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Our First Conference (Bath)
Archive
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Cultural
Continuity in the Diaspora: Paris and Berlin in 1917-1937
The Experience of Russian Jews in an Era of Social Change
Research Project based at
the Department of European Studies and Modern Languages,
University of Bath (sponsored by the Leverhulme Trust, UK, under the
International Networks Scheme)
Context
and aim of the programme
Both the beginning and end of Communism in Russia transformed the life of its
Jewish population. Jews in the Soviet Russia adapted to these changes,
while many fled into emigration, where they made significant contributions to
all aspects of an emergent Russian culture-in-exile. The study of Russian Jewish culture at home and in exile
as a general theme has been poorly researched in the UK, Europe, and even in the
USA.
This programme will create, maintain and develop an interdisciplinary
network of specialists who will explore this transformed Russian Jewish
culture, both in Russia and in emigration, primarily in the cultural centres
of Paris and Berlin. The programme will assemble and analyse texts, artwork
and other media, focusing on the émigré centres of Berlin and
Paris, as well as Russia itself, during the first two decades of Soviet rule,
1917-1937.
Participants in the
interdisciplinary network will be from Cultural and Literary History, Gender
Studies, History, Psychology, Sociology, Religious Studies and Theology,
Applied Linguistics and Ethnographic Studies, as well as non-academic
creative writers, journalists and religious practitioners. The network
will develop research methods and conceptual frameworks which will link
scholars across disciplines. Co-operation and
inter-action between scholars, creative artists and other non-academics will
facilitate a rapid advance in this research area.
In illustrating
this site, the images of Marc Chagall’s paintings were used, from the
electronic gallery at http://www.abcgallery.com/C/chagall/chagall-4.html
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