(Literary) Capital of the Russian Arctic: Murmansk in Russian Literature
In this article, I examine depictions of the city of Murmansk in Soviet and contemporary Russian literature: how different works describe Murmansk’s liminal location and role as a frontier city in the Russian Arctic. I approach this question by analyzing three themes central in the texts about Murma...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:7a184fe344554b2784f5638556f530ca 2023-05-15T14:44:28+02:00 (Literary) Capital of the Russian Arctic: Murmansk in Russian Literature Anni Irmeli Lappela 2018-11-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.7557/6.4446 https://doaj.org/article/7a184fe344554b2784f5638556f530ca EN RU eng rus Septentrio Academic Publishing https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/vestnik/article/view/4446 https://doaj.org/toc/1500-7502 https://doaj.org/toc/1890-9671 doi:10.7557/6.4446 1500-7502 1890-9671 https://doaj.org/article/7a184fe344554b2784f5638556f530ca Poljarnyj Vestnik: Norwegian Journal of Slavic Studies, Vol 21 (2018) Russian literature literary urban studies Arctic city Murmansk geocriticism Literature (General) PN1-6790 Slavic languages. Baltic languages. Albanian languages PG1-9665 article 2018 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.7557/6.4446 2022-12-30T22:14:46Z In this article, I examine depictions of the city of Murmansk in Soviet and contemporary Russian literature: how different works describe Murmansk’s liminal location and role as a frontier city in the Russian Arctic. I approach this question by analyzing three themes central in the texts about Murmansk: 1) future visions of the city, 2) the role of the sea/ocean and the port in the city life, and 3) depictions of the geographical location and natural surroundings of the city. I ask how the image of the city may have changed during the last century and how different actors and places in the city space influence the urban experiences of the protagonists. The Arctic became “a key component of the modern mythology” in the Soviet Union in the 1930s (McCannon 1998: 81). This “Arctic myth”, examined extensively by John McCannon (1998, 2003), is an important context for my study. I am interested in the role of urbanization, focusing on the city of Murmansk, in the Arctic myth and in conquering the North in the 1930s. I also cover questions about the relationship between gender and urban space in this Arctic city text. My theoretical frameworks come from literary urban studies, geocriticism, ecocriticism and semiotics. I analyze Soviet texts in parallel with the contemporary material. The geocritic Bertrand Westphal proposes the geocentered approach to texts: “the geocritical study of literature is not organized around texts or authors but around geographic sites” (Prieto 2011: 20, italics mine). According to Westphal, analyzing a single text or a single author makes the study of a place lopsided, and geocritical study should emphasize the space more than an observer (Westphal 2011: 126, 131, italics mine). Applying Westphal’s geocentered approach to texts, I analyze depictions of Murmansk in multiple texts from different authors and decades. I prefer this kind of approach because exploring different eras’ texts about Murmansk, I want to give a comparative perspective to the history of Murmansk as a literary city. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Bertrand ENVELOPE(-67.077,-67.077,-68.514,-68.514) Murmansk Prieto ENVELOPE(-62.000,-62.000,-64.683,-64.683) Poljarnyj vestnik 21 31 55 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English Russian |
topic |
Russian literature literary urban studies Arctic city Murmansk geocriticism Literature (General) PN1-6790 Slavic languages. Baltic languages. Albanian languages PG1-9665 |
spellingShingle |
Russian literature literary urban studies Arctic city Murmansk geocriticism Literature (General) PN1-6790 Slavic languages. Baltic languages. Albanian languages PG1-9665 Anni Irmeli Lappela (Literary) Capital of the Russian Arctic: Murmansk in Russian Literature |
topic_facet |
Russian literature literary urban studies Arctic city Murmansk geocriticism Literature (General) PN1-6790 Slavic languages. Baltic languages. Albanian languages PG1-9665 |
description |
In this article, I examine depictions of the city of Murmansk in Soviet and contemporary Russian literature: how different works describe Murmansk’s liminal location and role as a frontier city in the Russian Arctic. I approach this question by analyzing three themes central in the texts about Murmansk: 1) future visions of the city, 2) the role of the sea/ocean and the port in the city life, and 3) depictions of the geographical location and natural surroundings of the city. I ask how the image of the city may have changed during the last century and how different actors and places in the city space influence the urban experiences of the protagonists. The Arctic became “a key component of the modern mythology” in the Soviet Union in the 1930s (McCannon 1998: 81). This “Arctic myth”, examined extensively by John McCannon (1998, 2003), is an important context for my study. I am interested in the role of urbanization, focusing on the city of Murmansk, in the Arctic myth and in conquering the North in the 1930s. I also cover questions about the relationship between gender and urban space in this Arctic city text. My theoretical frameworks come from literary urban studies, geocriticism, ecocriticism and semiotics. I analyze Soviet texts in parallel with the contemporary material. The geocritic Bertrand Westphal proposes the geocentered approach to texts: “the geocritical study of literature is not organized around texts or authors but around geographic sites” (Prieto 2011: 20, italics mine). According to Westphal, analyzing a single text or a single author makes the study of a place lopsided, and geocritical study should emphasize the space more than an observer (Westphal 2011: 126, 131, italics mine). Applying Westphal’s geocentered approach to texts, I analyze depictions of Murmansk in multiple texts from different authors and decades. I prefer this kind of approach because exploring different eras’ texts about Murmansk, I want to give a comparative perspective to the history of Murmansk as a literary city. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Anni Irmeli Lappela |
author_facet |
Anni Irmeli Lappela |
author_sort |
Anni Irmeli Lappela |
title |
(Literary) Capital of the Russian Arctic: Murmansk in Russian Literature |
title_short |
(Literary) Capital of the Russian Arctic: Murmansk in Russian Literature |
title_full |
(Literary) Capital of the Russian Arctic: Murmansk in Russian Literature |
title_fullStr |
(Literary) Capital of the Russian Arctic: Murmansk in Russian Literature |
title_full_unstemmed |
(Literary) Capital of the Russian Arctic: Murmansk in Russian Literature |
title_sort |
(literary) capital of the russian arctic: murmansk in russian literature |
publisher |
Septentrio Academic Publishing |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.7557/6.4446 https://doaj.org/article/7a184fe344554b2784f5638556f530ca |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-67.077,-67.077,-68.514,-68.514) ENVELOPE(-62.000,-62.000,-64.683,-64.683) |
geographic |
Arctic Bertrand Murmansk Prieto |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Bertrand Murmansk Prieto |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Poljarnyj Vestnik: Norwegian Journal of Slavic Studies, Vol 21 (2018) |
op_relation |
https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/vestnik/article/view/4446 https://doaj.org/toc/1500-7502 https://doaj.org/toc/1890-9671 doi:10.7557/6.4446 1500-7502 1890-9671 https://doaj.org/article/7a184fe344554b2784f5638556f530ca |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.7557/6.4446 |
container_title |
Poljarnyj vestnik |
container_volume |
21 |
container_start_page |
31 |
op_container_end_page |
55 |
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1766315963692613632 |