RUSS 325: Major Russian Writers

RUSS 325-DL3: Russian Literature and Imperialism
(Fall 2022)

Online

Section Information for Fall 2022

The Russian state has historically conceived of itself as an imperial power, an enduring fact made clear again through Russia’s recent invasions of Ukraine. Most major Russian writers and filmmakers have worked under the conditions of imperialism, whether under the Russian Empire of the nineteenth century, the Russian Soviet state and USSR of the twentieth century, or the Russian Federation of the twenty-first century. This course considers the roles that literature and film play in producing and critiquing culture under Russia’s imperialists regimes. As we ask how the literary arts and film represent, distance themselves from, or subvert imperialist agendas and identities, we will encounter writers and filmmakers—Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Chekhov, Tolstoy, Vertov, Dovzhenko, Platonov, Ulitskaya, Loznitsa—struggling to negotiate the contradictions of the uneven social, political, and cultural relationships produced by empire. Readings in postcolonial theory will help us interrogate the social and cultural dimensions of Russian imperialism, while also suggesting pathways toward a decolonized future.

Course Information from the University Catalog