Landslide of the Norm: Linguistic liberalisation and literary development in Russia in the 1920s and 1990s

The proposed project will study interrelations between linguistic liberalisation and literary development in Russia in two periods of historical transition: the post-Revolutionary years of the 1920s and the post-Soviet period of the 1990s. Within the cont ext of the "language question" permeating all spheres of social, cultural and political life, the project will focus on the articulation and thematization of language development in fictional and semi-fictional genres. Here the "language question" may tak e on a number of different forms and functions, ranging from a critique of language and play with linguistic diversity, to linguistic, discursive and narrative experimentation. Interdisciplinary in scope and organisation, the project aims at consolidating scholars, insights and approaches from different fields, such as sociolinguistics, communication theory, cultural semiotics as well as literary and rhetorical analysis. Our comparative frame of reference will enable us to determine contemporary processes from a historical perspective and trace fundamental features of cultural and social change during two crucial periods of Russian history.