Empire, Tourism, Nostalgia: Joseph Brodsky and Travel Writing

Joseph Brodsky, one of the most influential Russian intellectuals of the late Soviet period, was born in Leningrad in 1940, emigrated to the United States in 1972, received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1987, and died in New York City in 1996. Brodsky was one of the leading public figures of Soviet emigration in the Cold War period, and his role as a model for the constructing of Russian cultural identities in the last years of the Soviet Union was, and still is, extremely important. One of Joseph Brodsky’s great contributions to Russian culture of the latter half of the twentieth century is the wide geographical scope of his poetic and prose works. Brodsky was not a travel writer, but he was a traveling writer who wrote a considerable number of poems and essays which relate to his trips and travels in the Soviet empire and outside it. Travel writing offered for Brodsky a discursive space for negotiating his own transculturation, while it also offered him a discursive space for making powerful statements about displacement, culture, history and geography, time and space—all major themes of his poetry. In this study of Joseph Brodsky’s travel writing I focus on his travel texts in poetry and prose, which relate to his post-1972 trips to Mexico, Brazil, Turkey, and Venice. Questions of empire, tourism, and nostalgia are foregrounded in one way or another in Brodsky’s travel writing performed in emigration. I explore these concepts through the study of tropes, strategies of identity construction, and the politics of representation. The theoretical premises of my work draw on the literary and cultural criticism which has evolved around the study of travel and travel writing in recent years. These approaches have gained much from the scholarly experience provided by postcolonial critique. Shifting the focus away from the concept of exile, the traditional framework for scholarly discussions of Brodsky’s works, I propose to review Brodsky’s travel poetry and prose as a response not only to his exilic condition but to the postmodern and postcolonial landscape, which initially shaped the writing of these texts. Discussing Brodsky’s travel writing in this context offers previously unexplored perspectives for analyzing the geopolitical, philosophical, and linguistic premises of his poetic imagination. By situating Brodsky’s travel writing in the geopolitical landscape of postcolonial postmodernity, I attempt to show how Brodsky’s engagement with his contemporary cultural practices in the West was incorporated into his Russian-language travel poetry and prose and how this engagement thus contributed to these texts’ status as exceptional and unique literary events within late Soviet Russian cultural practices.

"Four Ways of Writing the City" : St. Petersburg-Leningrad as a Metaphor in the Poetry of Joseph Brodsky

The present study discusses the theme of St. Petersburg-Leningrad in Joseph Brodsky's verse works. The chosen approach to the evolving im-age of the city in Brodsky's poetry is through four metaphors: St. Petersburg as "the common place" of the Petersburg Text, St. Petersburg as "Paradise and/or Hell", St. Petersburg as "a Utopian City" and St. Petersburg as "a Void". This examination of the city-image focusses on the aspects of space and time as basic categories underlying the poet's poetic world view. The method used is close reading, with an emphasis on semantical interpretation. The material consists of eighteen poems dating from 1958 to 1994. Apart from investigating the spatio-temporal features, the study focusses on exposing and analysing the allusions in the scrutinised works to other texts from Russian and Western belles lettres. Terminology (introduced by Bakhtin and Yury Lotman, among others) concerning the poetics of space in literature is employed in the present study. Conceptions originating from the paradigm of possible worlds are also used in elucidating the position of fictional and actual chronotopes and heroes in Brodsky's poetry. Brodsky's image of his native city is imbued with intertextual linkings. Through reminiscences of the "Divine Comedy" and Russian modernists, the city is paralleled with Dante's "lost and accursed" Florence, as well as with the lost St. Petersburg of Mandel'shtam and Akhmatova. His city-image is related to the Petersburg myth in Russian literature through their common themes of death and separation as well as through the merging of actual realia with the fictional worlds of the Petersburg Text. In his later poems, when his view of the city is that of an exiled poet, the city begins to lose its actual world referents, turning into a mental realm which is no longer connected to any particular geographical location or historical time. It is placed outside time. The native city as the homeland in its entirety is replaced by another existence created in language.

