RUSS 33 Reading Russia Today: Avant-Gardes, Dystopias and Dreamers
This course focuses on Russophone literature, film, art and culture in the new millennium (from the early 2000s to the present day), incorporating a crucial discussion of the late Soviet period and the 1990s. Beginning with the collapse of the USSR, cultural life in Russia has been characterized by ceaseless change, but also the reemergence of old patterns, tendencies and problems. Much contemporary Russian literature and art is caught up in complicated negotiations with the Soviet past and its social, cultural and political institutions, while also looking ahead to an uncertain future. We will read novels, short stories, plays and poetry, watch films and discuss visual and performance art with a view to topics ranging from gender and sex, activism and violence, family and national identity, internet communication and other language problems.