Liberation from Violence: The Anthropology of Nonviolence in Russian Cultural History

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Brief Description

The panel is dedicated to problematizing the concept and experience of non-violence in the context of Russian culture. We explore the notion of non-violence in various meanings and contexts: as a value orientation and ethical imperative, as a mode of behavior and a collective solidarity practice, as a starting point for constructing a research perspective and a tool for questioning and critically transforming established societal dispositions.
Panel participants will address a series of questions: To what extent were the categories of non-violence and its derivatives — compassion, mercy, humanity — historically conditioned in Russian culture? How have their meanings changed? For Which official (unofficial, semi-official) institutions in Russia were the images and values of non-violence important? What ethical norms emerged in the course of the work of these institutions? What new forms of cultural expression appeared as a result of the application of this idea? How did violence and non-violence interact, intersect, or derive from each other in Russian cultural history? How blurred were the boundaries between them? Does the discussion of non-violence in Russia today have effective performative power, and if so, how could it be manifested?

Sub Unit

• Anthropology, Cultural Studies

Chair

• Arseniy Kumankov, U of Mainz (Germany)

Roundtable Members

• Irina Gordeeva, Centre for Contemporary History (Germany)

• Irina P

• Olga Rosenblum, Leibniz Center for Literary and Cultural Research (Germany)