Tiede ja tutkijan sosiaalinen vastuu : Joseph Ben-Davidin, Roger Sperryn ja Knut Erik Tranøyn käsitykset tieteestä ja tutkijan sosiaalisesta vastuusta

Science and the Scientist's Social Responsibility. Joseph Ben-David's, Roger Sperry's and Knut Erik Tranøy's Views of Science and the Scientist's Social Responsibility The aim of the study was to investigate, whether or not there is any connection between Jewish sociologist Joseph Ben-David's, American neuroscientist Roger Sperry's and Norwegian philosopher Knut Erik Tranøy's views of science and views of the scientist's social responsibility. The sources of information were their writings concerning this topic. Ben-David has a classical view of science. He thinks that the Mertonian norms of scientific activity, first written in 1942, are still valid in modern science. With the help of these norms Ben-David defends the view that science is morally neutral. Ben-David thinks that a scientist has a limited social responsibility. A scientist only reports on the new results, but he is not responsible for applying the results. In any case Ben-David's ideas are no longer valid. Sperry has a scientistic view of science. According to Sperry, science is the source of moral norms and also the best guide for moral action. The methods of natural sciences "show" how to solve moral problems. A scientist's personal views of science and social responsibility are not important. However Sperry's view is very problematic on the ethical side. Tranøy stresses the scientist's social responsibility. A scientist has common norms with the society from with he or she comes. This is why a scientist has the right, and also the responsibility, to discuss social and ethical questions between science and society. Tranøy's view has some ethical and practical problems, but it is valid in principle. Finally, Ben-David's, Sperry's and Tranøy's views of both science and the scientist's social responsibility have a connection: the view of science corresponds to the certain view of scientist's social responsibility. The result of this study is: Ben-David's, Sperry's and Tranøy's view of science have an ethical starting point as its fundamental presupposition, which include certain views of scientific knowledge, good and the scientist's ethical responsibilities. The connection between Ben-David's, Sperry's and Tranøy's views of science and views of the scientist's social responsibility means that their views of epistemology, meta-ethics and the scientist's ethical responsibilities have a connection to their views of the scientist's social responsibility. The results of this study can help the scientific community to organize the social responsibility of a scientist and deepen the conversation concerning the scientist's social responsibility.

Joseph A. Schumpeter's Theory of Social and Economic Evolution : a Reconstruction and Critique

The book presents a reconstruction, interpretation and critical evaluation of the Schumpeterian theoretical approach to socio-economic change. The analysis focuses on the problem of social evolution, on the interpretation of the innovation process and business cycles and, finally, on Schumpeter s optimistic neglect of ecological-environmental conditions as possible factors influencing social-economic change. The author investigates how the Schumpeterian approach describes the process of social and economic evolution, and how the logic of transformations is described, explained and understood in the Schumpeterian theory. The material of the study includes Schumpeter s works written after 1925, a related part of the commentary literature on these works, and a selected part of the related literature on the innovation process, technological transformations and the problem of long waves. Concerning the period after 1925, the Schumpeterian oeuvre is conceived and analysed as a more or less homogenous corpus of texts. The book is divided into 9 chapters. Chapters 1-2 describe the research problems and methods. Chapter 3 is an effort to provide a systematic reconstruction of Schumpeter's ideas concerning social and economic evolution. Chapters 4 and 5 focus their analysis on the innovation process. In Chapters 6 and 7 Schumpeter's theory of business cycles is examined. Chapter 8 evaluates Schumpeter's views concerning his relative neglect of ecological-environmental conditions as possible factors influencing social-economic change. Finally, chapter 9 draws the main conclusions.

