Conference reports Bakhtinian theory in postcolonial and postsocialist space

The workshop “Bakhtinian Theory in Postcolonial and Postsocialist Perspective” was organized to link with the publication of the special section on “Bakhtinian theory in a postcolonial and postsocialist perspective” in Baltic Worlds (number 1, 2017).

Published in the printed edition of Baltic Worlds BW 3:2017 p 26
Published on balticworlds.com on November 7, 2017

The workshop “Bakhtinian Theory in Postcolonial and Postsocialist Perspective” was organized to link with the publication of the special section on “Bakhtinian theory in a postcolonial and postsocialist perspective” in Baltic Worlds (number 1, 2017). Also present at the workshop were the artists Lusine Djanian and Alexey Knedlyakovsky, both former members of Pussy Riot (see more).

Yulia Gradskova (the workshop’s organizer) finds that Bakhtinian concepts have proven to be productive in explaining the ways in which social, political and cultural forces intersect and affect each other, particularly during periods of transition. Such transitions could include colonial struggles for independence, oppressed populations’ right to self-determination, the disintegration of the state and its system of governance, and large scale migration. Bakhtin’s work describes certain important facets of the operation of authority and violence within a culture and the ways in which such forces may be opposed and undermined. Yulia Gradskova underlined the need to see Bakhtin in the time and context in which he lived. Stalinism and the totalitarian system affected him.

Irina Sandomirskaja, professor of cultural studies, CBEES, Södertörn University, set the agenda in her introduction on how to read Bakhtin. There is a fragmentized Bakhtin, she suggested. What we have is bits and pieces of a theory that never come together — although Bakhtin tried to connect his ideas into a totality, the task was never to be completed. Such an outcome can perhaps be understood as a symbolic image of the times he lived in — a shattered, worried Europe. We always read Bakhtin in one edited form or another, concluded Irina Sandomirskaja, and we will never find the authentic Bakhtin. As a former Gulag survivor, he was furthermore an expert at hiding his identity.

Madina Tlostanova, professor of postcolonial feminisms, Tema Genus, Linköping University, returned to the matter of space and locality. Bakhtin stresses the importance of being outside and the role of the other, which fits well in a postcolonial perspective and application. Leung Wing-Fai, lecturer in Culture, Media and Creative Industries, King’s College London, UK did present an analysis of the time and space of a Chinese migrant, the “she” in Guo Xiaolu’s Works. “She” leaves the past and China, life occurs in the present, and the future is in the UK. Yet she is always an outsider and looked upon as the Chinese she no longer identify herself as. To apply Bakhtinian theory on an individual level seems bold, but also opens up for new perspectives. ≈

 

Programme

Ninna Mörner