ASEEES 2013

Literary History: Russian Theories in a post-Hegelian Key

A round table discussion at ASEEES 45th Annual Convention, to be held at the Boston Marriott Copley Place in Boston, MA, November 21-24, 2013.

The participants of this round table hope to reflect on the Russian tradition of literary history with a view to re-invigorating its study today. Every attempt to grasp the literary-historical continuum presupposes a certain philosophy of history, theory of temporality as well as a conception of the relationship between literature and life. We will inquire into these “conditions for the possibility” of the various literary histories we hope to examine: those of the Belinsky generation, the literary critics of the Native Soil group, Alexander Veselovsky, Mikhail Bakhtin, Olga Freidenberg, and Yerimiya Yoffe. This will then provide a framework for a conversation in which highly diverse attempts at historicizing literature can be brought together for productive examination.

Participants:

• Luba Golburt, UC Berkeley
• Anke Hennig, Free U Berlin
• Kate Holland, U of Toronto (Chair)
• Ilya Kliger, New York U
• Boris Maslov, U of Chicago
• Victoria Somoff, Dartmouth College