Deadline: March 31, 2020
The Slavic and East European Forum of MLA is sponsoring a panel on the culture of Slavic and East European cities for the annual meeting in January, 2021 in Toronto. Slavic cities hold a complicated position in their cultures as both heterogenous sites and national emblems. From Libuše’s Prague to Peter the Great’s Saint Petersburg, from the Dragon of Krakow to the Romeo and Juliet of Sarajevo, Slavic cities hold a special place in the construction of national, multinational, and cross-national mythoi. Cities have both been understood as emblematic of individual cultures, but also as the meeting place for several different nations, cultures, and ethnicities. However, cities have darker sides to them as well, and the mythoi of cities are often marshalled to exert power over minorities, undermine positive changes, and promote nationalistic agendas. These competing purposes reflects the complex, cultural role of cities in the imperial and post-imperial spaces of Central and Eastern Europe.
If this panel is of interest to you, please send your abstract to me at daniel.pratt@mcgill.ca by March 31