CfP: "An-other Modernity? Literature and Philosophy in Russian Culture", University of Tuebingen, 29.11. - 01.12.2012

[Irina Wutsdorff]

CALL FOR PAPERS
An-other Modernity?
The Relationship Between Literature and Philosophy in Russian Culture

International Symposium at the University of Tuebingen within the  
framework of the research project titled „The Interaction Between  
Literature and Philosophy in Russian Culture“ funded by the German  
Research Foundation (DFG).
Organisation: Prof. Dr. Schamma Schahadat, Prof. Dr. Irina Wutsdorff,  
Dr. des. Erik Martin
Date: 29 November - 01 December 2012

Within the Russian cultural system literature is considered to be the  
primary medium for self-reflexivity (and cultural self-definition).  
The often cited literary centrism is especially prominent in the  
classical realist novels which deal with a broad spectrum of questions  
ranging from religion, ethics, social philosophy and the philosophy of  
history to scientific and epistemological criticism. Then again the  
philosophical discourse often employs literary forms and genres (e.g.,  
Čaadaev's Philosophical Letters) or uses literary and aesthetic issues  
as a departure point for philosophical thought (e.g., Geršenzon,  
Berdjaev).
The observation that philosophy and literature are closely intertwined  
in Russian culture however comes from a (Western) understanding of  
culture where individual discourses tend to be separated and  
differentiated more greatly. While the beginning of the separation of  
in-dividual discourses tends to be associated with the Enlightenment –  
at the beginning of the macro-epoch  modernity –, the fusion of  
literature and philosophy is often considered a dis-cursive  
backwardness within Russian culture. Newer theories however question  
the notion that the differentiation of institutions and discourses is  
a signum of modernity.
Bruno Latour's thesis that „we have never been modern“ is a polemic  
against a temporal classification of societies into „modern“ and  
„non-modern“. In general, Latour considers dis-course classification  
to be an illusion, which is where the Western and the Russian cases  
would converge. Moreover, there are phases in the macro-epoch,  
commonly described as modernity, where the fusion of literature and  
philosophy (or of discourses in general) is ele-vated to a cultural  
norm. These are romanticism (in the German context for instance  
Schlegel's understanding of transcendental poetics, or in the Russian  
context Odoevskij’s philosophical novel Russkie noči), symbolism  
(especially in Russia with its philosophical men of letters), but also  
deconstructionist postmodernity. In these instances it becomes  
question-able whether one can speak of a temporal continuity with  
respect to a modern separation of discourses.
Instead the question poses itself, if and how the canonization of  
epochs with respect to na-tional classicism influenced the way the  
separation of discourses was perceived. Thus, the „modern“, i.e., the  
discourse-separating Enlightenment in France and Germany is classified  
as classicism while in Russia and Poland the discourse-fusing  
romanticism is considered to be classical. The reply to this question  
will have to take specifics of the cultural space into consideration.  
Russia most of the time conceptualized itself as an alternative to  
Western Europe starting already with the adoption of Christianity from  
Byzantium continuing until the October Revolution and this was also  
how it was perceived and understood from the outside. With this  
presupposition, the close entanglement of literature and philosophy  
can be under-stood as an ideological polemic against the West European  
standpoint (i.e., the critique of European rationalism and  
individualism ranging from the Slavophiles to Solov'ev).
Newer sociological models do not consider modernity as a homogeneous  
phenomenon but rather as a culturally coded phenomenon, speaking of  
multiple modernities (Eisenstadt 2002). Within this context, the  
interaction and overlap of literature and philosophy in Russian  
culture receives a new and topical meaning, raising the question of a  
specifically Russian version of modernity.
These foregoing considerations lead us to at least three complexes of  
inquiry we would like to focus on during the conference: (i) the  
culture-specific contact, resistance and mecha-nisms of appropriation  
between literature and philosophy in Russia; (ii) whether the  
phe-nomenon of mutual permeation of literature and philosophy is  
unique only to Russian culture and as such spatially limited, or  
whether this is symptomatic for specific epochs or currents and thus  
rather indicates a temporal phenomenon; and (iii) critique the concept  
of modernity which assumes the autonomy of discourses in light of the  
Russian example.


If you would like to participate please submit an abstract (no more  
than 700 words) in Eng-lish, Russian or German as well as a brief  
overview of your current research and  institutional affiliation by 31  
January 2012 to: erik.martin at uni-tuebingen.de . The selection  
decisions will be made and notifications sent at the end of February  
2012.

-- 
Prof. Dr. Irina Wutsdorff
Slavisches Seminar
der Universität Tübingen
Wilhelmstr. 50
72074 Tübingen
Raum 529
Tel.: 07071/29-7 43 14
Fax:  07071/29-59 24
E-Mail: irina.wutsdorff at uni-tuebingen.de
http://www.slavistik.uni-tuebingen.de/mitarbeitende/irina-wutsdorff.html
http://www.litphil.uni-tuebingen.de
http://www.netzwerk-kulturwissenschaft.de/projekte/87-prag-als-knotenpunkt-europaeischer-modernen-

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