大象传媒

Program:

9.30鈥�10.00: Coffee and introductory remarks;聽info session on the project idea and聽role of research group

10.15鈥�11.00: First keynote聽鈥撀燯lrich Schmid聽(Universit盲t St. Gallen):聽The Constitution of the Current State: Art. 13 and Russian Cultural Politics

11.00-11.15: Short break with refreshments

11.15鈥�12.00: Second keynote聽鈥撀燤ikhail Suslov (K酶benhavns Universitet):聽Between a ROC and a Hard Place: Russia鈥檚 Cultural Policy in the Times of the 鈥淐onservative Turn鈥�

12.00鈥�13.00 Lunch

13.00鈥�14.45: Short presentations by members of the group:

Johanne Kalsaas (UiB): Disruptive Digital Discourse and the Diaspora:聽Representations of Norway in Russian-language ideological trolling and its reception by the Russian-language population in Norway

Irina Anisimova (UiB): Social and Technological Transformations in the Works of Viktor Pelevin

Stehn Mortensen (UiB): Vladimir聽Sorokin's 鈥淏elyi聽kvadrat鈥�: Infotainment聽in the Age of聽Propaganda Television

K氓re Johan Mj酶r (UiB/Uppsala University/HVL):聽Ideologies, Politics of History and the Response of Literature in Contemporary Russia

Ingunn Lunde (UiB):聽Chelovek v istorii: notes on the works of Guzel Yakhina

14.45鈥�16.00: Brainstorming about the project more generally

Dinner in the evening.

Abstracts:

Ulrich Schmid, University of St Gallen

The Constitution of the Current State: Art. 13 and Russian Cultural Politics

Article 13 of the Russian constitution prohibits any forms of (or reliance on?) state ideology. As of late, however, government officials have come to question the timeliness of this regulation. What they propose instead is a new 鈥渃onstitutional identity鈥� that is an idiosyncratic reinterpretation of Habermas鈥� famous concept of 鈥渃onstitutional patriotism.鈥� Habermas claimed that in a postnational era the constitution must be the only object of patriotism. In the Russian Federation, by contrast, the constitution should embody the necessary multinational patriotism that is required for the coherence of the state. The significance of this move lies in the fact that the constitution turns into a cornerstone for the ambitious project by which the Kremlin seeks to create a 鈥淩ussian federal nation鈥� (Rossiiskaia natsiia). Against this backdrop, significant emphasis is placed on the politics of culture in the securitization of the Russian state. In the absence of a functioning public sphere that would guarantee the democratic institutions, cultural and historical narratives step in to legitimize the strategies of the current political order.聽

Mikhail Suslov, University of Copenhagen

Between a ROC and a Hard Place: Russia鈥檚 Cultural Policy in the Times of the 鈥淐onservative Turn鈥�

This paper examines the intertwining of cultural policies of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and of the Russian political leadership. It shows how the ROC is trying to recycle the Soviet-era cultural canon on the one hand, and on the other, how the state selectively utilizes 鈥渢raditional values鈥� discourses, promoted by the Church, in its conservative agenda. In the paper I will lean upon empirical examinations of some cultural products (such as the films聽Incredible Travellings of Serafima, Viking,聽and Matilda), and their receptions by various segments of society, cultural and political elite.