Post-Colonial and Post-Soviet Entanglements

„The War in Ukraine Is a Colonial War” – this is the succinct interpretation by Timothy Snyder, one of the leading historians of 20th Century Eastern Europa, of the brutal aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, which on 24th February 2022 escalated into a war (The New Yorker, 29.04.2022). Russia’s autocratic leader, Wladimir Putin, is rather outspoken about his aim to restore a “defunct” Empire’s might and glory through the violent submission of non-Russian peoples at Russia’s periphery. While the imperialist nature of both the Tsarist monarchy and the Soviet Union throughout the 20th century are undisputed in scholarship, efforts to understand Soviet and Post-soviet spheres as ‘colonial’ and ‘post-colonial’ are still uncommon.

Mrs. Prof. Dr. Nikita Dhawan an Mr. Prof. Thomas Lindenberger will conversely explore how the Eurasian ‘space’ with all its inner diversity and complexity barely figures in the geopolitics of ‘mainstream’ post-colonial critique. Following-up on last semester’s reading course “Post-Colonial and Post-Shoah readings” and their intertwined bearings on memory politics, this lecture course sets out to explore the mutual entanglements of (post-)colonial and (post-)soviet studies. This will involve engaging with the historiography of the Soviet project as an imperial endeavor, its – by and large unacknowledged - colonialist implications from the outset, as well as with its critique as colonial and post-colonial ideology and practice in recent international scholarship. Since this is an emerging field of study, the reading course will be partly exploratory, and the readings will be supplemented with invited speakers with pertinent expertise on the intersection of Soviet and colonial studies. The syllabus will include readings from different disciplinary backgrounds including philosophy, history and social sciences. Participants are expected and given opportunity to opt for exam requirements according to the regulations of their respective fields (in history, or in political science, or other). High level of English proficiency is not essential. Exam requirements vary according to the subject area. You will receive more information in the first session.

Einführende Literatur: M.R. Beissinger: The Persisting Ambiguity of Empire, in: Post-Soviet Affairs 11, (1995) 2, S. 149–184; D. Kołodziejczyk / C. Şandru: Introduction: On colonialism, communism and east-central Europe – some reflections, in: Journal of Postcolonial Writing 48, (2012) 2, S. 113-116; D. C. Moore: Is the Post- in Postcolonial the Post- in Post-Soviet? Toward a Global Postcolonial Critique, in: Papers of the Modern Language Association 16, (2001) 1, S. 111–128; K. Smola / D. Uffelmann: Postcolonial Slavic Literatures After Communism. Introduction, in: K. Smola / D. Uffelmann (ed.): Postcolonial slavic literatures after communism, FrankfurtM. 2016, S. 9-25; G. C. Spivak / N. Condee / R. Harsha / V. Chernetsky: Are We Postcolonial? Post-Soviet Space, in PMLA, 121, (2006) 3, S. 828-836.

Verwendung: PhF-Hist-MA-EM, PhF-Hist-MA-SM1, PhF-Hist-MA-SM2, PhF-MA-FMEW, PhF-MA-FMSW, SLK-MA-EB-FM, SLK-MA-FaEB-EFM

Teilnehmendenzahl: max. 24 Studierende (Idealerweise 12 Fachbereich Geschichte/12 Fachbereich Politikwissenschaften)

Anmeldung: Anmeldung über OPAL