Spatiality and Geography in Late Socialist Cultures

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Brief Description

Focusing on questions of space and spatiality in and around Late Socialism (1960-80s), this roundtable will discuss the multiplicity of spatial dimensions in connection to cultural production in Late Socialist Russia, Eastern, and East-Central Europe. It will revisit geography as one of the fundamental variables that often guided and shaped Late Socialist cultures as well as became a significant dimension of artistic works. Geographies in Late Socialist arts will be explored from the following points of view: Which role did geography play for Socialist artists? What were the spatial tensions they had to overcome? What were the “narrated” geographies of artistic works? How did they construct and deconstruct Socialist reality? Which were Socialist spatial mythologemes that transgressed the borders of Late Socialist states and were present in the arts throughout the bloc? Which Socialist “geographic” concepts were developed within national arts and remained state-specific?

Sub Unit

• Literature: Russian and Eurasian

Chair

• Sanna Turoma, U of Helsinki (Finland)

Roundtable Members

• Kathryn Anne Duda, Mercyhurst University

• Anna Borovskaya-Ellis, U of Wisconsin-Madison

• Tatiana Klepikova, U of Passau (Germany)

• Mila Oiva, U of Turku (Finland)

• Sanna Turoma, U of Helsinki (Finland)