About Mirgorod

The idea of establishing “Mirgorod: The Annual of the History & Epistemology of Contemporary Literary Studies” originated during a seminar in literary studies held in Lausanne in 2006 and organized by Leonid Heller. It was at that time—following the conclusion of the seminar and a dinner shared by its participants on the terrace of the station cafeteria—that the idea emerged of launching a special journal devoted to the question of how literary studies are “made” in the present day. Such a formulation of the problem naturally evoked Boris Eikhenbaum’s renowned essay “How Gogol’s ‘Overcoat’ Was Made” («Как сделана „Шинель“ Гоголя»); at the same time, however, a matter of central importance for the participants in the seminar was the epistemology of contemporary literary studies—the concepts and terms employed by a discipline that today is engaged in the scholarly study of literature.

From 2008 onwards, the journal “Mirgorod” was published jointly by three universities: the University of Lausanne, Donetsk State University, and the University of Podlasie (today the Siedlce University). The journal was edited by three scholars—Leonid Heller (Lausanne), Mikhail Girshman (Donetsk), and Roman Mnich (Siedlce)—and its contributors represented a vast philological geography, encompassing virtually all countries of Europe and North America, as well as Russia and Japan.

Following the publication of its inaugural issue, “Mirgorod” consistently expanded both its circle of contributors and the thematic scope of its publications. Individual issues were devoted to specific theoretical problems, including debates surrounding Antoine Compagnon’s “The Demon of Theory” («Le démon de la théorie»), a special issue addressing the contemporary relevance of the ideas of Alexander Potebnja, as well as issues dedicated to the terminology of contemporary drama and to the death of literary theory.

Until 2023, the journal was published exclusively in Russian. It has since been transformed into an annual publication featuring contributions in multiple languages and issued by two academic centres: the Section de langues et civilisations slaves et de l’Asie du Sud, Université de Lausanne (Switzerland), and the Franciszek Karpiński Institute of Regional Culture and Literary Research (Siedlce, Poland).