Is Post-Soviet Decolonial?

ogólnouniwersyteckie

Very good knowledge of English required, enabling critical reading of texts and discussions in English. Knowledge of Russian is not mandatory but it is welcome

This seminar aims to critically discuss usefulness as well as the limits of the postcolonial and decolonial theories for analysis of the post-Soviet space, and post-Soviet societies. By referring to existing literature we will focus on particularities of the Russian/Soviet versions of colonialism, modernisation, imperialism and postcolonialism. Moreover, we will discuss whether a hegemonic epistemology of postsocialism may be worked through the decolonial though. By referring to recent growing literature calling for decolonisation of the post-Soviet societies from Russian/Soviet past, cultural influences and dependences, as well as to empirical materials such as literature, movies and ethnographic researches, we will discuss particularities of the processes of Russian/Soviet colonisation and decolonisation processes.

The postcolonial studies and decolonial theories are products of the self-reflexivity of the anglophone world and reactions of thinkers representing societies mostly colonized by the British Empire on their post-empire condition. During the seminars we will discuss to what extend these concepts are applicable to Russia/Soviet context and their ex-colonies. We will read some classical theoretical texts in postcolonial studies and then see how these concepts may be applied to post-Soviet societies mostly of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. We will also refer to growing literature showing particularities of the Russian/Soviet colonialism and post-colonial processes. During the seminars we will refer to empirical materials such as literature, movies and ethnographic researches to discuss particularities of the processes of Russian/Soviet colonisation and decolonisation processes. Among the problems that we will discuss are:

- What where the particularities of the Russian/Soviet colonisation, modernisation and imperialism

- How Russian/soviet colonialism was experienced by various groups and how it produced and orientalised the Other

- What kind of power relations stand behind concept of post-Soviet

- How is Russian/ Soviet colonial experience different/unique?

- How the post-Soviet as decolonial is conceptualized?

- To What Extent the Post-Soviet Condition is Postcolonial?

- How process of decolonisation works in art, literature and social life

Budryte, Dovile. 2016. “Decolonization of Trauma and Memory Politics: Insights from Eastern Europe.” Humanities. https://doi.org/10.3390/h5010007.

Cervinkova, Hana. 2012. “Postcolonialism, Postsocialism and the Anthropology of East-Central Europe.” Journal of Postcolonial Writing 48 (2): 155–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2012.658246.

Chari, Sharad, and Katherine Verdery. 2009. “Thinking between the Posts: Postcolonialism, Postsocialism, and Ethnography after the Cold War.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 51 (1): 6–34.

Dogadaeva S, Zavadski A (2024) Editorial. Two Dialogues on Self-Decolonization. The February Journal, 03: 1–10. DOI: 10.35074/FJ.2024.40.12.00

Etkind, Alexander. 2011. Internal Colonization. Russia’s Imperial Experience. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Hirsch, Francine. 2005. Empire of Nations Ethnographic Knowledge and the Making of the Soviet Union. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.

Hladík, Radim. 2011. “A Theory’s Travelogue: Post-Colonial Theory in Post-Socialist Space.” Teorie Vědy / Theory of Science 33 (4).

Kagarlicki, Boris. 2012. Imperium Peryferii. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Krytyki Politycznej.

Kivelson, Valerie, and Ronald Suny. 2017. Russia’ Empires. New York and Oxford: OUP.

Koobak, Redi, Madina Tlostanova, and Suruchi Thapar-Björkert. 2021. “Introduction: Uneasy Affinities between the Postcolonial and the Postsocialist.” In Postcolonial and Postsocialist Dialogues, edited by Redi Koobak, Madina Tlostanova, and Suruchi Thapar-Björkert, 1–10. New York: Routledge.

Oushakine, Serguei. 2013. “Postcolonial Estrangements: Claiming a Space Between Stalin and Hitler.” In , 285-315. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv8pzbhw.18.

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. 2006. “Are You Postcolonial? To the Teachers of Slavic and Eastern European Literatures.” PMLA/Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 121 (3): 828–29. https://doi.org/DOI: 10.1632/S0030812900165903.

Tlostanova, Madina. 2015. “Between the Russian/Soviet Dependencies, Neoliberal Delusions, Dewesternizing Options, and Decolonial Drives.” Cultural Dynamics 27 (2): 267– 283. https://doi.org/DOI: 10.1177/0921374015585230.

———. 2018. “The Postcolonial and the Postsocialist: A Deferred Coalition.” An Interdisciplinary Journal of Postcolonial Studies 3 (1): 1–37. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2554334.

———. 2020. “The Postcolonial Сondition and the Decolonial Option: A Postsocialist Mediation.” Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie 1 (161): 66–84. https://www.nlobooks.ru/magazines/novoe_literaturnoe_obozrenie/161_nlo_1_2020/article/21972/.

Tlostanova, Madina, and Walter D. Mignolo. 2012. Learning to Unlearn: Decolonial Reflections from Eurasia and the Americas. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.

Törnquist-Plewa, Barbara, and Yuliya Yurchuk. 2019. “Memory Politics in Contemporary Ukraine: Reflections from the Postcolonial Perspective.” Memory Studies 12 (6): 699–720. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750698017727806.

Student knows what is postcolonialism, postsocialism, decolonialism and s/he is able to give examples of these processes

Student increases his/her reflexivity in the perception of processes of postcolonialism and decolonisation in particularity in the post-soviet space

Student develops his/her competences to critically look at political, social and cultural reality of post-Soviet societies

- mandatory reading of texts and oral reactions on the readings during the seminar

- active participation in seminars and preparation of a short presentation/introduction to the discussion on a given topic with referances to the concepts discussed during the classes

- oral exam