Monday, October 17, 2016

Topic Exploration: Soviet nonconformist art and samizdat

1.   The movement I’m investigating is the Soviet nonconformist movement which was established to resist a government that was trying to stamp out individuality and culture in Soviet Russia. This movement extends from just after the end of WWII (from the late 1940’s) until 1991 with the end of the Soviet Union. I want to focus specifically on the later stages of the movement from the late 1970’s until the end of the movement, although I also plan to also cover a little bit about how it was established if it seems important to the protesters’ identity. In addition, I will only be focusing on the Soviet Samizdat and the nonconformist art, not the other forms of nonconformist resistance present at the time.
2.   I’m interested in the identities of the artists, writers, and consumers of the culture created by this movement. Because much of the artifacts I will find will be art and literature from the movement, artifacts which, by their very nature, express the identities of their creators, the identities in this movement are intimately tied to the ways in which it was carried out. I wish to investigate the identities of these artist and how the nonconformist movement and oppression that created it both shaped the identity of its members, and was shaped in turn by this identity. I think this will be important for everyone, because I am hoping to find out something about how oppression and opposition breed identity, which is relevant to anyone seeking their own identity.
3.   These artists and writers participated in the movement through the production of underground art and self-published works. Written works were self-printed, sometimes duplicated with a variety of methods, and distributed among trusted citizens who were also a part of the movement. Art was often shown at illegal apartment showings, where it was displayed as part of an art gallery. All of this took place I secret so that those involved wouldn’t be arrested or killed.

4.   My biggest concern is with developing a thesis and/or a question. The identity I’ve selected ties neatly into the protest itself, but I’m unsure of how to proceed beyond that. I am very interested in how the movement and the identities of the artists develop each other, but I’m not sure how much I will find to support a claim relating to that. I think it is the question of how the identity and the movement play off each other that I will have the most trouble with, but it is also the thing I am most interested in. Given these concerns, I believe that the most difficult part of this project will be finding sources relating to this particular question, and finding a way to include them that would support a central claim. I feel confident I can conduct the actual research, despite these other concerns about the actual writing itself.

No comments:

Post a Comment