Feminist Writing/Reading in Contemporary Russia: Creating Counterpublics Through Languages of Sociality and Care

This chapter considers the role of literature—particularly the infrastructures and practices of writing and reading—within the new formations of feminist activism in Russia during the 2010s. This feminist writing/reading, I argue, involves community-building and generates counterpublics beyond closely knit communities by targeting a wider readership. The first part discusses several projects that intersected feminist activism and literature during the past decade. By considering the platforms, genres, and forms of collaboration, along with the discourses of representatives of the feminist literary sphere, I examine how these collective forms were constituted, which agendas they put forward, and how they engaged and attempted to politicize the readers. In the second part, I focus on several themes and techniques of feminist writing by examining texts from anthologies published by participants of the School of Contemporary Literary Practices. I consider how this writing and curation of the anthologies develop social critique that renders visible state violence and imperial domination. My readings demonstrate how, along with bringing out systemic workings of power in Russia, feminist writing decenters that power by focalizing experiences of the oppressed, both human and non-human, and by developing languages of care.