Reading and composition course based on works of Russian and other Slavic writers, either written in English or translated into English. As students develop strategies of writing and interpretation, they will become acquainted with a particular theme in Russian and/or Slavic literatures and their major voices. R5A satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement, and R5B satisfies the second half.

As early as 1848, Marx and Engels called for the abolition of the family as one key step toward mass liberation. In the work of many artists and intellectuals, this call has echoed from Marx’s time all the way to our own, morphing and transforming along the way. A notion of the modern family as something that structures and regiments social life has become central to a wide variety of thinkers and artists, from late 19th-century programs for liberating women from the tyranny of family life, to early Soviet experiments with non-monogamous romantic relationships, from mid-century feminists calling for wages for housework and the automation of motherhood, to queer and trans affirmations of non-normative forms of desire and gender identities. In this course we will read essays and literary works, and watch films that stage, in various ways, the problem of the modern family, including both utopian and dystopian versions of possible post-family futures. We will look at texts that challenge our notions of acceptable forms of sexual and social desire, gender identity, and family structure. This course will work within this broad problematic, seeking to practice and the develop some of the fundamentals of college-level writing and research—such as close reading, tracking concepts, and developing arguments. This course fulfills the second half of the UC Reading & Composition requirement (R5B). We will devote plenty of time to critical thinking and essay-writing skills, paying particular attention to argumentation, analysis, engaging with sources, and other fundamentals of writing and research at the college level. All texts will be made available as PDFs. We will look at texts by people like: Emma Goldman, Arundathi Roy, Octavia Butler, Kathy Acker, Nikolai Chernyshevsky, Maggie Nelson, Liudmila Petrushevskaya, Alexandra Kollontai and Audre Lorde We will watch films including: Ari Aster - Midsommar (2019) Bong Joon-ho – Parasite (2019) Manbiki Kazoku - Shoplifters (2018) Kay Armatage – Bed and Sofa (1979)

Requisites

• Previously passed an R_A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Previously passed an articulated R_A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Score a 4 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Literature. Score a 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Language and Composition. Score of 5, 6, or 7 on the International Baccalaureate Higher Level Examination in English.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills