Transcultural Experiments: Russian and American Models of Creative Communication

349 Pages·1999·1.174 MB·English

by  Ellen E. Berry, Mikhail N. Epstein (auth.)

Transcultural Experiments
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Transcultural Experiments
Russian and American Models of
Creative Communication
Ellen E. Berry and Mikhail N. Epstein
TRANSCULTURAL EXPERIMENTS
ISBN 978-1-349-42157-2 ISBN 978-0-312-29971-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780312299712
Copyright © Ellen E. Berry, Mikhail N. Epstein 1999. All rights reserved. Printed in the
United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue,
New York, N. Y. 10010.
Reprint of the original edition 1999
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Berry, Ellen E.
Transcultural experiments : Russian and American models of
creative communication / Ellen E. Berry and Mikhail N. Epstein.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Intercultural communication. 2. United States—Relations—
Russia (Federation) 3. Russia (Federation)—Relations—United
States. I. Epshtein, Mikhail N. II. Title.
P94.6.B475 1999
302.2—dc21 99-14323
CIP
Design by Binghamton Valley Composition
First edition: October 1999
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To improvisational communities
both actual and virtual.
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction
Berry and Epstein 1
Part I. HISTORY
1. From Culturology to Transculture (with Appendix)
Epstein 15
2. Collective Improvisation and Transcultural Consciousness
Epstein 31
3. Postmodern Avant-Gardes and Cultural Reinvention
Berry 56
Part II. THEORY
A. Definitions
4. Transculture in the Context of Contemporary Critical Theories
Epstein 79
5. From Difference to Interference
Epstein 91
6. Transculture and Society
Epstein 102
7. The Rehumanization of the Humanities
Epstein 113
8. Nomadic Desires and Transcultural Becomings
Berry 121
B. Infinitions
9. How Does Newness Enter the Postmodern World?
Berry 142
10. The Permanence of Newness and Spaces for Difference:
From History to Geography
Epstein 152
viii Contents
11. The Ethics of Imagination
Epstein 164
12.A Transcultural Imaginary
Berry 169
Part III. PRACTICE
13. The Lawlessness of Genres
Berry 177
A. Genres
14. On the Birth of Genres
Epstein 184
15. An Essay on the Essay
Epstein 189
16. The Catalog of Catalogs
Epstein 195
B. Collective Improvisations
17. Improvisational Community
Epstein 201
18. Sample Sessions at Universities 214
19. Nomads at Home: Improvisation in the Academy
Berry 229
C. Authorship
20. Hyperauthorship: The Case of Araki Yasusada
Epstein 240
21. Poetry as a State of Being: From the Notes of Ivan Solovyov
Epstein 256
D. The Internet and Creativity
22. InteLnet: Web Projects in the Humanities
Epstein 276
23. The Interactive Anthology of Alternative Ideas: An Introduction
Epstein 290
In Place of a Conclusion: Transcultural Dialogue
Berry and Epstein 302
Index of Names 323
Index of Subjects 329
Acknowledgments
A
bove all, I would like to thank my co-author for his dedication to this
project and his generosity in sharing his many, varied, and inspiring
ideas. It has been a delight and a privilege to work with him, to see from his
angle of vision: an experience that has irrevocably altered my own. Thanks
go as well to Kent Johnson for first introducing me to Mikhail; to the Insti-
tute for Culture and Society at Bowling Green for its generous award of a fel-
lowship to pursue this project; to Martin Prochazka and faculty at Charles
University in Prague for their interest in this work; to Victoria Lees for her
careful formatting of the manuscript and her diligent attention to prepara-
tion of the index; and to Karen Wolny at St. Martin’s Press for her belief in
this project.
—Ellen E. Berry
The transcultural project has developed through two stages, Russian
(1982–89) and American (1990–98), each of which relied on the participa-
tion and contributions of many colleagues. I want to thank my friends and
co-thinkers Vladimir Aristov, Iosif Bakshtein, Ilya Kabakov, Aleksei
Mikheev, Liudmila Pol’shakova, Boris Tseitlin, Maria Umnova, Olga Vain-
shtein, and all those who participated in collective improvisations in Moscow
and exemplified the spirit of improvisational community. I am also thankful
to Sophia Olinova, Vladimir Tikhvinsky, Eduard Shul’man, and all those
who helped to consolidate, both intellectually and organizationally, the
Moscow interdisciplinary associations: the Club of Essayists, “Image and
Thought,” and the Laboratory of Contemporary Culture. Without the gen-
erous help and participation of these people no transcultural work or creative
“interference” would be possible.
Regarding the American stage, I want to thank above all my co-
author, whose work of integrating the transcultural project into the
framework of contemporary cultural theories was inspiring and has
stimulated many conceptual innovations. Ellen believed in the truly
transcultural potentials of this project and did everything a friend, a col-
league, and a co-thinker can do to bring it to full realization. Her partic-
ipation in the production of the manuscript and in testing the American
potential for collective improvisation was invaluable.