Performances of Protest and Resistance
Contesting Russia's Nationalism
Will be published approx. on 17. September 2026
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-1-350-46572-5 (ISBN)
Description
International, interdisciplinary and urgent, this edited collection of 15 essays explores performances of resistance to Russian authoritarianism since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, with a particular focus on the 21st century under Putin's leadership.
Against the backdrop of Russia's Post-Soviet history of rising nationalism and war in Ukraine, this volume challenges what we consider expressions of resistance. How can we evaluate their potential to contest autocracy? In a repressive climate, how do expressions, languages and forms of resistance re-emerge, replicate and intersect across past decades and artistic mediums? How do they reveal perspectives of the other and gesture toward the future? These pressing questions are answered by engaging with a wide variety of theoretical frameworks including bio-politics, feminism, decoloniality and intersectionality.
The volume is organized into three sections that explore artistic expression, gender and postcolonial critique. A sweeping geographical range is examined, including Ukraine, Belarus, Hungary, Poland and the Caucasus and Central Asian regions of the former Soviet Union, reflecting more broadly on the shifting political landscape of Eastern Europe and Eurasia. The mediums covered are equally diverse, encompassing social and religious rituals in the public sphere, public speaking, collective or individual re-enactments of past traumatic events, traditional storytelling, social media activism and journalism. To contemplate resistance is to trace its shifting forms and to affirm its existence - even when it is excluded from public discourse, rendered invisible, censored or denied.
Against the backdrop of Russia's Post-Soviet history of rising nationalism and war in Ukraine, this volume challenges what we consider expressions of resistance. How can we evaluate their potential to contest autocracy? In a repressive climate, how do expressions, languages and forms of resistance re-emerge, replicate and intersect across past decades and artistic mediums? How do they reveal perspectives of the other and gesture toward the future? These pressing questions are answered by engaging with a wide variety of theoretical frameworks including bio-politics, feminism, decoloniality and intersectionality.
The volume is organized into three sections that explore artistic expression, gender and postcolonial critique. A sweeping geographical range is examined, including Ukraine, Belarus, Hungary, Poland and the Caucasus and Central Asian regions of the former Soviet Union, reflecting more broadly on the shifting political landscape of Eastern Europe and Eurasia. The mediums covered are equally diverse, encompassing social and religious rituals in the public sphere, public speaking, collective or individual re-enactments of past traumatic events, traditional storytelling, social media activism and journalism. To contemplate resistance is to trace its shifting forms and to affirm its existence - even when it is excluded from public discourse, rendered invisible, censored or denied.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
With dust jacket
Illustrations
10 bw illus
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 138 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-46572-5 (9781350465725)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Julia Listengarten is Professor of Theatre at the University of Central Florida, USA.
Yana Meerzon is Professor of Theatre Studies at the University of Ottawa, Canada.
Varvara Sklez is pursuing a PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Warwick, UK.
Yana Meerzon is Professor of Theatre Studies at the University of Ottawa, Canada.
Varvara Sklez is pursuing a PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Warwick, UK.
Content
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Abstracts and Bios
Introduction
Protest in the Time of Empire: Rethinking Aesthetic Strategies and the Legacy of Cultural Resistance in Post-Soviet Russia by Yana Meerzon and Julia Listengarten
Part One: Dramaturgies of Resistance and Protest
1. Denis Bilunov and Yana Meerzon - Rise and Fall of Anti-Putin Protests in Russia: The Changing Resistance
2. Inna Perheentupa, Galina Miazhevich and Saara Ratilainen - Performances of Media and Gender: Smuggling Anti-War Information with 'Zhenskaia Pravda'
3. Roman Osminkin - How Actionism Failed to Save Russia
4. Katarzyna Syska - Emancipatory Potential of Death: The Party of the Dead Project
5. Varvara Sklez - Rehearsing Political Collectivity in Times of Hopelessness
Part Two: Women, Resistance and Protest
6. Vera Boicova - Eve's Ribs Feminist Art Festival: Reflection on the Times of Hope
7. Alexandra Dunaeva - Wound to Wound: Judith Performance by Razgovory Theatre Company, St. Petersburg, 2021-22
8. Julia Listengarten - Speaking Truth to Power: Expressions of Holy Foolishness as a Form of Resistance
9. Kamila Mamadnazarbekova - Zarema Zaudinova: Feminist Killjoy from the Caucasus
10. Anna Hodel - Performing Epistemic In/Justice: Testimonies of (Female) Resistance in Ukrainian Theater, 2014-22
Part Three: Decolonizing Russian Nationalism
11. Ewa Bal and Kasia Lech - (Trans)Localness Against Biopolitics of the Past in Polish Theatre after 1991
12. Aniko Szucs - 'What Are You Afraid Of?' Dystopia as Resistance in the OErkeny Theatre's Chaos 2045
13. Margarita Kompelmakher - Inclusive Actionism: Radical Care as Protest in the Belarus Free Theatre's Ability for Disability
14. Mark Simon - Enrooting Cosmopolitanism: Manizha Sangin's Artistic Trajectory as a Form Resistance to Nationalism and Authoritarianism in Russia
15. Adam Laten Willson - Listening to Tolgonai: Staging Chingiz Aitmatov's Mother's Field in Post-Soviet Space
Notes
Index
Acknowledgements
Abstracts and Bios
Introduction
Protest in the Time of Empire: Rethinking Aesthetic Strategies and the Legacy of Cultural Resistance in Post-Soviet Russia by Yana Meerzon and Julia Listengarten
Part One: Dramaturgies of Resistance and Protest
1. Denis Bilunov and Yana Meerzon - Rise and Fall of Anti-Putin Protests in Russia: The Changing Resistance
2. Inna Perheentupa, Galina Miazhevich and Saara Ratilainen - Performances of Media and Gender: Smuggling Anti-War Information with 'Zhenskaia Pravda'
3. Roman Osminkin - How Actionism Failed to Save Russia
4. Katarzyna Syska - Emancipatory Potential of Death: The Party of the Dead Project
5. Varvara Sklez - Rehearsing Political Collectivity in Times of Hopelessness
Part Two: Women, Resistance and Protest
6. Vera Boicova - Eve's Ribs Feminist Art Festival: Reflection on the Times of Hope
7. Alexandra Dunaeva - Wound to Wound: Judith Performance by Razgovory Theatre Company, St. Petersburg, 2021-22
8. Julia Listengarten - Speaking Truth to Power: Expressions of Holy Foolishness as a Form of Resistance
9. Kamila Mamadnazarbekova - Zarema Zaudinova: Feminist Killjoy from the Caucasus
10. Anna Hodel - Performing Epistemic In/Justice: Testimonies of (Female) Resistance in Ukrainian Theater, 2014-22
Part Three: Decolonizing Russian Nationalism
11. Ewa Bal and Kasia Lech - (Trans)Localness Against Biopolitics of the Past in Polish Theatre after 1991
12. Aniko Szucs - 'What Are You Afraid Of?' Dystopia as Resistance in the OErkeny Theatre's Chaos 2045
13. Margarita Kompelmakher - Inclusive Actionism: Radical Care as Protest in the Belarus Free Theatre's Ability for Disability
14. Mark Simon - Enrooting Cosmopolitanism: Manizha Sangin's Artistic Trajectory as a Form Resistance to Nationalism and Authoritarianism in Russia
15. Adam Laten Willson - Listening to Tolgonai: Staging Chingiz Aitmatov's Mother's Field in Post-Soviet Space
Notes
Index