Forbidden Roads: Travel as Metaphor in Contemporary Eastern European Cultures I

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Brief Description

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, for citizens of the former Soviet Bloc travel became an act of liberation and a symbol of finally overcoming the physical, geographical, and ideological restrictions imposed by the communist regime. Thousands of people chose to leave their homeland behind, often with no specific plans to return. At the same time, access to previously forbidden places and sites of knowledge opened new venues for personal and national self-actualization, for therapeutic creative endeavors, and for new visions of national identity, belonging, and cultural production, which could now be complicated through open dialogic encounters with the West. More recently, in the context of increased displacement, war, and political crises, the journey and its narratives have assumed fresh forms and new expressive means, often resulting in transnational or exophonic writing that crosses the borders of language, culture, and identity. This roundtable discussion focuses on the practices and representations of travel in contemporary Eastern European cultures in order to explore how the metaphor of the journey has been adapted to the region’s traumatic geopolitical realities since 1989. The roundtable format fosters a conversational and interactive environment, encouraging our participants to engage with each other's ideas, challenge assumptions, and build upon existing arguments. The roundtable speakers will touch on a range of Eastern European languages and cultures – from Bulgarian and Russian to Albanian, Romanian, and Polish, and to those of former Yugoslavia.

Sub Unit

• Literature: 21st Century

Chair

• Stiliana Milkova, Oberlin College

Roundtable Speakers

• Vladimir Ivantsov, Oberlin College

• Margarita Dimitrova Marinova, Christopher Newport U

• Genta Nishku, US Holocaust Memorial Museum

• Oana Popescu-Sandu, U of Southern Indiana