Call for papers N. 25 - Special issue: “Criticism in Russian Studies: between theory and social practice”

Russian literary criticism emerges as a major sociocultural institution of the public
sphere in the 19 th century. Drawing from the European tradition of the Enlightenment,
which poses criticism as an important institution in the process of liberation and
secularization of society, in a direct clash with the vision of a hierarchical Absolutist
State), in Russia criticism acquired very distinctive features.

In this case, criticism is a very broad realm, that has as one of its main tenets
communication with the public and the establishment of a specific perspective on
literature, which is seen less an autonomous artifact and more as a powerful tool of
political action.

With the attempt promoted by Formalism to establish the understanding of
“literariness” from autotelic criteria, i. e. literaturnost’ as something detached from a
social function, criticism is faced with impasses that will persist throughout the 20 th
century, with the approaches of Structuralism and Semiotics.

Likewise, the democratizing and open atmosphere that orients European enlightened
criticism is strongly shaken with the systematic closing and control procedures that
orient the soviet regime, posing new challenges and a drive to reinvent criticism: after
all, how can one take further what Hohendahl called the simultaneous dimension of
criticism, that is, the fact that it is both a sphere of ideology and the main instrument
to criticize it?

Therefore, this special issue arises with the intention of looking into the rich tradition
of Russian criticism in its various fields (literature, theatre, cinema), while seeking to
understand the very particular way in which it is imbricated in the major debates of
theory and history of literature.

The special issue with receive papers that deal with various aspects of criticism: the
publicistic in the 19 th century; relations between literary milieu and criticism;
interactions between literary theory and criticism; criticism and politics in the soviet
context; studies on cinematographic of theatrical criticism.

The special issue is organized by Priscila Nascimento Marques (UFRJ) and Rodrigo Alves
do Nascimento (UFBA).

Deadline for submissions: September 15th, 2023. Publication in November 2023.