Fin de millénaire eli maailmanlopun satiiri : Frédéric Beigbederin Au secours pardon, Marie Darrieussecqin Truismes ja Michel Houellebecqin La Possibilité d'une île

Pro gradu -työni käsittelee ranskalaisen nykykirjallisuuden yhteiskunnallista suuntausta, jota kirjallisuudentutkija Ruth Cruickshank kutsuu fin de millénaire -kirjallisuudeksi. Tutkimani teokset ovat Frédéric Beigbederin Au secours pardon (2007), Marie Darrieussecqin Truismes (1996) ja Michel Houellebecqin La Possibilité d'une île (2005). Pohdin, millaisena ja millaisin keinoin teokset kuvaavat seksuaalisuutta ja sen tulevaisuudennäkymiä kulutusyhteiskunnassa, ja millaisiin yhteiskunnallisiin olosuhteisiin niiden havainnot perustuvat. Hahmottelen reittejä, joita pitkin globaalin mittakaavan yhteiskunnalliset muutokset vaikuttavat ihmisten intiimeihin tunteisiin ja ihmissuhteisiin. Seksuaalisuuden tarkastelun avulla osoitan, että ranskalaisessa nykykirjallisuudessa ilmenee varsin yhteneviä näkemyksiä ja uhkakuvia aikamme sosiaalisesta todellisuudesta. Tällä tavoin tarkennan ja vankennan vielä hajanaista fin de millénaire -käsitettä. Fin de millénaire -kirjallisuuden oma lajityyppi on massakulttuurin, esimerkiksi viihteen ja mainosten, kielestä vaikutteita ammentava dystopian ja satiirin liitto. Kuten Cruickshank kirjoittaa, fin de millénaire -kirjallisuus heijastaa Ranskassa vuosituhannen vaihteessa korostunutta tunnetta käännekohtaan saapumisesta. Dystopian ohella voidaankin puhua myös apokalyptisesta tekstistä, etenkin siksi, että teokset tarjoavat niukasti ratkaisuja kuvaamiinsa ongelmiin. Eritoten Houellebecqin ja Beigbederin teokset käsittelevät tarpeiden luomista kuluttajille seksuaalivietin ja seksuaalisen kilpailun avulla. Kutsun tätä järjestelmää halutaloudeksi, ja käytän sen toiminnan analysoimisessa apuna Michel Foucault'n käsityksiä vallasta ja Jean Baudrillardin käsityksiä kulutusyhteiskunnasta. Halutalouden sosiaalisia seurauksia ovat vieraantuminen, seksuaalisten hierarkioiden jyrkentyminen ja valinnanvapauden kaventuminen. Teosten kuvaamassa yhteiskunnassa erilaiset esimerkiksi sukupuolen, iän ja ulkonäön perusteella rakentuvat seksuaaliset hierarkiat käyvät yhä merkittävämmiksi. Au secours pardon ja La Possibilité d'une île kuvaavat tapahtumaketjua, jossa etenkin heteromiehistä yhä useampi luisuu seksuaaliseen kurjuuteen muun muassa naisten emansipaation sekä yleisen nuoruuden ja kauneuden palvonnan myötä. Truismesissa taas kuvitellaan yhteiskunta, johon feminismi ei ole päässyt vaikuttamaan mutta pornoistuminen on; naisten ruumiista on tullut miesten yhteistä omaisuutta ja seksuaalinen väkivalta on arkipäivää. Sen maailmassa viehättävä ulkonäkö on naisille miltei elinehto. Yleistäen Houellebecqin ja Beigbederin teokset edustavat miesnäkökulmaa ja Darrieussecqin teos naisnäkökulmaa. Teosten näkemyksiä naisten ja miesten välisistä valtasuhteista pohdin naisten seksuaalisesta vallasta kirjoittaneen Henry Laasasen käyttökelpoisten käsitteiden avulla. Kolmea teosta yhdistävät kuvaukset kulttuurista, jossa ihmissuhteet ovat kaupankäyntiä ja seksuaalinen viehätysvoima määrittelee ihmisen arvon. Darrieussecqin teos on lähitulevaisuuteen sijoittuva dystopia, jossa Beigbederin ja Houellebecqin kuvaama arvoliberalismia ja taloudellista liberalismia yhdistävä kulttuuri on vaihtunut uuskonservatiiviseen ja kaksinaismoralistiseen, naisia räikeästi sortavaan yhteiskuntaan. Teoksen kertoja vähättelee itseensä kohdistuvia koskemattomuuden loukkauksia ja pahoittelee kertomuksensa käänteiden säädyttömyyttä varsinkin kuvatessaan omaa haluaan ja seksuaalista subjektiuttaan. Katson teoksen kritisoivan kirjallisuudentutkija Shirley Ann Jordanin termein poliittisen korrektiuden tyranniaa ja peräänkuuluttavan suoraa puhetta pornografiasta ja naisen halusta. Seksuaalisuus toimii tutkimuksessani lähtökohtana, jonka avulla teoksista nousee esiin julma ja rakkaudeton, säälimättömän kilpailun ja väkivallan täyttämä yhteiskunta. Viime kädessä teosten kuvaama maailmanloppu on se, että rakkaus katoaa ihmisten välisistä suhteista, koska rakkaudessa ei ole voiton tavoittelun kannalta mitään järkeä. Satiirin keinojen, kuten päättymättömän ja monikerroksisen ironian, yhdistyminen dystopiaan pelastaa teokset osoittelevalta moralisoinnilta ja tekee niistä toimivaa yhteiskunnallista kirjallisuutta.

