St. Petersburg / Leningrad: Narration - History - Present
Abstract
The aim of the project is to elucidate the relationship between the classical interpretations of the city as conveyed in the traditional Petersburg Text along with its mythological constructions, and contemporary St. Petersburg culture with the focus on the ways the present city generates new texts. In order to achieve such an aim it is necessary that literary studies and cultural studies be in constant dialogue with multidisciplinary urban studies, sociology and semiotics. This dialogue is a means to problematise in a new way the appropriateness of the application of the St. Petersburg Myth and Text in the study of contemporary culture.
The main objects of study of the project can be summarised as follows:
- The Petersburg Text of Russian literature from Bitov and Brodsky to the most recent texts
- Petersburg andegraund in literature and the visual arts
- St. Petersburg rock texts
- St. Petersburg cultural press - both official and unofficial
- St. Petersburg cultural minorities
- "Narratives" of history about St. Petersburg/Leningrad and their transformations
- St. Petersburg housing culture - "kommunalka" past and present
- St. Petersburg semiotics of city culture
- 300th Anniversary of St. Petersburg as a Petersburg Text
The methodological approaches in this interdisciplinary project range from the analysis of a literary text to approaches applied in the studies of cultural history and sociology. The purpose of the project is to produce studies as concrete results of the international cooperation between younger and senior scholars.
Project leader: Prof. Pekka Pesonen, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 24, 00014 University of Helsinki, tel. +358 (0)9 -19122987, fax +358 (0)9 - 19122974, pekka.pesonen(at)helsinki.fi, www.helsinki.fi/~pjpesone
Researchers:
Ulla Hakanen, University of Helsinki, ulla.hakanen(at)helsinki.fi
Mari Raami, University of Helsinki, mari.raami(at)helsinki.fi
Elena Stafeva, University of Helsinki, elenastaf(at)hotmail.com
Maija Könönen, University of Helsinki, maija.kononen(at)helsinki.fi
Hanna Ruutu, University of Helsinki, hanna.ruutu(at)helsinki.fi
Tomi Huttunen, University of Helsinki, tomi.huttunen(at)helsinki.fi
Stanislav Savitski, University of Helsinki, stassavitski(at)yahoo.com
Project description