Émigré Berlin: The Russian Diaspora in Exile (NeMLA 2024) (Northeast MLA (NeMLA) Convention 2024) (Boston, MA)
The Russian émigré community in Berlin arose in response to one political crisis and was destroyed by another soon after. Before its destruction, however, the exuberance of émigré Berlin combined the energy of a lively Western city undergoing a cultural renaissance with an estranged sense of a Russian society in exile. The roughly half a million Russians living in 1920s Germany included prominent writers such as Vladimir Nabokov and Marina Tsvetaeva, as well as many visual artists.
This surplus of artistic energy became essential to movements in the latter half of the 20th century, not only in Russian-language and German literature, but also in America and England. Interwar Berlin provides a focal point to better understand not only these particular exiles, but also the state of modern statelessness. Contemporary conflicts and their resulting refugee crises increase the stakes of understanding this decade of literary history.
This panel welcomes papers from a wide range of fields, including (but not limited to) Slavic studies, Germanic studies, queer theory, urban studies, and film/media studies.
Please submit a 200-300 word abstract and a brief bio through the NeMLA conference portal: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/CFP. Abstracts are accepted now through Sep 30, 2023, and membership in NeMLA is not required to submit an abstract. Please see the NeMLA website for more information about submitting your abstract online: https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention.html
https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/20601
Eleanor Rambo