Fictions of National Identity in Imperial Russian Literature I

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Brief Description

This roundtable will explore the representation of national and ethnic identity in Imperial Russian literature. The notion of “Russianness” has long been central to discussions of nineteenth-century Russophone culture, typically posed in contrast with a notion of “the West” constructed as its polemical opposite. This roundtable seeks to move beyond this limiting binary to gather new approaches to constructions of Russian ethnic and national identity in the literature of the Imperial era. It proposes to consider “Russianness” as a fiction that performed diverse ideological and cultural purposes. The roundtable will cover a temporally and generically broad range of material, from the 1820s to 1905, and from Dostoevsky to popular theatre. Topics will include representations of Russianness in the Nikolaevan era; a queer reading of Dostoevsky with an eye to the intersections of gender, sexuality, and national identity; an evaluation of the imperialist implications of Dostoevsky's artistry; and an inquiry into the relationship between Russian and Jewish identities in literary responses to the 1905 uprisings. The roundtable is planned in conjunction with a panel for the in-person convention of the same title to facilitate sustained conversation among geographically dispersed scholars. We have chosen the roundtable format to better accommodate the presentation of research in its early stages, and to facilitate a broad conversation focused on methodology, critical frameworks, and the use of understudied literary archives alongside new approaches to canonical figures.

Sub Unit

• Literature: 19th Century

Chair

• Helen R Stuhr-Rommereim, U of St. Andrews (UK)

Roundtable Members

• Connor Brian Doak, U of Bristol (UK)

• Daniel Green, U of Bristol (UK)

• Sarah Hudspith, U of Leeds (UK)

Session Manager

• Nana Gulic, U of Toronto (Canada)