Odesa’s Many Frontiers: Introduction
Odesa’s Many Frontiers: Introduction

Summary/Abstract: Why focus on Odesa? Because it is the largest, strategically located port on the Black Sea—the continental gateway to the Mediterranean? Or because it remains one of the world’s leading exporters of grain—now closed by a broad Russian military blockade? Or is it because of the city’s extremely rich tendency toward myth-making? Something as seemingly banal as Odesa’s “Potemkin Steps” have been firmly immortalized into film canons from L.A. to Toronto to Paris by Sergei Eizenshtein (Sergey Eisenstein) in his world-renowned film, Bronenosets Potemkin (Battleship Potemkin, 1925). Likewise, the city’s astounding ethnic diversity compels some to trace the Odesan roots of such seemingly disconnected yet prominent figures as Sidney Pollack, Steven Spielberg, Sylvester Stallone, Whoopi Goldberg, and Leonardo di Caprio. All the above-mentioned considerations, and more, would inspire any scholar to reflect upon the magnetism of Odesa’s past, present, and future. It is clear from its established literary reputation and many muses that Odesa, on its own, is a rewarding topic for many. Yet our decision to bring scholars together to better understand Odesa is motivated by a slightly different epistemology.

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