Modern-Day Hierotopy: Creating Sacred Spaces in Russian Literature, Film, and Politics

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Brief Description

The participants of this roundtable examine a variety of approaches to what Alexei Lidov terms “hierotopy,” or creation of sacred space, taking it beyond the realm of strictly religious practices. Scollins examines the final chapel scene in Gogol’s “Viy” as a travesty of the Pentecost icon. Ossorgin reads Zosima’s cell in The Brothers Karamazov as a sacralized secular space. Eldridge views Tarkovsky’s Nostalghia and his artistic approach on the whole as an attempt at spiritual restructuring, aimed at a spiritually receptive beholder (as opposed to a viewer). Finally, Adams investigates Vladimir Putin’s involvement with Valaam Monastery and his attempts to sacralize Russian history and construct a unified national identity.

Sub Unit

• Literature: Russian and Eurasian

Chair

• Jared N. Warren, New York U

Roundtable Members

• Amy Singleton Adams, College of the Holy Cross

• Daria Eldridge, Stanford U

• Michael Ossorgin, Fordham U

• Kathleen Scollins, U of Vermont

Session Manager

• Alicia Baca, Ohio State U