Indiana University at Bloomington Department of Slavic & East European Languages and Cultures Introduction to Russian Culture SLAV-R223 Fall 2019 TR 2:30-3:45 p.m. GA 1112
Prof. Elizabeth Geballe Office Hours: TR 4:00-5:00 GA 4027 [email protected]
AI: Rebecca Baumgartner Office Hours: TR 1:30-2:30 GA 4th Floor
What is culture? A way of living? A collection of social practices? Institutions? Literature and arts? Memory? Each historical epoch has its own definition of culture. In his famous collection of articles on culture and semiotics titled Typology of Culture (1973), Yuri Lotman defines culture as a mechanism to generate meaning. Nowadays, most scholars agree that culture first and foremost refers to the realm of the intangible – e.g., symbols, myths, representations, interpretations, values, and perspectives that distinguish groups of people. This is precisely how we will address culture in this course. We shall try to understand how the Russian culture constructs and interprets the world, while also seeking to explain how and why elements of ancient culture (folk music, icons, historical dramas) are being recycled today.
We will be examining a diverse range of sources – e.g., icons and paintings, literary stories and chronicles, journalistic texts, cinematic works, photography, and symphonies as well as popular music – to discern major themes, motifs, and ideas. We will map artistic developments onto a broader historical canvas to see the connections between socio-historical contexts and culture. The primary purpose of this course is to help students develop necessary analytical and interpretive skills to identify, compare, and analyze Russian cultural products, practices, and perspectives as they are related to basic socio-historical contexts.
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES: Our goals include the development of a range of skills necessary not only for the academic success but for encountering, analyzing, and enjoying differences in real world situations. The skills we will be developing in this course are defined as follows by the IU General Education Learning Outcomes:
Arts & Humanities: AH1: knowledge of origins, varieties, and meanings of the expressions and artifacts of human experience, including (a) original written texts in various literary forms, (b) works of visual art and design, (c) musical compositions, and (d) dramatic performance (live theater, dance, film, video, digital, etc.);
AH2: knowledge of the cultural, intellectual, and historical contexts through which these expressions and artifacts are interpreted;
AH4: the ability to develop arguments, ideas, and opinions about forms of human expression, grounded in rational analysis and in an understanding of and respect for the historical context of expressions and artifacts, and to express these ideas in written and/or oral form;
World Languages & Cultures:
WC3: knowledge of other cultures (including beliefs, values, perspectives, practices, and products);
CLASSROOM ELECTRONICS POLICY: In this course, we place the highest importance on communication. Therefore, there is a blanket policy that electronic devices may not be used during class sessions, unless the instructor specifies otherwise. These include mobile phones, tablets, laptops, etc. These devices create a barrier between the student and teacher and use of them during class will have a negative effect on the student’s participation grade. Use of electronics, and the internet, is, however, encouraged outside the classroom as a learning tool. If you require accommodations through the Disabilities Office, please consult with your instructor after class.
ASSESSMENT: To measure our progress we will be doing a series of assessment activities, including quizzes, summaries of reading assignments, oral and written interpretations of primary and secondary sources; written responses to the topics discussed in class, midterm project, and a final examination.
COURSE GRADE CALCULATION: The course will be based on a 1,200 point scale, broken up into the following:
Class Attendance & Participation: 100 points Presentations of the textbook chapters: 200 points Responses and Reflections: 200 points (20 points each) Quizzes: 100 points (10 points each) Midterm exam: 300 points Final exam: 300 points
ATTENDANCE: Regular class attendance is essential for your progress. You make a commitment to invest your time, energy and thought required to succeed in this course, you also make a commitment to your fellow classmates to study steadily and to attend all classes regularly, lest we all waste valuable time repeating material that has already been discussed in class. If you must miss class due to illness or some other legitimate reason (i.e., religious holidays), please notify the instructor in advance by sending an email. For every 3 unexcused absences, your final grade will be dropped by a half letter grade.
PARTICIPATION: Class participation is one of the most important components of your performance and, consequently, your grade in this class. Your full engagement is expected, so come prepared and try to speak as much as possible in class.
