The New Wave of Russian-Jewish-American Culture

Deadline: Apr 1, 2015

Nick Underwood

Call for Papers: The New Wave of Russian-Jewish-American Culture A Special Edition of East European Jewish Affairs Edited by Anna Katsnelson and David Shneer

The most recent wave of Russian-speaking Jewish immigration to North America (1970s-1990s) incubated a rich panoply of talented artists, filmmakers, musicians, and writers; all of whom con- veyed cultural capital from the Soviet Union to the West.

As for literature, contemporary Jewish, immigrant writers from the former Soviet Republics includ- ing Yelena Akhtiorskaya, Masha Gessen, Nadia Kalman, Sana Krasikov, Ellen Litman, Irina Reyn, Anya Ulinich, Lara Vapnyar, and Anya von Bremzen, are upending the definition of Jewish immi- grant literature. The writers in this community have produced collectively a wide-range of textual creative endeavors: memoirs, short story collections, novels, non-fiction, cookbooks, and finally a graphic novel. These works are innovative in that they are boundary crossing productions: they dis- play the writers’ transnationalism and multiculturalism in that they take place all over the former Soviet Republics, and the U.S., etc. While crossing geographical frontiers these authors also tra- verse multiple textual and visual genres. Lara Vapnyar’s Broccoli and Other Tales of Love and Food (2008), is both a short story-collection and a cookbook as it includes recipes. Anya von Bremzen’s memoir Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking (2013) also fuses recipes with the more traditional autobiographical genre. Anya Ulinich’s Lena Finkle’s Magic Barrel (2014) is a graphic novel where the author displays her artistic background and her mastery of the writer’s craft.

In addition to these writers, there are representatives of this community generating cultural capi- tal, and navigating both territorial borders and borders of genre in other artistic realms. Regina Spektor has released numerous albums including Soviet Kitsch (2004), and won a Grammy Award in 2014. In her work she distills her classical musical background with influences from Soviet poet- ry (e.g. Boris Pasternak) and Soviet bard music (e.g. Bulat Okudzhava.) Lera Auerbach, an award winning, classically trained pianist and composer, has been commissioned to write classical music for Gidon Kramer and the Royal Danish Ballet; her music for the new ballet The Little Mer- maid premiered at the Copenhagen Opera House in 2005. Many of Auerbach’s compositions are inspired by Russian literature—e.g. Speak, Memory (2010) and Gogol (2010). Julia Loktev is an acclaimed filmmaker, known for Day Night Day Night (2006) and the Loneliest Planet (2011).

This special issue focuses on the various modes of artistic composition that Russian-speaking Jewish Americans have excelled at in the last decade and a half including art, film, literature, and music. Particular emphasis will be given to the negotiation of genre and geography in this cultural

1/2 ArtHist.net production. We are particularly interested in work that moves beyond writing to examine music, film, visual arts, and other forms of cultural production.

We are seeking 300-500 word abstracts for proposed essays to be turned in no later than April 1, 2015.

The editors will respond no later than one month later requesting full length essays from a selec- tion of abstracts that will be due by October 1, 2015.

The special edition will appear as the Winter 2016 edition of East European Jewish Affairs.

Please send proposals to [email protected]

Reference: CFP: The New Wave of Russian-Jewish-American Culture. In: ArtHist.net, Feb 6, 2015 (accessed Sep 25, 2021), .

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