Olaf Günther

Sonderforschungsbereich 640 (SFB 640) – TP C1

Sitz: Mohrenstr. 40/41 Raum 119

Tel.: +49 30 / 2093-4836

Fax: +49 30 / 2093-4893

 

olaf.guenther@rz.hu-berlin.de

coworker at the subproject C1

Curriculum Vitae

• 1995 - 2002 Studium der Mittelasienwissenschaften, Geschichte und Gesellschaft Südasiens, Islamwissenschaften und der europäischen Geschichte
• 2002 Magisterarbeit zum Thema "Die darstellenden Künste und tamosho (Spektakel) in Turkistan, Gaukler, Theater und Kinokultur im Wandel - eine Darstellung von vorkolonialer Zeit bis zum Ende des Bürgerkrieges 1922"
• 2002 - 2006 Dissertation zum Thema: "Die dorboz im Ferghanatal. Erkundungen im Alltag und der Geschichte einer Gauklerkultur."
• 2006 Promotion im Fach Mittelasienwissenschaften

• Derzeitiger Forschungsschwerpunkt: Mittelasien in historischer und anthropologischer Perspektive

Publications

Monographs

• Die darstellenden Kuenste und das Spektakel (tamosho) in Mittelasien. Wandel von Theater-, Gaukler- und Kinokultur von vorkolonialer Zeit bis zum Ende des Bürgerkrieges. Berlin: Anor,  2008 (Magisterarbeit im Druck)

• Die dorboz im Ferghanatal. Erkundungen im Alltag und der Geschichte einer Gauklerkultur. Berlin (u.a.): Peter Lang, 2007. (Doktorarbeit im Druck.)

Articles

• "How acrobats remember their past." In: Die Vergangenheit als Ressource in der tuerksprachigen Welt. Istanbuler Texte und Studien, Würzburg: Ergon 2008.

• "Die Ankunft der Schrift" In archive:caoss.org.
• "Heroes in the Museum - Soviet hero constructions and multiple meaning of modernity in the Soviet Periphery." Mona Schrempf; Vincent Houben: Figurations of Modernity. Campus 2008.
• Praktizierte Relationen. Das "Zigeunerische" in Ordungsvorstellungen bei Zigeunergruppen und der Mehrheitsbevölkerung Mittelasiens. In: /Roma/Zigeuner in neuen Perspectiven. Roma/Gypsies in new perspectives. Leipzig: Leipzig University Press 2007.
• Laisser faire und totale Erfassung. Zigeunergruppen Mittelasiens. In: Verwaltete Nomaden. (Sammelband beim SFB NOMADSED 586) Halle 2008

Main focus in the subproject

The research project Turkistan is starting with the hypothesis, that representation of a new social order is demanding space to perform this new order. To illustrate this space it will be called here "the red zone". There where a lot of red zones. In the cities the red zones where based on existing institutions, or they where rebuild or constructed as new spaces: the red teahouses, the klubs, cultural institutions like theaters and cinemas. In the villages the creation of temporary red zones was the first step. There where the "red caravans" for food supply and hygene, then there where the cultural expeditions like "cinema on horseback" and the mobile theater groups or the "field newspaper" ("dalada avazli gazeta") as few examples. In the 1930ies, the years of the establishing of the socialistic project, the villages underwent a restructurization. There where institutions created in the kolchos like the kolchos libraries or the klubhouses. Even the bare land was temporary structured into red zones when they builded the huge irrigation chanals, or tracks and traces.

The exploration of the charakter, the function and the underlying meanings of all these red zones is divided into three phases:

1. the reconstruction of the structure of the red zones
2. the hunting for stories of the protagonists of the red zones and their adressies
3. the comparison of the meanings of the ideologic representation of the new social order in the red zones with the factual experiences found in ego documents about these red zones.

The tertium comparationes with the other projects from C1 are mostly certain aspects of encoding, decoding and recoding of meanings like purity, work, holiday. The comparation will not halt inbetween the central asian research project but will be be enlarged to other projects from the SFB.