 693 4854 1260 |
Program
10:00 |
Klavdia Smola, Evgeny Dobrenko. Opening of the Conference |
Session CONCEPTUAL FRAMES | |
10:30 |
Yuliya Kozitskaya (Nazarbayev University, Astana) |
11:00 | Alla Burtseva (Independent Researcher) – Online “We Came not out of Simple Curiosity”: Writers’ Brigades and Almanac Project in 1930s Turkmenistan |
11:30 |
Dmitry Tsyganov (Independent Researcher) – Online |
12:00 –14:00 | Lunch Break |
Session CONCEPTUAL FRAMES | |
14:00 |
Kazbek Kaplanov (Independent Researcher) – Online |
14:30 |
Galin Tihanov (Queen Mary University of London) |
15:00 |
Ilya Kukulin (Stanfort University) |
15:30 –16:00 | Coffee Break |
Session NETWORKS AND CULTURAL TRANSFER | |
16:00 |
Klavdia Smola (University of Dresden) |
16:30 |
Tatsiana Astrouskaya (Herder Institute, Marburg) |
20:00 | Conference Dinner |
Session (MULTI)NATIONAL CANON(S) | |
10:00 |
Evgeny Dobrenko (University of Venice) |
10:30 |
Erin Hutchinson (University of Colorado at Boulder) |
11:00 |
Ulyana Veryna (University of Oldenburg) |
11:30 –12:00 | Coffee Break |
Session HISTORIES AND TRADITIONS |
|
12:00 |
Dalia Satkauskytė (Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore, Vilnius) |
12:30 |
Alessandro Achilli (University of Cagliari) |
13:00 –13:30 | Concluding Discussion |
13:30 | Departure |
Organisation
The conference takes place at TU Dresden from 24 to 25 October 2024. It is organized by the Department of Slavic Literatures of TU Dresden (Prof. Klavdia Smola) in cooperation with the Department of Linguistics and Comparative of Ca' Foscari University of Venice (Prof. Evgeny Dobrenko).
The working language will be English. Travel and accommodation costs can be covered by TU Dresden.
Contacts
Chair
NameProfessor Dr. Klavdia Smola
Chair of Slavic Literatures
Send encrypted email via the SecureMail portal (for TUD external users only).
Visiting address:
Bürogebäude Wiener Straße, Raum 219 Wiener Straße 48
01219 Dresden
Office hours:
- Thursday:
- 13:00 - 14:00
Professor
NameProf. Evgeny Dobrenko
Co-Organiser of Conference 2024