[Oberlist] UK* cfp: Totalitarian Laughter: Cultures of the Comic under Socialism, Princeton, 8-9.5.2009

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---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: [balkans] CfP: Totalitarian Laughter: Cultures of the Comic under
 Socialism, Princeton, 8-9.5.2009
From:    "Balkan Academic News" <balkans la gmx.net>
Date:    Sun, November 23, 2008 22:22
To:      balkans la yahoogroups.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------


From: "Serguei Alex. Oushakine" <oushakin la Princeton.EDU>

Call for Papers
TOTALITARIAN LAUGHTER:
CULTURES OF THE COMIC UNDER SOCIALISM

May 8-9, 2009

Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
Princeton University
http://slavic.princeton.edu/events/

Throughout its history, socialist mass culture actively relied on satire,
humor, and comedy to foster emotional bonds with its audience. Orchestrated
by the state cultural industry, public laughter released social and
political tension, while leaving intact or buttressing mechanisms of
repression and institutions of power. In turn, late Soviet irony or the
aesthetic of grotesque, developed from below, became instrumental in
solidifying a cultural distance from the values promoted by the socialist
state. Varied in their impact and scope, these cultures of the comic
nonetheless constantly pointed to the irrationality and ludicrousness of the
socialist way of life.
Whether officially approved or censored, totalitarian laughter relativized
existing practices and norms, suggesting different models of understanding
and embodying really existing socialism. Regardless of their content, these
jokes of repression shared the same quality: they were made, not found. It
is precisely this active production of totalitarian laughter from above and
from below that this conference aims to explore. How did state socialism
transform traditional genres and categories of the comic? How crucial was
state censorship in producing (or suppressing) totalitarian laughter?
Through what forms of displacement and condensation did official and
non-official cultures achieve their comic effect? How did these practices of
the comic correspond and interact with each other? What kinds of communities
were formed in the process of producing jokes of repression? What were the
mechanisms and paths of circulation through which laughable versions of
socialism became available to larger audiences? Finally, what kinds of
pleasure did totalitarian laughter promise, if not deliver?
We seek to address these questions by bringing together an interdisciplinary
group of scholars interested in reconstructing the peculiar relationship
between repression and laughter under state socialism. We invite papers that
explore forms of socialist grotesque in the Soviet Union and central and
eastern Europe in such diverse fields as politics, history, literature,
arts, music, theater, television, and film, among others.
Please send an abstract (300 words) of the paper you would like to present
at this conference, along with your CV, by February 10, 2008 to
<oushakin la princeton.edu>
We may be able to offer a limited number of travel subsidies for foreign
presenters.
Those selected to give presentations at the conference will be contacted at
the end of February 2008.
Final papers will be due no later than April 20, and they will be posted on
the conference's website.

Program committee:
Serguei Oushakine (Princeton), Petre Petrov (Princeton), Seth Graham (UCL),
Kevin M.F. Platt (Penn) Nancy Ries (Colgate).

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