Russian and East European Studies
Samizdat and Underground Culture in the Soviet Bloc Countries
April 6-7, 2006
All events will take place at the Penn Humanities Forum at 3619 Locust Walk unless otherwise noted.
“Samizdat and Underground Culture in the Soviet Bloc Countries” is the first scholarly gathering in the United States dedicated to the specific practice of underground anti-establishment literature and artistic activities that flourished from the mid-1950s through the 1980s. The conference aims to assemble experts in the field from both the US and abroad to offer a comparative study of the variety of literary and artistic practices in the Eastern Bloc countries, and to offer a critical approach towards their national specificity and formative socio-political factors. The conference is a bi-partite event. The first part will comprise a day-long Samizdat workshop (first of its kind in the US) led by representatives of the largest collections of Samizdat materials, including the Open Society Archives in Budapest, who will present and discuss their holdings, followed by a reading of Vaclav Havel’s 1978 underground play “Protest.”
The second day will comprise scholarly presentations organized in three panels with three speakers each. The presenters will include leading scholars from Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary, Canada, the Czech Republic, and the US, as well as representatives of the Penn community (including faculty and a graduate student in Art History).
The panels will feature original article-length (20-30pp.) papers by each participant, which will be pre-circulated to conference participants and audience members. Participants will present 20-25-minute summaries of their papers, making possible a compact event with time for productive discussion.
Presenters:
Albena Vassileva , Professor in English and Comparative Literature, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York
Alexander Gribanov , Professor, Suffolk University and Archivist of the Andrei Sakharov Archives and Human Rights Center , Brandeis University
Ann Komaromi , Professor in Comparative Literature, University of Toronto
Carol Rocamora , Professor of Theater, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University
James Christy , Professor in Theater, Villanova University
Jan Kubik , Professor in Political Science, Rutgers University and Polish Academy of Sciences
J. Martin Daughtry , Ethnomusicology, University of California , Los Angeles
Martin Machovec , Professor in Literature, Comenius College and Charles University , Prague
Michael Hollinger , Playwright and Assistant Professor in Theater, Villanova University
Olga Zaslavskaia , Samizdat Archivist, Open Society Archives, Budapest
Wolfgang Eichwede , Professor and Director of the Research Centre for East European Studies, University of Bremen
Vera Skop , Board of Directors, Skoloskyp, Inc., Kiev , Ukraine
Program
April 6, 2006
2-5 pm: Samizdat Workshop led by Olga Zaslavskaia (Open Society Archives, Budapest), Ann Komaromi (University of Toronto), Wolfgang Eichwede (Director, Research Centre for East European Studies at the University of Bremen) and Vera Skop (Skoloskyp, Inc., Kiev)
6-7 pm : “Protest” by Vaclav Havel, translated by playwright, translator and New York University professor Carol Rocamora and read by Villanova University professors James Christy and Michael Hollinger. Free and open to the public.
April 7, 2006
9 am : Opening remarks
Session I, 9:30 – 11:30
Chair: Joseph Benatov, University of Pennsylvania
Discussant: Liliane Weissberg, University of Pennsylvania
Ann Komaromi, University of Toronto, "The Material Existence of Samizdat: Methodological Implications"
Martin Machovec, Comenius College and Charles University , Prague, " The Types and Functions of Samizdat Publications in Czechoslovakia in 1948-1989. "
Wolfgang Eichwede, Research Center for East European Studies, University of Bremen, "Archipelago Samizdat. The Impact of Samizdat Culture on the Contemporary History of Central and Eastern Europe."
Session II, 11:30 – 1:30
Chair: Vladislav Todorov, University of Pennsylvania
Discussant: Ben Nathans, University of Pennsylvania
Jan Kubik, Rutgers University and Polish Academy of Sciences, " Avant-garde Theater Contra State Socialism: What Was Global before the Era of Globalization (in Tadeusz Kantor’s Theater)?"
Carol Rocamora, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, "' Far from the Theatre' : The Playwright Vaclav Havel in the 1970s”
J. Martin Daughtry, University of California , Los Angeles, "'Est' Magnitofon Sistemy "Yauza!" I Etogo Dostatochno!': Magnitizdat as Musical Practice."
Session III, 2:30 – 4
Chair: Liliana Milkova, University of Pennsylvania
Discussant: TBA
Albena Vassileva, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, "Discursive Resistance in Bulgarian Late Communist Culture."
Alexander Gribanov, Suffolk University, "Samizdat in KGB Analysis of 1970-1971: Reading and Comparison of Two Documents." Vypiski iz prikazov
4 pm : Concluding remarks
5 pm : Reception
