Slavic Colloquium - Nicolai Volland “Socialism at Sea: Oceanic Imaginaries and Sino-Soviet Entanglements, 1945-1965”

Dr. Nicolai Volland will be presenting a talk for the Slavic Colloquium titled “Socialism at Sea: Oceanic Imaginaries and Sino-Soviet Entanglements, 1945-1965”.

 

In recent years, the emerging field variously called archipelagic studies, oceanic studies, or blue humanities, has pioneered new approaches and methodologies across the humanities. How do these interventions change the way we think about world socialism? The Sino-Soviet alliance, spanning the Eurasian landmass, has generally been viewed as a continental enterprise. Did the leaders of the socialist world ever get their feet wet? Can Communists swim? Does socialism float? This presentation dives into these questions and more, aiming to reconstruct the oceanic imaginaries of the socialist world at its heyday. From portrayals of Stalin and Mao as great helmsmen, to proposals for a joint Sino-Soviet naval force, to the infamous “archipelago gulag,” I will track down instances of maritime thinking and logic that help us rethink the continental perception of both the Sino-Soviet relation-ship and the socialist world at large.

 

Dr. Nicolai Volland is an Associate Professor of Asian Studies and Comparative Literature at Pennsylvania State University. His research focuses on modern Chinese literature and culture in its transnational dimensions (including cosmopolitanism, transnationalism, translation, and transculturation), as well as reception and cultural consumption. He is also interested in film and visual culture, as well as print culture in modern China and Southeast Asia, and in oceanic/archipelagic studies.