Marginality in Nineteenth-Century Russophone Literature

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Brief Description

The roundtable will be devoted to marginal characters in Russian 19th-century literature. The idea of marginality includes both literary and social aspects, and the purpose of our roundtable is to explore the relationship between the two. We plan to delve into such issues as social exclusion and its impact on literary representation, categories of characters, social and professional types that are rarely described in literary texts, characters who tend to play secondary or auxiliary roles in texts, as well as literary types neglected in research. We will explore the roles of marginal characters in literary texts (i.e. their interaction with main characters, their function in the plot development, etc.), as well as the way their marginality reflects the social imaginary implied in the literary work. Specific topics will include addressing working-class women characters, clergymen, drug addicts, and characters representing ethnic minorities (Moldavian, Jewish) in works by canonical (Gogol, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Leskov) as well as less-studied authors (Reshetnikov, Vel’tman, Golenishchev-Kutuzov, Gusev-Orenburgskiy).

Sub Unit

• Literature: 19th Century

Chair

• Helen R Stuhr-Rommereim, U of St. Andrews (UK)

Roundtable Speakers

• Natalia Borisova, U of Tübingen (Germany)

• Stephen Andrew Bruce, Defense Language Institute

• Ryan Hoaglund, U of Michigan

• Natalia Ivashkevich, Centre for Jewish Studies (Germany)

• Marta Łukaszewicz, U of Warsaw (Poland)