Imprint and Tactility as Cultural Techniques in Russian Modernism

Målet med prosjektet var å få frem hudens betydning i litterær og kunstnerisk skapervirksomhet. Vi er vant til å tenke på bilder og tekster som visuelle og lesbare, det vil si fenomener som realiseres i en interaksjon mellom hjernen og øyet. Imidlertid er det taktile, det at bilder og tekster blir berørt av hender, et sentralt aspekt ved enhver tegne- og skriveprosess. Det taktile inngår ofte også i utøvelsen av religiøse ritualer. Taktilitet er integrert i den russisk-ortodokse kultens praksis gjennom førkristne ritualer og rutiner som kyssing og berøring av ikoner. Denne praksisen lar seg føre tilbake til et litterært tema: de ulike middelalderske legendene om et bilde, ikke skapt av menneskehånd, acheiropoietos eikon; det vil si et avtrykk etter en fysisk berøring med Kristi ansikt. Ikonmaleriets litterære tradisjon forutsetter således en kausal sammenheng mellom bilde og kropp. Prosjektet har blitt gjennomført i løpet av tre år i samarbeid med Humboldt-Universitetet i Berlin. Prosjektet har gitt resultater i form av publikasjoner, utstillinger og utvikling av et undervisningsopplegg for masternivå i Tyskland.

1) Knowledge of imprint and tactility as cultural techniques, as well as related problems of thing, readymade, document, body and emancipation from representation 2) Insight into media theories of Russian modernism 3) Understanding of Russian art / literature in the context of problems common in Europe at the beginning of 20th century 4) Perspectives on archaistic, anarchistic and utopianistic motivations and sensibilities of the thinkers under consideration 5) Awareness of the Gulag trauma in the Soviet and contemporary Russian society 6) Strengthened contact between Norwegian and German research on cultural theory.

This project examines a shift in Russian modernism from the previous nexus between image and eye, to the skin. Taking as my point of departure the skins capacity for tactile perception, imprint, interaction with material objects and feeling pain, I investigate key questions about the effects of archaic cult-images in the Gulag literature, the relation between body and text, between modernism and mass murder, and how the Gulag experience generated new concepts of document, testimony, thing and presence. Imprint and tactility will be treated as cultural techniques, which in the German humanities mean exteriorization of thought into rituals, routines, symbols and technology. My research focuses on the famous author and Gulag survivor Varlam Shalamov (1907-1982). In German research on Russian literature, and on Shalamov in particular, growing attention is paid to texts as material entities, and thereby tangible ones. For that reason I intend to conduct the research in joint collaboration with leading scholars at the Humboldt University. The project will contribute to existing knowledge by the combination of a) bringing together fields of research usually studied independently: cultural technique, image theory, memory and the study of Russian modernism; b) developing the methodology of the study of cultural techniques as a meta-level within literature; c) challenging the prevalent nexus of image and eye in art history; d) focusing on new materials hitherto not in the focus of research. Owing to the project's interdisciplinary connection between art, literature and natural sciences, it is expected to open up opportunities for my further career by attracting a wide audience of both scholars and non-scholars. Project outcomes will include one monograph, academic publications in well-reputed journals, two workshops and an exhibition, as well as the formation of sustainable networks of academics.