Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies
Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
Interdisciplinary Conference
TOTALITARIAN LAUGHTER: CULTURES OF THE COMIC UNDER SOCIALISM
May 15-17, 2009
Aaron Burr Hall
Room 219
http://slavic.princeton.edu/events/calendar/detail.php?ID=1921
MAY 15
10:00 – 12:00 Panel 1
FUNNY STALIN
Chair: Petre Petrov (Princeton)
Alexandra Arkhipova (Russian State University for Humanities, Moscow).
Laughing about Stalin: The Formation and Evolution of Soviet Uncensored Jokelore
Boris Briker (Villanova University, USA)
The Image of Stalin in the Kremlin in Life-Death Jokes of the 1930s
Natalia Scradol (Hebrew U of Jerusalem/Ben-Gurion U of the Negev, Israel)
Exceptional Laughter
Discussant: Ben Nathans (University of Pennsylvania)
12:30 – 14:30 Panel 2
TWISTED TEXTS AND CRYPTIC LIVES
Chair: TBA
Dennis Ioffe (Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada/ University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands )
Day-to-day Eccentric Behavior and the Problem of the “Text of Life”: Alexey Kruchenykh's Laughter
Yuri Leving (Dalhousie University, Canada)
“Mr. Twister in the Land of Bolsheviks:” The Ideology of Laughter and Auto-Censorship in Marshak’s Poem
Dragan Kujindzic (University of Florida, USA)
Mickey Marx: Eisenstein with Disney and Other Funny Stories from the Socialist Realist Crypt
Dmitry Golynko (Russian Institute of Arts History, St. Petersburg)
Totalitarian Laughter as Magic Ritual: The ‘Soviet’ Poems and Plays by D.A. Prigov in the Context of Moscow Conceptualism
Discussant: Eliot Borenstein (NYU)
14:45 – 16:45 Panel 3
PICTURING JOKES
Chair: Kim Lane Scheppele (Princeton University)
Stephen Norris (Miami University of Ohio)
“Laughter is a Very Sharp Weapon”: Boris Efimov and Soviet Visual Humor
Alena Ledeneva (University College London, UK)
Smiling at 'Open Secrets': Visual Images of Blat and Kumovstvo
Neringa Klumbytė (Miami University)
Soviet Ethical Citizenship: Morality, Identity, and Laughter in Late Soviet Lithuania
Discussant: Catharine Nepomnyashchy (Columbia University)
17:00 – 18:30 Keynote Address
Caryl Emerson
A. Watson Armour III University Professor
Chair of the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
We Almost Died Laughing and Other Theories of the Comic for a Dark Age
MAY 16
9:30 – 11:30 Panel 4
THE LAUGHABLE EVERYDAY
Chair: Serguei Oushakine (Princeton University)
Ilia Kalinin (Smolny College St. Petersburg/Neprikosnovennyj Zapas, Russia)
Laughter Helps Us to Live and to Build: Soviet Anthropology and Comediography on Productive and Unproductive Laughter
Bella Ostromoukhova (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, France)
Production of Comic Theater by Soviet Students, 1953-1970
Maria Ionită (University of Toronto)
“Turnips as far as the eye can see:” Satirical science-fiction in late 1980s Romania
Alexander Lamazares (Bronx Community College at the City University of New York)
Post-Soviet Aesthetics in Cuba: Cultural Change, Humor and Tropical Perestroika
Discussant: Kevin Platt (University of Pennsylvania)
11:45-13:45 Panel 5
TEARFUL LAUGHTER
Chair: TBA
Sibelan Forrester (Swarthmore College)
Black Humor in Danilo Kiš’s Tales of Totalitarianism
Andrew Horton (University of Oklahoma)
Beyond No Man’s Land: Comic Tragedy and Tearful Laughter in Cinemas of the Balkans
Svetlana Adonyeva(St. Petersburg State University, Russia)
Bawdy Chastushki: Shame and Domination
Discussant: Martha Lampland (University of California, San Diego)
14:30 – 16:30 Panel 6
JOLLY FELLOWS OF SAD COMEDIES
Chair: Ellen Chances (Princeton University)
Olga Bessmertnaya (Russian State University for Humanities, Moscow)
“Jolly Fellows”: Why not “A Herder of Abrau-Durso”? Two Scenarios of the First Soviet Musical Film Comedy
Martin William (Polish Cultural Institute, USA)
Zlatan Dubov’s Late Film Comedies
Mark Leiderman (University of Colorado-Boulder, USA)
Tricksters' Laughter in Soviet Culture
Lilla Toke (State University of New York- Stony Brook, USA)
Eastern European film satires from the 1960s
Discussant: Seth Graham (University College London, UK)
16:45 – 18:00 Screening and Discussion with Film Director Ben Lewis
Hammer and Tickle: The Story of a Political System that Was Laughed out of Existence (2006)
MAY 17
9:30 – 11:30 Panel 7
NOTES OF SUBVERSION
Chair: Stanislav Shvabrin (Princeton)
Anna Nisnevic (University of Pittsburgh, USA)
Laughter at the Opera House: The Case of Prokofiev’s Love for Three Oranges
Anthony Qualin (Texas Tech University, USA)
Laughing at Carnival Mirrors: the USSR as reflected in Vladimir Vysotsky’s humorous songs
Laura Olson Osterman (University of Colorado-Boulder, USA)
Subversive Songs in Liminal Space: Women’s Political Chastushki in Rural Communities
Discussant: Helena Goscilo
11:45-13:45 Panel 8
ETHNICITY OF JOKES
Chair: Michael Reynolds (Princeton)
Anna Oldfield (Hamilton College, USA)
Laughter and the Anxiety of Ethnicity: The New Caucasian Woman in Kavkazkaya Plennitsya and Qaynana
Ivana Dobrivoevic (Belgrade Institute of Contemporary History, Serbia)
Perception of “Others”: Laughter as a Part of Official Party Propaganda in Yugoslavia (1945 – 1955)
Justine Gill (University of Alberta, Canada)
Cultures of the Comic under Socialism: Afghanistan and Soviet Jokes
Discussant: Mark Beissinger (Princeton)
Program Committee:
Serguei Oushakine (Princeton), Seth Graham (UCL), Petre Petrov (Princeton),
Kevin M.F. Platt (University of Pennsylvania), Nancy Ries (Colgate U).
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