The Symbolic World of the Russian Commentariat: From the Invasion of Ukraine to the Present

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Brief Description

In this round-table session we will examine the semiotic worlds of direct or subtextual referencing, in the writing and public statements of both the ‘oppositional’ expatriate intelligentsia and the outspoken apologists for Russian state policy. Developing the Ukrainian philologist Aleksander Potebnja’s understanding of sign systems as networks of cultural phonemes, Yuri Lotman argued that a semiotic space is constituted of symbols that represent its “textological genes.” For all their apparent differences, in what ways do oppositional commentators and strident apologists for ‘The Russian World’ strive to re-engineer their profiles as political advocates, through the creation of a world of citation and reference that breaks with traditional understandings of dissidence or nationalism? The subject areas for discourse analysis in this round table may include the polemics surrounding decolonization, the reconfiguration of dissident identities after the death of Alexey Navalny, and understandings of the Russian ‘sphere of influence’ that blur the distinction between the expatriate commentariat—e.g., Yevgeniia Albats, Yulia Latynina, Vladimir Pastukhov, and Ekaterina Shulman, among others—and ‘Russian World’ advocates such as Olga Skabeeva, Vladimir Soloviev, and Zakhar Prilepin. We feel that the format of a round table session is highly appropriate for a topic that calls for a dialogue among researchers who would be able to flexibly address current events up to the time of the convention.

Sub Unit

• Literature: 21st Century

Chair

• Iryna Kaplun, Independent Scholar

Roundtable Members

• Diana Dukhanova, College of the Holy Cross

• Leon Kogan, Boston College

• Alexandar Mihailovic, Hofstra U

• Diane M. Nemec Ignashev, Carleton College