2024 Spring SLAVIC 148AC 001 LEC 001

Spring 2024

SLAVIC 148AC 001 - LEC 001

Cultures of Captivity: Prison Literature in the U.S. and Russia

Robyn M Jensen

Jan 16, 2024 - May 03, 2024
Tu, Th
05:00 pm - 06:29 pm
Class #:32182
Units: 3

Instruction Mode: In-Person Instruction

Current Enrollment

Total Open Seats: 0
Enrolled: 30
Waitlisted: 0
Capacity: 30
Waitlist Max: 3
No Reserved Seats

Hours & Workload

3 hours of instructor presentation of course materials per week, and 6 hours of outside work hours per week.

Other classes by Robyn M Jensen

Course Catalog Description

This course explores narratives of incarceration in the U.S. and Russia, from the nineteenth century to the present day. Our focus will be on prison memoirs by Black, Indigenous, and Asian American writers, alongside works by Russian and Soviet authors.

Class Description

What might we gain by looking at the Soviet Gulag and American mass incarceration side-by-side? This course explores narratives of incarceration in the U.S. and Russia, from the nineteenth century to the present day. Our focus will be on prison memoirs by Black, Indigenous, and Asian American writers, alongside works by Russian and Soviet authors. To frame our discussions, we will read historical and theoretical texts on the development of the Russian, Soviet, and American penal systems, as well as theories of prison abolition. We will work to understand the specificities of these carceral histories, while also paying attention to the dynamics that have driven both: settler colonialism, extraction of natural resources, mass forced-labor projects, and the persecution of political activists and revolutionaries. We will analyze these works as rich literary texts, but also as primary documents that grant us insight into historical events, such as the internment of Japanese Americans, the Indigenous occupation of Alcatraz, Black Power organizing in prisons, and forced labor in the Soviet Gulag. Readings include texts by: Angela Davis, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Vera Figner, Martin Luther King, Jr., Miné Okubo, Leonard Peltier, Varlam Shalamov, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Lev Tolstoy, and Malcolm X.

Rules & Requirements

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills

Meets Arts & Literature, L&S Breadth
Meets Philosophy & Values, L&S Breadth
Meets the Carceral Geographies Course Thread
Meets the Law & Humanities Course Thread
American Cultures Requirement

Reserved Seats

Current Enrollment

No Reserved Seats

Textbooks & Materials

See class syllabus or https://calstudentstore.berkeley.edu/textbooks for the most current information.

Textbook Lookup

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eTextbooks

Associated Sections

None