The Space Between

The question of exile is especially complex when one is still “in one’s own country”, especially if claims of national identity do not align with recognition of citizenship. Regarding the cultural space between Russia and Estonia, this becomes ever more acute with the war of aggression against Ukraine. In two of her plays, My Estonian Grandmother and F*** the War [Х** войне]. Ukraine. Letters from the Front, the Russian-Estonian theatre maker, Julia Aug, both reflects on and intervenes in the dynamics of cultural and legal narrative characterising the fraught personal and political entanglements of inner and external exile. Resisting the demands and expectations of external borders, Aug’s work evokes a field of tension where exile is explored publicly through the medium of theatre, broaching the possibilities of an “interspace” (François Jullien) that challenges claims to “identity” in European cultural politics. In thinking about “epistemic injustice” (Miranda Fricker), my paper will discuss how Aug’s plays bring to light multidirectional questions of cultural memory, giving voice to those exiled in the histories through which they are still to be heard.