MCL and Cultural Studies Faculty and Grad Student Forum #14
Parapushkinistika : Remythologizing Aleksander Pushkin through Taboo
Wednesday, April 22, 2026 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM EDT
Horizon Hall, 5225 (Hybrid)
Parapushkinistika
: Remythologizing Aleksander Pushkin through Taboo
By Jasmina Savic (Assistant Professor, MCL)
Date: April 22, Wednesday
Time: 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm
Location: Horizon 5225 (Hybrid)
Zoom Meeting ID: 874 051 7962
Passcode: 5000
This presentation examines how the great Russian writer and poet, Alexander Pushkin, became the subject of public debates through the taboo project Parapushkinistika, conceived and advanced by the controversial author Mikhail Armalinsky. In an effort to reimagine Pushkin as an obscene cultural construct—one whose narratives and actions are deliberately pushed beyond acceptable boundaries—Armalinsky mobilizes what he terms a “bloodless revolution,” grounded in a performative mode deeply rooted in the Soviet and Russian trickster tradition.
The presentation focuses on Armalinsky’s discursive strategies, particularly his combined use of the cynical subject, playfulness, and sexual transgression, to fulfill his aim of remythologizing Pushkin. In doing so, he seeks to provoke and unsettle Soviet and post-Soviet audiences by confronting them with persistent cultural taboos.
Speaker
Jasmina Savic holds a PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is Assistant Professor of Russian Studies at George Mason University. Dr. Savic’s research focuses on late-/post-Soviet literature and culture, taboo and sexuality, émigré and underground literature, and public performance. She is also interested in comparative studies of (Soviet) Russian, Yugoslav, and U.S. censorships, cultural restrictions, and anti-obscenity laws.
Prior to Mason, Dr. Savic taught at Dartmouth College (2021-2024) and the University of Arizona (2019-2020). She also served as a Visiting Research Scholar and Programming and Projects Assistant at the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center (REEEC) at UIUC (Winter–Summer 2021). She taught numerous courses in Russian culture, literature, and language, as well as in Slavic cultures and cinema, and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian languages.
