Slavic / Cultural Studies and Media Studies

Eleanor Rambo (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

As David Chioni Moore pointed out twenty years ago, literary and cultural critics often fail to consider the USSR within the context of postcolonial theory, though the country’s effect on surrounding regions and migration follows many of the same patterns as the imperial powers of Western Europe. In the last two decades, scholars including Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak have discussed post-Soviet spaces using postcolonial theory, but more extensive research on the media, literature, and art from these (potentially) postcolonial spaces is necessary in order to understand the USSR’s lasting impact on its former territory. Is there any continuity between the influence of the Russian Empire—another imperial power rarely discussed in postcolonial theory—and the USSR’s later control of culture and media? What were the literary results of centralized Soviet political power? Did citizens in far-flung areas of the USSR understand themselves as colonial subjects, or as something entirely different? This seminar aims to situate Soviet literature and other cultural products within a postcolonial context, or to explain how postcolonial theory must be modified when applied in post-Soviet contexts. Abstract submissions on a broad range of cultural products are encouraged, and papers using non-Russian-language material are welcome, although circulated papers and discussion will be in English.

Literary and cultural critics often fail to consider the USSR within the context of postcolonial theory, though the country’s effect on surrounding regions and migration follows many of the same patterns as the imperial powers of Western Europe. This seminar aims to situate Soviet literature and other cultural products within a postcolonial context or to explain how postcolonial theory must be modified when applied in post-Soviet spaces.