Fabian Heffermehl

Researcher - Russland, Sentral-Europa og Balkan

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Email fabian.heffermehl@ilos.uio.no

Phone +47 22854433

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Visiting address Niels Henrik Abels vei 36 Niels Treschows hus 0851 Oslo

Postal address Postboks 1003 Blindern 0315 Oslo

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Project

Imprint and Tactility as Cultural Techniques in Russian Modernism

Summary: What you touch, touches you back. Writing and painting start in the tactile interaction between hand and surface. At the same time tactility is in the nature of violence and torture. The project investigates a shift in Russian modernism from the predominating nexus between image and eye, to the skin. On basis of the skin’s capacity for perception, suffering, imprint and imagination, I intend to identify tactile strategies in the memory of Stalin’s terror.

This is a collaborative project between University of Oslo and Humboldt University of Berlin, financed by Research Council of Norway and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions.

Academic interests

Art
Icons
Memory
Modernism
Body
Russia
Gulag literature

Background

Fabian Heffermehl is PhD from Uppsala University (2015). He finished his Master Degree at Humboldt University of Berlin and has working experience from Armenia and Azerbaijan. His field of studies include Russian literature and graphic art.

Teaching

Taktilität und Gewalt in der Russischen Moderne (Humboldt University)

Tags: Russia, Russian literature, Literary studies, Art theory, Art History, Religion, Modernism, Icons, ArtSci, Gulag, Bodies

Heffermehl, Fredrik Fabian & Karlsohn, Irina (2021). Introduction, The Gulag in Writings of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Varlam Shalamov Memory, History, Testimony . Brill|Nijhoff. ISSN 9789004468481. p. 1–13. doi: 10.1163/9789004468481_002.
Heffermehl, Fredrik Fabian (2021). Tactility and Memory in Shalamov, The Gulag in Writings of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Varlam Shalamov Memory, History, Testimony . Brill|Nijhoff. ISSN 9789004468481. p. 119–141. doi: 10.1163/9789004468481_007.
Heffermehl, Fabian (2019). Kuss eines Zyklopen. Die umgekehrte Perspektive Florenskis zwischen Kultbild und Kunstbild. Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte. ISSN 0044-2992. 82(1). doi: 10.1515/ZKG-2019-0005. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
With his Reverse Perspective (1919) the Armeno- Russian theologian and mathematician Pavel Florensky denounced the monocular, ‘cyclopean’ vision otherwise seen as the main principle in Renaissance painting. Florensky connected the medieval icon with an ‘organic idea’ involving 1) binocular vision, 2) the observer’s movement in pictorial space, and 3) tactile proximity between observer and image. This article explores how ideas of perception relate to Florensky’s cultural criticism. His reverse perspective emerges as a complex controversy, not only between two principles in painting – the icon and the linear perspective. Florensky also challenges himself as a westernized intellectual, who, rooted in Orientalism, fails to defend a Russian Orthodox worldview.
Heffermehl, Fabian (2018). From Curved Space to Reverse Perspective: Interdisciplinary Tendencies in Russian Theory of Painting (Tarabukin reads Florenskii). Slavic and East European Journal. ISSN 0037-6752. 62(1), p. 93–117. Full text in Research Archive
Heffermehl, Fredrik Fabian (2017). From Curved Space to Reverse Perspective: Interdisciplinary Tendencies in Russian Theory of Painting (Tarabukin reads Florenskii). Slavic and East European Journal. ISSN 0037-6752. 62(1), p. 93–117.
Heffermehl, Fabian (2016). The Icon and the Hand. Acheiropoiesis (nerukotvornost') as a Literary Technique in Shalamov's Glove. Journal of Icon Studies. ISSN 2473-7747.
Heffermehl, Fabian (2016). The Digital Icon and the Phenomenology of Surveillance. In Suslov, Mikhail (Eds.), Digital Orthodoxy in the Post-Soviet World. Ibidem-Verlag. ISSN 9783838208718. p. 83–110.
Heffermehl, Fabian (2015). Проблема нерукотворности и мнемотехники ГУЛАГа. Wiener Slawistischer Almanach, Sonderband. ISSN 0256-5234. 76.

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Heffermehl, Fredrik Fabian & Irina, Karlsohn (2021). The Gulag in Writings of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Varlam Shalamov Memory, History, Testimony . Brill|Nijhoff. ISBN 9789004468481.

