2021 Fall
SLAVIC 139 001 - LEC 001
Post-Soviet Cultures
AFTER SOCIALISM: POST-SOVIET CULTURES IN RUSSIA AND BEYOND
Edward Tyerman
Class #:30064
Units:4
Instruction Mode:
In-Person Instruction
Offered through
Slavic Languages and Literatures
Current Enrollment
Total Open Seats:
1
Enrolled: 24
Waitlisted: 0
Capacity: 25
Waitlist Max: 3
No Reserved Seats
Hours & Workload
3 hours of instructor presentation of course materials, and 9 hours of outside work hours.
Final Exam
TUE, DECEMBER 14TH
03:00 pm - 06:00 pm
Cory 247
Other classes by Edward Tyerman
Course Catalog Description
This course explores the literary and visual culture that emerged in post-Soviet societies following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Students will learn how literature and cinema transformed during a period of dramatic and even traumatic change, in the context of intense debates over national identity, the relationship to the socialist past, and the inter-relations of art, politics and commerce. While our focus will be on the literature, cinema and popular culture of post-Soviet Russia, we will also consider texts and films produced in other post-Soviet spaces: Ukraine, Armenia, and Central Asia.
Class Description
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 brought to an end the world’s first experiment in state socialism. Over the subsequent decades, the societies that emerged from the Soviet collapse embarked on a complex and chaotic process of economic and social transformation. This course explores the cultural forms that emerged from this period of dramatic and even traumatic change. While our focus will be on the literature, cinema and popular culture of post-Soviet Russia, we will also consider developments in other post-Soviet spaces: Ukraine, the Caucasus, and Central Asia.
This course asks how post-Soviet cultures have imagined a society after socialism. How have post-socialist cultures responded to their incorporation into a globalized system of cultural production? What happened to Russian literature when it found itself competing with new forms of commercialized popular culture? How do post-Soviet writers and film-makers relate to the Soviet past: as a source of trauma, or as a lost utopia and site of nostalgic longing? What new relationships between cultural expression and state power have taken shape in post-Soviet societies? In particular, we will consider the relationship between art and politics in the Putin era in the context of neo-traditionalism, a revival of state patriotism, and the war in Ukraine. At the end of the course, we will explore the role of digital media in enabling new cultural forms to emerge.
Class time will consist of a combination of lecture and class discussion. Over the course of the semester, students will write two short papers (4-6 pages) and take a midterm and final exam.
Topics include: the formation of post-Soviet culture and the legacy of the Soviet past; the question of national identity across the post-Soviet space; Russian literary postmodernism; post-Soviet cinema, pop music, and popular culture; and the relationship between art, politics and dissent in contemporary Russia and Ukraine.
You will be required to purchase the following books:
Viktor Pelevin, Homo Zapiens 9780142001813
Vladimir Sorokin, Day of the Oprichnik 9780374533106
A course reader will be made available with the other literary texts for the class, including: Svetlana Alexievich, Chernobyl Prayer (excerpts); stories by Liudmila Petrushevskaya and Vladimir Makanin; German Sadulaev, “One Swallow Doesn’t Make a Summer”; Hamid Ismailov, The Dead Lake; Natal’ya Vorozhbit, Bad Roads; Victoria Lomasko, Other Russias (graphic reportage); Alisa Ganieva, “Salaam, Dalgat!”
Secondary readings will be made available in PDF form through bCourses.
Films for screening (in whole or in part):
My Perestroika (dir. Robin Hessman, 2010)
Brother (dir. Alexei Balabanov, 1997)
Bank Imperial Advertisements (dir. Timur Bekmambetov, 1990s)
Russian Ark (dir. Alexander Sokurov, 2002)
The Island (dir. Pavel Lungin, 2006)
Leviathan (dir. Andrei Zvyagintsev, 2014)
Going Vertical (dir. Anton Megerdichev, 2017)
Donbass (dir. Sergei Loznitsa, 2018)
Class Notes
Prerequisites: none. Taught in English with readings in English.
Rules & Requirements
Repeat Rules
Course is not repeatable for credit.
Requirements class fulfills
Meets Arts & Literature, L&S Breadth
Meets International Studies, L&S Breadth
Reserved Seats
Current Enrollment
No Reserved Seats
Textbooks & Materials
See class syllabus or https://calstudentstore.berkeley.edu/textbooks for the most current information.
Guide to Open, Free, & Affordable Course Materials
Associated Sections
None