Discussions

Abstract

In this section, we propose three texts that are not explicitly written with the intention to provoke a discussion, but rather gathered here thanks to the common characteristics of some issues raised, which call for reflection on one of the founding points of «AvtobiografiЯ».
As renown in Western Europe and the United States, over the past years the autobiographical discourse is no longer limited to the community of literary scholars and theorists. It has now become a specific topic of different disciplines, such as anthropology, political science, history, psychology, visual art, cultural studies and sociology.
The text by Monica Soeting, manager of the «European Journal of Life Writing», addresses our journal, which enters into the international academic community of studies on life writing. Her indications are clear and based on the main lines of worldwide research on Life Writing today. Perspectives that are gradually implemented in Russia, as shown for example in the volume edited by the research group of the Higher School of Economics of Moscow, reviewed in this number of «AvtobiografiЯ», and in the collection of essays edited by I. Kaspe, found in the News section. In both cases, the authors are not only literary critics, but also specialists of different fields that discuss the use of documents in various forms of self representation. They deal about new issues that are widely being debated in contemporary Russia. They widen the borders of the reflection on the forms of self representation. Proof of this are the numerous volumes dedicated to the reconstruction of memory (for example, the volume of essays Pravo na imja, see the News section) and identity.
The culturological direction of many of the latest research on Life Writing, and the progressive creation of a specific field of study (not only literary) is confirmed by the chronicles of two different conferences. The first was held in Moscow, the second in Vienna. At the center remains the concept of self representation, that challenges the traditional forms through new tools, such as blogs and social networking sites. They show the importance of creating bridges between Russia and the West in the discussion on such themes, in order to broaden research horizons on Russian Auto-­‐Biography. «AvtobiografiЯ» invites scholars to contribute to such a discussion.