REMINDER: CFP "Russia, in Theory" grad coference at UPenn, March 7, 2014 (abstracts due Jan 12)

[Pavel Khazanov]

Dear all,

As many of you know from my previous posting to this list-serv, my
colleague Alex Moshkin and I are organizing a graduate conference at
University of Pennsylvania this coming spring. Since the due date for
abstracts is now about a month away, I thought it would be a good idea to
circulate the announcement again. Also, we'd appreciate it if you could
re-circulate this CFP among your institutions, as well as to forward it to
any and all potentially-interested parties who are outside of the SEELANGS
community.

Thank you so much, and looking forward to your submissions!

Best regards,
Pavel Khazanov

*Russia, in Theory*

*A graduate conference presented byThe Program in Comparative Literature
and Theory, Slavic Languages and Literatures, and Slavics Without Borders,
a Graduate Student Colloquium*

*Friday, March 7, 2014University of Pennsylvania*
*Keynote Speaker: Boris Groys (NYU, SHG Karlsruhe, EGS)*


The “end of history” in 1991 was, in many ways, a Russian affair. Seemingly
overnight, Russia was transformed from "the most progressive society on
earth" into the defeated arch-nemesis of the free world, thus ushering in a
new era of post-history—quite an accomplishment for a country that
supposedly entered “world history” only in the eighteenth century. Of
course, Fukuyama’s cosmic, geopolitical vision was hardly the first time
that Russia has been cast in such a grandiose role. Since Peter the Great’s
heavy-handed transformation of “medieval” Rus’ into a Western-styled
Empire, Russia has presented a tempting playground for theorizing and
applying European conceptions of history, enlightenment and progress. Over
the course of the nineteenth century, Russian intellectuals, influenced by
German Idealist philosophy of history, fought over the place of the
“Russian Idea” in the civilizational economy of the world. In the twentieth
century, generations of European thinkers struggled to understand the
meaning of the Soviet experiment. Finally, in our ostensibly
post-historical twenty-first century, the experience of post-socialist
Russia continues to pose meaningful questions for the ideologues of the
Western political, economic and social establishment, as well as for those
who wish to resist their hegemony.

Our conference aims to examine and complicate the idea of “Russia” and its
role in both local and global philosophical discourse. What place does
Russia hold in the imaginations of Western philosophers, from Hegel and
Marx to Žižek and Badiou, and how did it come to do so? What meaning does
standing with or apart from the West hold among ideologues of the so-called
“Russian Idea,” from Gogol’ to Limonov? Finally, what does Russian
philosophy, art and political practice, from Chaadaev to Podoroga, from
Karamzin to Pussy Riot, from Catherine to Lenin, to Surkov— have to
contribute to our understanding of the past, the present and the future
states of world history and its discontents?

We are interested in submissions from all humanitarian disciplines,
including, but not limited to philosophy and critical theory, literature,
history, anthropology, political science, culture and media studies, which
may in some way tackle the following general topics:

—Europe or Asia? Empire or Periphery? Russia’s place in the geopolitical
and social imaginary
—The place of Russia in religious, mystical and eschatological thought
—What is to be done? Russia and the idea of radical politics
—Russia and the theoretical discourse of modernity & post-modernity
—Shklovsky, Kojève, Jakobson: the Russian turn in continental philosophy
and aesthetics
—Mimesis, montage and the Kino-Eye: the impact of Soviet film theory
—Dreamworld, phantasm and catastrophe: Russia in the utopian and dystopian
imagination
—The Russian poet as a prophet? The place of Russia in the world literary
canon
—To reach and overtake decaying capitalism? The Soviet experiment— theory,
reality and memory wars
—Tsarism, capitalism and socialism with a human face: Russia’s place in the
discourse of the human
—“Three worlds” theory: the contest of socialism and the West across the
globe
—Everything was forever, until it was no more: making sense of post-Soviet
Russia


*Please send your 300 word abstracts in the body of an email with “Russia,
in Theory submission, LASTNAME” in the title to Pavel Khazanov and Alex
Moshkin at slavicswithoutborders at gmail.com
<slavicswithoutborders at gmail.com>, by January 12, 2014.  Submissions should
include the paper title, author’s name, affiliation, and email address. *




-- 
Pavel Khazanov
Doctoral Student
Comparative Literature and Slavic Studies
University of Pennsylvania
720 Williams Hall
255 S. 36th St.
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305
khazanov at sas.upenn.edu



-- 
Pavel Khazanov
Doctoral Student
Comparative Literature and Slavic Studies
University of Pennsylvania
720 Williams Hall
255 S. 36th St.
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305
khazanov at sas.upenn.edu

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