Archives par étiquette : Russie

Parution: Medievalism in Finland and Russia

Reima Välimäki (dir.), Medievalism in Finland and Russia. Twentieth- and Twenty-First Century Aspects, Bloomsbury, 2022.

Since the end of the Cold War, the Middle Ages has returned to debates about history, culture, and politics in Northern and Eastern Europe. This volume explores political medievalism in two language areas that are crucial to understanding global medievalism but are, due to language barriers, often inaccessible to the majority of Western scholars and students.

The importance of Russian medievalism has been acknowledged, but little analysed until now. Medievalism in Finland and Russia offers a selection of chapters by Russian, Finnish and American scholars covering historiography, presidential speeches, participatory online discussions and the neo-pagan revival in Russia. Finland is currently even more poorly understood than Russia in the discussions about global medievalism. It is usually mentioned only as of the birthplace of the Soldiers of Odin. The street patrol is, however, a marginal phenomenon in Finnish medievalism as this volume demonstrates. Instead of merely adopting the medievalist interpretation of the international alt-right, even the right-wing populists in Finland refer more to the nationalistic medievalist tradition, where crusades do not mark a Western Christian victory over the Muslim East, but a Swedish occupation of Finnish lands. In addition to presenting particular cases of medievalism, the chapters here on Finland challenge and diversify today’s prevailing interpretation of shared online medievalism of European and American right-wing populists.

This book reveals that while medievalisms in Finland and Russia share many features with the contemporary Anglo-American medievalist imaginations, they also display many original characteristics due to particular political situations and indigenous medievalist traditions. They have their own meta-medievalisms, cumulative core ideas and interpretations about the medieval past that are thoroughly examined here in English for the very first time.

 

Table des matières

List of Illustrations
Preface
1. Introduction: Historical Authority in Political Medievalism. Andrew B. R Elliott (University of Lincoln, UK)
2. Middle Ages on the Map of the Memory of Russian Society. Evgenii Rostovtsev (Saint Petersburg State University, Russia)
3. References to Medieval History in the Speeches and Addresses of the President of Russia, 2000-2019. Kati Parppei (University of Eastern Finland, Finland)
4. Circulation of Pseudo-Information: Medievalist Internet Discussions in Contemporary Russia. Mila Oiva (University of Turku, Finland)
5. Pseudo-Medievalist Histories and Contemporary Russian Identity Construction. Evan Wallace (University of Central Florida, USA)
6. Memorials dedicated to the Middle Ages in Finland. Sirpa Aalto & Timo Ylimaunu (University of Oulu, Finland)
7. The Missing Finnish Runestones. Kendra Wilson (University of Turku, Finland)
8. Icelandic Sagas and the Viking Age in Finnish Pseudohistory. Harri Hihnala (University of Turku, Finland)
9. Masculine Online Medievalism in 21st-century Finland. Heta Aali (University of Turku, Finland)
10. Particularizing the Universal: Medievalist Constructions of Cultural and Religious Difference in the Crusader Kings IIJere Kyyrö (University of Turku, Finland)
Index

Détails et commandes sur le site de l’éditeur.

Appel: Medievalism in Russia and Ukrainian Political Discourses

Conférence en ligne organisée à l’occasion du 58e International Congress on Medieval Studies, du 11 au 13 mai 2023.

Date limite d’envoi des propositions: 15 septembre 2022.

Medievalism has been a common, and hardly innocent practice, in both Russian and Ukrainian political discourse ever since the dissolution of the USSR in the 1990s. Both Russia and Ukraine have laid claims to the prominent historical figures of the Kievan/Kyivan Rus’, and the recent military conflict has led to renewed interest in the history of medieval Rus’. Our aim is to establish fruitful and respectful critical dialogue of this sensitive issue among scholars coming from various cultural backgrounds with an interest in Slavic studies, medievalism and the use of medieval history in public discourse, working in all relevant disciplines.

All proposals should be submitted via Confex proposal portal (icms.confex.com/icms/2023/cfp.cgi).

The deadline for submission is Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022.

In the meantime, please feel free to get in touch with the session organizer Dr Anastasija Ropa (Anastasija.ropa [at] lspa.lv) if you would like to propose a paper or moderate the round table.