Les fleuves dans l'œuvre romanesque de Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio

Relying on Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of perception and on Mircea Eliade's works on the Sacred and the Profane, this study explores the river as a perceptual space and as the sacred Center in a cosmic vision of the world in twelve of Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio's fictional works, from The Interrogation (1963) to Revolutions (2003). In the first chapter, after introducing the field of study, I discuss the relation between the radical subjectivity and the evasiveness of perceiving subjects in Le Clézio's fiction. Next are some thoughts on the relation between Merleau-Ponty's and Le Clézio's ideas. The second chapter studies the river as an experience in the text, first as a topographical space, then as a sound world. The investigations move on to its water as a visual and a tactile phenomenon. Then follows the human use of the river, the (absence of) baths, and the river as a traveling space. The chapter closes with the study of the metaphorical use of the word, occurring mainly in urban space and for phenomena in the sky. The third chapter is organized around the river as the Center of the world in a religious cosmogony, where the river represents the origin of the world and of the human race. The core analysis shows how the middle of the river is a symbolic space of a new beginning. As a sacred space, the river abolishes time as the object of contemplation and as relative immobility from the point of view of a person drifting downstream. The functions of a new beginning and of abolition of time are combined in the symbolic immersions in the water. Finally, the dissertation explores other symbolical spaces, such as the unknown destination of the drift, and the river as the Center of a utopia. The chapter closes with the existential agony as a result of the elimination of the Center in the urban environment. In the final chapter, the river is compared to other watercourses : the creek, the brook and the rapids. The river is more of a spatial entity, whereas the actual water is more important in the smaller watercourses. The river is more common than the other watercourses as a topographical element in the landscape, whereas the minor watercourses invite the characters to a closer contact with their element, in immersions and in drinking their water. Finally, the work situates the rivers in a broader context of different fictional spaces in Le Clézio's text.

Marie Curie Symposium 8.-9.12.2011 Helsingissä : tiivistelmät

Suomalaista radiokemiaa esittelevä Marie Curie Symposium järjestetään Helsingissä 8.-9.12.2011 osana Kansainvälistä Kemian Vuotta 2011. Samalla juhlistetaan Marie Curien sata vuotta sitten, 10.12.1911, saamaa kemian Nobel-palkintoa. Marie Curie, maailman ensimmäinen radiokemisti, sai Nobel-palkintonsa luonnossa olevien radioaktiivisten alkuaineiden poloniumin ja radiumin keksimisestä. Tämä raportti sisältää symposiumissa esitettyjen tieteellisten tiedonantojen tiivistelmät