Workshop - Translating the Russian

Conference venue: Institut of Eastern European History, University of Vienna, Universität Wien, Spitalgasse 2, Hof 3 (Campus), 1090 Wien
Period: November 8-9, 2013

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the break-down of the Soviet Union in December 1991 represented the end of the Warsaw Pact and led to processes of renationalization and the need for new self-definitions in the former socialist states. This period indicated for Russia not only a traumatic loss of power, but also the end of its interpretive dominance. The new geographic, social, economic and cultural circumstances motivated reinterpretations and revaluations of “Russian” hegemony.

The workshop “Translating the Russian” aims to trace transformations and translations of the role, representation and attribution of the “Russian” in states of the former Soviet Union and its satellite nations after 1989. What is the societal and cultural heritage of the Soviet Union with regard to images of the Russian? Which influences of older representations of the Russian can still be found? Which new roles are ascribed to Russia and the Russians in the new political, social and cultural context? How are these roles narrated and staged? And finally, what are the functions of these representations?
By bringing together young academics from different nations and disciplines, the workshop aims at offering a differentiated view on translations of the Russian as a transdisciplinary and transnational phenomenon. The objective of the workshop is to focus on different forms of staging and narrating the Russian and their functions for constructions of collective identity and memory.

17:00 Welcome by Michael Rössner

17:30-20:00 Staging

Moderation: Monika Mokre

Sune Bechmann Pedersen (Lund University/Bielefeld University)
The Child and the Colonizer: Kolja and other Russians in Czech cinema since 1989

Carola Heinrich (University of Vienna/IKT)
Humor und Gedächtnis: Vergangenheitsbewältigung im rumänischen Theater

Ana Hofman (Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts)
Sounding Russia in post-Yugoslav space

10:00-12:30 Narration

Moderation: Christoph Leitgeb

Roman Dubasevych (University of Vienna)
,Ukrajina ne Rosija„ oder der ukrainische Kampf gegen den eigenen Schatten

Elena Messner (University of Vienna)
Repräsentationen und Übersetzungen des "Russischen" im Gegenwartsserbien

Evá Kovács and Attila Melegh (Hungarian Academy of Sciences)
”Why I am here … it is due to an inner crisis” – narrating the post-Soviet migration

12:30-13:30 lunchbreak

13:30-16:00 Images

Moderation: Gertraud Marinelli-König

Eva-Maria Hanser (University of Vienna)
„How the East Sees the East“ – Russlandbilder der Neuen Slowenischen Kunst

Petra Mayrhofer (University of Vienna)
“Good bye, Lenin!” Visuelle Darstellungen des „Russischen” in Erinnerungskulturen nach 1989

Gernot Howanitz (University of Passau)
„Tam, gdzie stanie mutant sowiecki...“: Old and New Enemies in the Polish Computer Game „Gorky 17“

16:00 Conclusions & Final Discussion
Moderation: Carola Heinrich

Ms. Carola Heinrich
Institut für Kulturwissenschaften und Theatergeschichte
Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften
address: Postgasse 7 / 4 - A-1010 Wien
e-mail: carola.heinrich@assoc.oeaw.ac.at