Reclaiming Silence: Trauma, Memory, and Resistance in Contemporary Russophone Theater

• In Event: Trauma, Memory, and Resistance in Theatre and Film II

Abstract

Building on historian Serguei Oushakine’s idea that “a community must envision shared experience of loss in order to establish its own borders,” I will explore how contemporary Russophone theatre employs memory—both personal and collective—to rethink narratives of trauma and grief in Soviet and post-Soviet contexts. Focusing on Rinat Tashimov’s First Bread and Marina Davydova’s Museum of Uncounted Voices, I will examine how these works recover forgotten or silenced voices—Siberian Tatars and Armenians once displaced in Azerbaijan—bringing marginalized histories to light while underscoring the complexities and contradictions of individual

experiences. In doing so, they challenge state-imposed ideologies and offer new perspectives on history, loss, and identity.

Author

• Julia Listengarten, U of Central Florida