Russian literature in the shadow of the war in Ukraine – ARTATWAR

The ArtAtWar project pursues two main objectives :

a) to develop transnational studies within the field of Russian studies in France, both as a research topic and as a research methodology. The project will demonstrate the fruitfulness of this approach on both levels. As a research topic, transnational perspectives make it possible to approach the canon as a cultural construct from a comparative standpoint and to address new objects of study (such as the re-examination of authors geographically and ethnically marginalized within the stabilized canon). As a methodology, it brings greater scientific objectivity to the field, as it entails examining cultural phenomena from the outside; thus, it creates a distance from discourses produced within the country that may be ideologically charged, and places a strong emphasis on literary and cultural relations between different spaces rather than on a single national framework. This approach appears as an appropriate response to the current situation of the academic field in the context of the war in Ukraine, as it enables researchers to continue pursuing their scholarly interests in Russia and the Russophone world, but from a perspective that allows for a plurality of viewpoints and a critical reassessment of traditional discourses produced in Russia.

b) to promote European tools and approaches in the field of transnational studies. Transnational studies are often associated with the Anglo-American academic sphere. The project aims to bridge the gap with the expertise developed in this area outside Europe, but also to implement and highlight, within the international field of transnational studies, the tools, concepts, and approaches that have been developed at the European level. In particular, the paradigm of entangled history (histoire croisée), a branch of connected history that helps us understand how history can be written from a new perspective when it focuses not on a single country but on the relationships between several regions, enables researchers to concentrate on the trajectories of actors and the interaction of cultural spheres rather than on the political level viewed from a monolithic standpoint. Likewise, the notion of the phantom border—which highlights the persistence of former borders that have disappeared politically but remain active culturally—allows scholars to better understand the importance of culture in specific areas with a long history of shifting rulers within moving empires and nations.

Frise chronologique sur le Pouchkinopad :

octant.unistra.fr/story/158191d3-f84d-41f0-a9ef-27ddb1c9838f

Collection HAL

hal.science/ARTATWAR

Chaîne vidéo sur Pod

pod.unistra.fr/artatwar/

The ongoing war in Ukraine has changed dramatically Russian literature and cultural heritage and the way we look at them. Whereas campaigns of boycott against Russian art are organized, new literary practices of dissent and resistance emerge on the Russian territory and among the recent exiles. On the other side, the war has triggered new perspectives on the Russian literary canon, promoting a different view on what should be considered “Russian” or “Ukrainian” and implementing a decolonial approach that was mostly absent in Slavic studies so far.
However, these changes are not currently reflected in the French field of Slavic Studies: they have not yet structurally modified the way we write about Russian literature, we relate to contested authors or objects in the Russian canon or we teach our students about these highly problematic issues.
In the light of the transformations provoked by the tragic war in Ukraine, the project “ArtAtWar” is meant to be an incubator of innovative perspectives on Russian literature, through the joint study of (a) new literary practices in contemporary Russian literature and (b) redefinitions of the modern Russian literary canon, its frontiers and its content. At the core of the project lies a methodological turn through implementation of a transnational approach, where Russian literature is studied not as a self-defined and self-sufficient object, but within a global context and in relation to other literatures.
To produce a leap forward in knowledge in the field of Slavic Studies, the project brings together a team of young scholars in Russian, Ukrainian or Comparative Literature – some of them from the Pause-Solidarité Ukraine program – under the supervision of an emerging specialist of transnational perspectives applied to Russian culture. The project relies on creative tools of digital humanities to elaborate, disseminate and share the results.