Russian Ecospheres: Forms of Ecological Knowledge in in Russian Literature, Culture and History

• Applicant: Dr. Clemens Günther
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 491329833

The terms ecology and Russia in combination might usually provoke a cascade of catastrophic associations in the listener: the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the drying up of the Aral Sea, or oil spills in the nature reserves of the Far North. What is less well known is that Russia and the Soviet Union have also been among the pioneers and masterminds of environmental protection and thinking since the 19th century. For decades, the empires were among the pioneers in fields such as soil science or climate change research, among the conceptual pioneers of ecological thinking (Vladimir Vernadsky's understanding of the biosphere comes to mind) or in activist forms of engagement which can also be traced from 19th century literature into the late Soviet period. These traditions of ecological thought in Russia and the Soviet Union, in their ambivalence, their significance for the history of culture and knowledge, and their relevance for contemporary ecological debates, are at the center of the proposed network. The goal of the network is to historically reconstruct ecology as a knowledge figure, analytical category, and interdisciplinary paradigm in research on Russia and the Soviet Union, to establish it in research policy, and to popularize it in the public sphere. To this end, we want to 1) examine paradigmatic topics such as research on the Russian Arctic, deserts, forests, and soils will be used to examine transpositions of ecological knowledge between literature, culture, and society. 2) systematically discuss approaches that update specific forms and concepts of ecological thought from the Russian tradition (e.g., the concept of the sphere, ecological semiotics, or geopoetics), and make them applicable to contemporary theoretical debates. 3) establish structures in the form of publications (anthology and handbook on ecological thinking in Russia and the Soviet Union) and platforms (international study group for ecological issues in Russia) in order to increase the visibility and profile of research approaches to ecology, a topic which has so far not been standing at the center of research agendas in Slavic studies, especially in literary and cultural studies.The basis of this work program is an interdisciplinary approach that bundles innovative approaches from the literary, cultural and historical sciences and pursues their questions in public conferences and thematically structured workshops.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Philipp Kohl