Oleg Riabov (Ivanovo State University – Russia)


Visualization of Identities: Picturing the Eastern Frontiers of Europe.

Research Project

The project is devoted to analysis of visual representations of belongings/not belongings to Europe as a process of producing ‘Otherness’, both external and internal, in East European cultures.

The relations between Ours and Theirs are the core of collective identity. F. Barth’s idea, that not cultural differences determine borders between cultures, but, on the contrary, the necessity in borders impacts on the differences between cultures, may be used to analyze the mutual influence of visualizations of Self and Other. E.g., this approach demands to take into consideration the interdependence between visual representations of Russian and non-Russian societies in Russian identities. In its own turn, how is Russian Other exploited in constructing Europeanness in other East European discourses on identity? What is represented as Other in regards to ‘ Europe’ (Orientalness? Orthodoxy? Slavs? Muslims? Communism? Something else?). What are sings of this othering? How do they intersect? In what measure the discursive practices of Orientalism (E. Said) are involved in constructing East European frontiers, on the one hand, and in internal symbolic borders within East European cultures, on the other?

National identity exists as the process of the struggle of various discourses competing for definition: which is Ours and which is Theirs. How do different nationalistic discourses in different countries influence on definitions of Europeanness and “inventions of Eastern Europe” (L. Wolff)?

Ours are contrasted not only with the “external Theirs” but with the “internal Theirs” as well. The external Enemy often is ‘invented’ just to defeat the internal one. How does the discourse on Eoropeanness impact on the symbolic borders and hierarchies within East European societies?

Europe is considered as an intellectual construct, which is imagined with help of various means. E.g., g ender symbols play a particularly significant role in an identification processes, performing as ‘border guards’ (N. Yuval-Davis) and constructing the symbolic boundaries within communities. Visualization participates in shaping and reshaping the relations of inequalities and control as well. How the eastern frontiers of Europe are put and what visual means are chosen to map these lines? How are various signs of Europeanness (language, education, body, clothes, patterns of masculinity and femininity, national symbolism, etc.) exploited as means of inclusion/exclusion in discourses on identity in Eastern Europe? What visual means are used to represent Ours and Theirs in this discourse on identity?

Thus, the project has two main objectives:

• to investigate how discourses on identity embody in visual forms;
• to explore how discourses on Europeanness are exploited in producing borders and hierarchies between Ours and Theirs outside and within East European societies?

The research group is international and consists of Russian (Center for Ethnic and Nationalism Studies at Ivanovo State University) and Polish (Interdisciplinary Center of Soviet Studies at University of Lodz) researchers.

Oleg Riabov , D.Sc. (Philosophy), Professor at Philosophy Department of Ivanovo State University, Chair of Center for Ethnic and Nationalism Studies. The title is “‘Mother Russia’: Gender and National Identity in Visual War Propaganda of XX c.”

Andrzej de Lazari , Dr. hab., Professor at University of Lodz and University of Torun, Chair of Interdisciplinary Center of Soviet Studies. The title is “Russian Other in Polish Europeanness: The XX c. Polish Caricaturists’ Visions”.

Adam Kola, Ph.D. student at University of Torun. The title is “The Concept ‘ Europe’ in Polish, Czech, and Croatian Literatures”.

Ulubey Mutaev and Vladimir Kozhin, postgraduate students at Sociology Department of Ivanovo State University. The title is “Caucasian Frontiers? Attitudes to Russian Political Symbols Among Chechen Migrants within Ivanovo Region (The Sociological Survey)”

Tatiana Riabova, C.Sc. (History), Docent at Sociology Department of Ivanovo State University The title is “Visual Representations of New Russian Masculinities in Election Campaigns: Between Sovietness, Russianness, and Americanness?”

Mikhail Timofeev , C.Sc. (Philosophy), Docent at Philosophy Department of Ivanovo State University. The title is “Cinematic Images of Russia and Europe in the Movies of Each Other: Semiotic Aspects of Visualization of Otherness”

Magda Zakowska Ph.D. student at University of Lodz. The title is “Polishness in Identification Strategies in Russian and German Caricatures of XX century: Comparative Studies”

Tatiana Zhestkova , postgraduate student at Philosophy Department of Ivanovo State University. The title is “Nationalism of the Beauty: Miss Russia vs. Mother Russia in Beauty Contests”

The materials consist of caricatures, war posters, advertising, political symbols, movies, and maps of XX-XXI cc.

Planned Activities :

Two workshops: 1) Contest for Belonging: Defining the Europe in Russian and Polish Nationalism Discourses; 2) Visualization of a Nation.

The planned project outcome will be published as an anthology. Some project members are going to publish monographs, and all members plan to write articles in both anthologies and journals. Besides these results, several academic degrees (D.Sc., Ph.D., C.Sc.) are going to be earned within the project.