Water-Russia-Culture

Call for Papers for a book on Water-Russia-Culture

Eds. Arja Rosenholm, Jane Costlow, Maria Litovskaya

We are seeking scholarly articles for an anthology that will focus on the cultural history of water in Russia. The aim of the book is to highlight the multiplicity of meanings, dimensions and values given to water in various times and spaces in Russian society. Water may be understood both as a geographical and physical element, and as a cognitive and cultural construction. The book project will examine meanings of water, and how water, as an essential life-vitalizing element, plays a conceptual role in cultural orientation; it will further address how cultural practices intersect with environmental concerns. Based on inter- and multidisciplinary studies, we hope to include studies of language, literature and culture (popular culture, folklore, and anthropology), history, aspects of water technology, and environmental studies. Aiming at a broad understanding of symbols, metaphors and the imagery of water within Russian culture, the project hopes to reflect on how technological infrastructure is part of the social imagination. We are looking for a broad array of source material, along with insightful and innovative approaches to their consideration at the intersection of cultural and environmental concerns.

Questions which might be addressed include:

• What values, beliefs, fears, and attitudes toward water are attested in Russian culture?
• What are the stories told about water, and how is water represented in Russian literature, historical documents, and the visual arts, and how do those representations influence ways of dealing with water?
• What are the changes connected to the meanings, values, and the images given to water and its textual and visual representations in time and space?
• What are the cultural implications of technical innovations for attitudes toward water?
• What is the cultural role of water in times of transformations (e.g. from the pre-modern to the modern and to post-modern)?

The book project is part of the interdisciplinary research project “Water as Social and Cultural Space: Changing Values and Representations” included in the Research Programme on the Sustainable Governance of Aquatic Resources (AKVA) of the Academy of Finland (2012-2016).

Interested authors should submit an article proposal of no more than two pages, outlining key questions and the material to be addressed. Please submit the abstract as a Word file, along with a short CV (including affiliation, and contact details) by March 30, 2013. Contributors can expect confirmation of their papers’ acceptance by the April 30, 2013.

The editors:

Arja Rosenholm (arja.rosenholm@uta.fi)

Jane Costlow (jcostlow@bates.edu)

Maria Litovskaya (marialiter@gmail.com)