Seeking the third panelist - ICCEES 2010 in Stockholm

[Rolf Hellebust]

Hello Inna!

I could do something that might make an interesting combination with 
your paper and Irene's. The main problem is that you'd perhaps want to 
change the adjective in the panel title slightly...

"Komar and Melamid beyond the Trans-State"

This would build on previous work I've done (e.g. "Komar and Melamid and 
Nostalgic Irony" AAASS 2007). Questions of emigration, acculturation, 
myths of national and artistic identity -- these have all been 
constantly in the mind of these conceptualist inventors of Sots-Art, not 
only in the "Trans-State" project that I mention in my title, but 
throughout their careers, from Moscow, to Israel, to New York. Though 
this is visual rather than literary art, Moscow conceptualism is the 
most logocentric type of visual art one could imagine, and there are 
plenty of comparisons I can make with the strategies of such writers as 
Nabokov, Solzhenitsyn, and Aksenov. Links to Irene's topic: to Nabokov 
and his postmodernist play with nostalgia, and with the expectations of 
his non-Russian audiences. Links to your topic: the factor of 
Jewishness, as well as the engagement, in K & M's post-emigration work, 
with the ideological essence of Nazism and American capitalism.

I won't be insulted if you think this doesn't fit (again, you'd perhaps 
have to change "Literary" to "Artistic") -- or maybe you already have 
someone more appropriate. (I suppose I could also do a totally new 
project on Nabokov or Aksenov, but it's not really where my head's at 
right now.) I should add, though, that it's interesting to see someone 
working on Rand. I always avoided reading the paperback editions of 
"Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead" that I remember lying on the 
bookshelves in my high school English classroom, back in the late 70s. 
Some of my fellow students were very much into Rand -- purely because of 
this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rush_(band)

(Song lyrics very heavily influenced by her philosophy.) I recall, in 
particular, one greasy-haired fellow, with a slight air of the 
Underground Man, who would go around wearing a black t-shirt with the 
slogan "Rush is God". I hasten to add that my affection for Chopin's 
mazurkas is by no means exceeded by my affection for Canadian heavy 
metal. It was a long time ago...

Rolf


 

INNA CARON wrote:
> Dear SEELANGers, 
>
> Irene Masing-Delic and I are looking for the third presenter to join our
> almost complete panel for the 8th ICEESS World Congress in Stockholm. Helena
> Goscilo agreed be our discussant, and one of Prof. Masing-Delic's Swedish
> colleagues will act as the chair. The deadline for the proposals has passed,
> but we were granted a brief extension. 
>
> The theme of our panel is "Literary Acculturation in Europe and Beyond." It
> will concern the Russian- (and possibly other East European-)born authors,
> who, when placed in the context of a foreign literary tradition, either
> unrderwent complete acculturation (language, themes, characters,
> philosophical issues, etc.) or completely resisted such for the reasons to
> be individually examined. Irene Masing-Delic will speak about Nabokov,
> Khodasevich, and Georgii Ivanov. My paper will concern Irene Nemirovsky and
> Ayn Rand. 
>
> If you have a topic in mind, please respond off-list to
> <javascript:main.compose('new','t=caron.4 at osu.edu')> 
>
>  <javascript:main.compose('new','t=caron.4 at osu.edu')> caron.4 at osu.edu by
> Saturday, March 14th. Please include the (tentative) title of your
> presentation. A formal abstract is not necessary at this time (those will be
> due in October, pending acceptance), but a couple of sentences elaborating
> on your topic will be very helpful. 
>
> Information about the ICCEES Congress can be found here:
> <http://www.iccees2010.se/> http://www.iccees2010.se/ 
>
> Thank you!
>
> Inna Caron 
>
>
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