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