Anna Oldfield, Asian Studies Postdoctoral Fellow and visiting assistant professor of comparative literature, presented a paper at the 2009 annual meeting of the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages (AATSEEL) held in Philadelphia on Dec. 28-30.
Her presentation was titled “Laughter and the Anxiety of Ethnicity: The New Caucasian Woman in Kavkazskaia Plennitsa and Qayinana.” Oldfield's analysis compared films from Russia and Azerbaijan in order to explore the ambiguous role of comedy in both relieving and revealing the anxieties of non-Russian ethnicity in the former Soviet Union, centering on the clash of “ethnic/traditional” with “Soviet/progressive” values as they are negotiated by the New Caucasian woman.
Her presentation was titled “Laughter and the Anxiety of Ethnicity: The New Caucasian Woman in Kavkazskaia Plennitsa and Qayinana.” Oldfield's analysis compared films from Russia and Azerbaijan in order to explore the ambiguous role of comedy in both relieving and revealing the anxieties of non-Russian ethnicity in the former Soviet Union, centering on the clash of “ethnic/traditional” with “Soviet/progressive” values as they are negotiated by the New Caucasian woman.
