Russophone Poetry in the Diaspora

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

The task of this panel is to illustrate from different angles a rather obvious, though somewhat forgotten thesis - that our literature is historically, formally and substantively a Western, European literature. Therefore, it is obvious that emigration for Russophone poetry is not an exile, but a return to its natural environment. Emigration in Russian culture has always been associated with freedom and the very poetry of the diaspora in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries means no less than texts written inside Russia. Since emigration was mostly distributed across several countries, it makes sense to speak not of a generalized poetry of the Diaspora, but rather of a distinct Russophone poetry of at least 3 countries: the United States, Israel, and Germany. In the same sense we speak of the English poetry of the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, etc. The literatures are united, and sometimes separated by a common language, and at the same time independent, although as a whole they form a single literature of a given language. Each of them differs both from the literature of Russia and from each other.

Sub Unit

• Literature: 21st Century

Chair

• Elena Marasinova, U of Münster (Germany)

Papers

• Longing for World Culture - Eugene Breydo

• Russophone Poetry in Diaspora of North America: Past and Future. - Andrey Gritsman, Interpoezia

• A Poetic Response to Russia’s War in Ukraine by the Russophone Diaspora - Julia Nemirovskaya, U of Oregon

Discussant

• Vasily Sergeyevich Lvov, CUNY Hunter College