Main entry:

Bayadyan, Hrach, 1957- author.

Title & Author:

Becoming post-Soviet = Postsowjetisch werden / Hrach Bayadyan ; translations/Übersetzungen: Narek Bayadyan, Hrachya Stepanyan.

Publication:

Ostfildern : Hatje Cantz, [2012]
©2012

Description:

1 online resource (23 pages) : illustrations.

Series:

100 notes - 100 thoughts = 100 Notizen - 100 Gedanken ; no. 059

Notes:
Published in conjunction with the exhibition Documenta 13, held June 9-September 16, 2012.
In his notebook, Hrach Bayadyan, one of Armenia's leading cultural critics, re-conceptualizes the "post-Soviet." Following the sociologist Manuel Castell, he reminds us that the term alone means nothing but being "ex-" and expressive of a distance from the Soviet past. Beyond the specific history of Armenia's century-long colonization, Bayadyan looks at the Armenian situation through the lens of postcolonial theory. Due to the lack of dialogue with the past, the relationships between East and West Armenia, and the differences between Soviet and diaspora Armenia, have until today been neglected. "Becoming Post-Soviet" constitutes the beginning of a project to write and speak "from the inside" of this entanglement. -- Publisher's description
In English and German.

Summary:

"It has often been noted that the collapse of the socialist system did not result in research activities that could be compared to postcolonial studies. As Ewa Thompson has observed, "Unlike Western colonies, which have increasingly talked back to their former masters, Russia's colonies have by and large remained mute." Instead, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, opinions have been expressed from within different research fields regarding the appropriateness of thinking of post-Soviet societies in terms of postcolonial studies. Nevertheless, asserting that postsocialism continues to remain a useful category for researchers, Caroline Humphrey notes the existence of a growing gap between Eastern and Central Europe and the Baltic countries on the one hand, and Russia, Middle Asia, and the Caucasian countries on the other. In this text, the term "post-Soviet" will be used mainly in connection with the former Soviet Union (SU) republics (as distinct from the Central and Eastern European countries), although there were regional and individual distinctions among them, in particular regarding the duration and forms of pre-Soviet Russian rule. Passing over the issue of whether the term "post-Soviet" is outdated or not, I would like to talk instead about the fact that the post-Soviet situation has not been properly conceptualized. There is a lack of new notions that allow us to articulate, and thus to convey, a credible existence to post-Soviet experiences, and neither have the tools developed by other fields (e.g., postcolonial studies) been used for this purpose in a consistent and productive manner. This essay is an attempt to discuss these and other related issues, but through the narrower focus of a distinct country-Armenia..."-- provided by distributor.

Resources:
EBSCOhost

ISBN:

9783775730884 (electronic bk.)
3775730885 (electronic bk.)
3775729089
9783775729086

Subject:

Group identity Armenia.
National characteristics, Armenian.
Identité collective Arménie.
Arméniens.
Group identity
Armenia

Form/genre:

Tracts (Ephemera)
Pamphlets

Added entries:

Documenta (Exhibition) (13th : 2012 : Kassel, Germany)
100 notes--100 thoughts ; no. 059.

Postsowjetisch werden
Hrach Bayadyan