Please join us at the upcoming Network Analysis of Soviet and Post-Soviet Literature panel at the online AATSEEL Conference.

The panel takes place this Sunday, February 19, at 2:45-4:30 pm.

In literary studies, network analysis is commonly used to map relationships between characters in a text, to calculate their centrality and identify clusters and connections between them. By contrast, this panel is focused on actual people - agents of the literary field who communicate, collaborate, confront each other, and compete for various positions in the field. The goal of this panel is to demonstrate how network analysis can be used to examine sociological aspects of literature. The papers in this panel analyze the roles that social connections and networks play in the construction, promotion, and denunciation of literary values in Soviet and post-Soviet literature. Korotkov’s paper is focused more on the technical side of network analysis. Nechaeva’s paper is devoted to the role of cultural institutions in the establishment of literary reputations. Gleissner’s paper is also focused on institutionalized networks, at the same time, it critically examines the ethical dimensions of social network analysis as a scholarly method. Ivanov’s paper analyzes unofficial networks of post-Soviet literature and combines it with the analysis of social media as a tool of communication and collaboration. The goal of all four papers is to examine in what manner and degree social connections and networks were and are constructive for Soviet and post-Soviet literature.

Papers:

  • Georgii Korotkov, Stanford University, “From journal to network: 1930s Internatsional’naia Literatura network”
  • Olga Nechaeva, University of Pennsylvania, “The Gorky Literary Institute as a Network”
  • Anna Ivanov, Harvard University, ““Too late to scroll through Facebook?”: Russian Poetic Networks in 2022”

Chair: Brian Yang

Discussant: Yuliya Ilchuk

See you there!