Was bleibt?

The publication deals with the aftermath of Soviet dominance from a postcolonial perspective on two cultures that were previously strongly influenced by the Soviet Union: Cuba and Romania. It examines the reaction to the disappearance of the Soviet Union’s hegemonic power on the basis of its staging in theatre, performance, film, video and radio drama since 1989. The comparative research analyses the power structures in performative works based on theories of translation, which shed light on the change in the role, representation and attribution of the image of ‘the Russian’ after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Two variations of cultural translation are examined: a temporal translation through the construction of a cultural memory, and a spatial translation understood as identification through hybridization. The focus lies on the question of how the staging of the Russian contributes to the construction, reflection and transformation of cultural patterns of perception. The solutions range from an inversion of power relations through subversive humour, a nostalgic longing for past community to a resolidarisation through migration.