Speaker Biography: Bradley A. Gorski is assistant professor of post-Soviet literature and culture in the Department of Slavic Languages at Georgetown University. He has published on post-Soviet bestsellers, late-Soviet hipsters, and medieval festivals and conservative aesthetics in today’s Russia. His first book, Cultural Capitalism: Literature and Success After Socialism, which examines the changing technologies of literary success in post-Soviet Russia, will come out in 2025. He is also co-editor, with Philip Gleissner (Ohio State U.), of Red Migrations: Transnational Mobility and Leftist Culture after 1917 (University of Toronto Press, 2024).
Abstract: What is the connection between Russia’s regressive gender norms and its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine? The answer is both more important and more complex than has been previously acknowledged. Since its early days, the Putin government sought to exploit a perceived weakness in the new liberal world order: its devaluation of traditional masculinity. This presentation explores a broad range of state-sponsored aesthetic projects—from film and TV to historical re-enactments and festivals—that encourage the rejection of contemporary modernity and a reversion of “traditional values”—especially retrograde modes of masculinity—through forms of play. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, starting in 2014, began to co-opt these forms of play into deadly, delusional warfare, arrayed against the modern world, and especially its progressive gender norms.
The talk is organized in conjunction with SLAVIC 3320: Queer Comrades. Attendance is free and open to the public.
If you have any questions about accessibility or wish to request accommodations, please contact us at cseees@osu.edu. Typically, a two weeks' notice will allow us to provide access.
