Presentations by Streams

Hannah Arendt has written “that even in the darkest of times we have the right to expect some illumination, and that such illumination might well come less from theories and concepts than from the uncertain, flickering, and often weak light that some men and women, in their lives and their works, will kindle under almost all circumstances and shed over the time span that was given to them” (Men in Dark Times, ix). The papers on this panel focus on how Siberian exile was represented and memorialized in Russian and American culture in a variety of media, including memoirs, letters, photography, and ephemeral objects. Expanding upon the pioneering work of Galya Diment, Yuri Slezkine and Mark Bassin, which explores the mythology of Siberia and problematizes its opposing portrayals as a locus of punishment and fear or as a site of freedom and redemption, these authors delve into the way that their subjects experienced and interpreted Siberian exile during the long 19th century. Moreover, the presenters elaborate how their subject’s texts – both the ones they disseminated themselves and those that were constructed for them – played a role in creating a lasting image of Siberia once they were disseminated among the reading public in Russia and abroad.