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Heffermehl, Fabian (2022). Norge trenger sine russiske venner. Aftenposten (morgenutg. : trykt utg.). ISSN 0804-3116. Show summary
Anna Jevsejeva er en russisk student med interesse for norsk og Norge. Hun spør Erlend Loe i Aftenposten den 10. mai: «ser du ikke dobbeltmoralen og hykleriet?» Etter dette ble hun i 200 nettkommentarer beskyldt for å være hjernevasket. Loe svarer at Jevsejeva ikke vet hva ytringsfrihet er. Minerva avskriver henne som påvirkningsagent og et av Putins nett-troll. I stedet for å bli møtt med saklige argumenter, blir Jevsejeva mistenkeliggjort som person. Men fører dette oss nærmere fred? Er det ikke nettopp her dobbeltmoralen og hykleriet blir mest inntrengende? Man kritiserer Russland for manglende ytringsfrihet, samtidig som ytringer fra Russland ikke er velkomne. Det er mye vi kan være uenige med Jevsejeva i, men jeg godtar at hennes stemme er autentisk for russiske følelser, at det hun skriver er synspunkter og ikke propaganda, og at hun er et menneske og ikke et troll. Jevsejevas ord om dobbeltmoral er en reaksjon mot USA’s brutale kriger i Midtøsten. Russland har også ført kriger, men før 2022 i mindre format. Nå er det som om brikkene faller på plass. Russland er i den rollen vi alltid har sett dem i: som et tyranni og en pariastat. Politikere som siden murens fall har lagt til rette for samarbeid med Russland blir beskyldt for naivitet. Munch-museet bryter samarbeid med russiske kunstnere. På universitetet i Bologna ble et kurs om Dostojevskij fjernet fra læreplanen. Likevel spør jeg om problemet vel så mye er vår egen manglende fantasi? Har vi noensinne vært i stand til å se Russland som noe annet enn «ondskapens imperium»? Det er ikke for tidlig å tenke på hva slags verden vi ønsker oss etter krigen. En dag skal vi vende tilbake til diplomatiet, og da vil Norge trenge norsktalende norgesvenner på den andre siden av bordet.
Heffermehl, Fabian (2021). The Blind Icon. Varlam Shalamov and his Kolyma Stories.
Heffermehl, Fredrik Fabian (2021). The Post-Soviet Politics of Utopia: Language, Fiction and Fantasy in Modern Russia . Nordisk Østforum. ISSN 0801-7220. doi: 10.23865/noros.v35.3067.
Heffermehl, Fabian (2020). Neige et Cercles. Mémoires en jeu.
Heffermehl, Fabian (2019). The Tactile Face. Memory and Body in Shalamov.
Heffermehl, Fabian (2019). Paysages de Mémoire.
Heffermehl, Fabian (2019). Gesichtslosigkeit.
Heffermehl, Fabian (2019). Kuss eines Zyklopen.
Heffermehl, Fabian (2019). The Tactile Face. Drawing the Body from the Inside out.
Heffermehl, Fabian (2018). Malevitsj' sorte kvadrat. Fast Grunn. ISSN 0014-8733.
Heffermehl, Fabian & Bø, Victoria (2018). Vandring. For pilegrimer og andre livsreisende.
Heffermehl, Fabian (2018). Abdrück und Berührung.
Heffermehl, Fabian (2018). Shalamov i Solzhenitsyn.
Heffermehl, Fabian (2017). Икона и рука: Варлам Шаламов и его рассказ "Перчатка".
Heffermehl, Fabian (2017). Проблема нерукотворности и мнемотехника ГУЛАГа.
Heffermehl, Fabian (2017). Геноцид? С чем его едят?’ Тактильность, печать и архаизм в текстах В.Т. Шаламова и С.С. Аверинцева.
Heffermehl, Fabian (2017). Die Ikone in der Literatur des Gulags.
Heffermehl, Fabian (2017). From Face to Hand – Inside Perception in Hamsun and Shalamov.
Heffermehl, Fabian (2016). Тело, слагаемое из вибрации человеческого «нутра» .
Heffermehl, Fabian (2016). Tarabukin Reads Florenskii – on the Connection between Mathematical and Pictorial Spaces in Russian Modernism.
Heffermehl, Fabian (2016). Von der Ikone zum Daktylogramm – Abdrück und Berührung als Kulturtechniken der russischen Moderne.

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Published Nov. 24, 2017 11:56 AM - Last modified June 14, 2021 2:26 PM

Research groups

ILLREP: Representations of Illness and Disability in Literary and Cultural Texts