PRESENTATIONS: These are group assignments. Each of you will be assigned to a group. Each group will prepare one in-class presentation of a topic, person, or event that is connected with the reading and which will be assigned to you. For these assignments, you are expected to demonstrate the complex ability of researching your topic online, evaluating the discussed facts, events, concepts, and ideas, selecting the most important of them and summarizing them clearly and comprehensively to the rest of the class. Your group is welcome to come to office hours with questions, but you are responsible for finding and sifting through various sources. Please make a powerpoint that you will then upload to our course site. (15-25 minutes)
RESPONSE AND REFLECTION: These are individual assignments. Throughout the work of the course, you will be asked to interpret, analyze, and evaluate a document or a scene in a film, a short story or a painting. These assignments will vary: some will be worksheets that you’ll be asked to fill in, others will be short analytical pieces of one to two pages (required lengths listed on the syllabus), size 12 text, double spaced. Often a question will be provided for you, but occasionally I may ask that you reflect on a cultural artifact without any instructions. Please be aware that your task is not to summarize the works of art but to answer the specific reflection question posed on the syllabus. In other words, this is an act of analysis.
QUIZZES: There will, on average, be one quiz a week. The quizzes will be short and will cover the most important information pertinent to the thematic unit – e.g., concepts, dates, names, primary sources.
MIDTERM & FINAL EXAMS: The midterm and final exams will have the same structure: They will have three types of assignments. The first part will be similar to our quizzes, prompting you to answer multiple- choice questions. These will assess your knowledge of general facts and chronology, important events, personas, tangible and intangible symbols, and the like. In the second part, you will be asked to define certain concepts or name important practices, products or symbols for a certain historical period. In the last third section, you will write a short essay to interpret a particular product, practice or symbol.
SPECIAL NEEDS: Students with special learning needs are asked to discuss them with the instructor as soon as possible. We are committed to providing instruction to all learners.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: Academic Integrity: As a student at IU, you are expected to adhere to the standards detailed in the Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct (Code). Academic misconduct is defined as any activity that tends to undermine the academic integrity of the institution. Violations include: cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, interference, violation of course rules, and facilitating academic dishonesty. When you submit an assignment with your name on it, you are signifying that the work contained therein is yours, unless otherwise cited or referenced. Any ideas or materials taken from another source for either written or oral use must be fully acknowledged. All suspected violations of the Code will be reported to the Dean of Students and handled according to University policies. Sanctions for academic misconduct may include a failing grade on the assignment, reduction in your final course grade, and a failing grade in the course, among other possibilities. If you are unsure about the expectations for completing an assignment or taking a test or exam, be sure to seek clarification from your instructor in advance.
ANTI-DISCRIMINATION STATEMENT: The Russian Language Program does not discriminate based on race, religion, color, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, physical impairment, or disability. Everyone has the right to a safe working and learning environment.
COURSE MATERIALS: Russia: A Historical Introduction from Kievan Rus’ to the Present John M. Thompson and Christopher J. Ward 8th edition Available at IU Book Store.
All supplementary course related materials, as well as homework assignments are available through Canvas.
We will discuss a great number of literary texts and films; you need to acquaint yourself with these materials prior to in-class discussions. The additional readings will be provided on our Canvas site or links will be provided on the syllabus.
***We reserve the right to make changes to the syllabus during the course of the semester
WEEKLY SCHEDULE
Date Topics Assignments
Tues, Introduction to the course. Aug Contemporary Russia: an overview. 27th
Thurs Concepts: Aug Culture/Approaches to studying culture. -Read The Primary Chronicle 29th (The Origin of the Slavic People, Topics: The Summoning of the Introduction to the course/methodology. Varangians) and fill out The origin story of Russia. worksheets attached to readings The beginning of Rus’ (reflection 1)
Tues, Concepts: -Read Thompson Ch. 1 + quiz 1 Sept Culture and ideology 3rd -Reflection 1 on Russian Law Topics: (Russkaya Pravda Yaroslava): Ancient Russia & The Kievan State complete worksheet attached to Dealing with historical evidence reading (reflection 2)
Thurs Topics: -Read Thompson Ch. 2 Sept Russia divided and conquered (1054-1462) 5th Moscow: The Third Rome -Read Filofei’s Letters to the Tsar
Tues, Concepts: -Watch Tarkovsky’s “Andrei Sept State and church in Russian Orthodoxy Rublev” segment “Prazdnik” and 10th write reflection 3 (1-2 pages): Topics: Reflection topic: How does the The Russian Church today and in history movie depict the meeting Icons in the Orthodox Church between the monks and the pagans? Does Andrei Rublyov, as a painter, see and interact with the pagans differently than other monks? Does the film adopt his perspective? Does it depict the pagans with sympathy? With shame?
https://archive.org/details/Andrei Rublev/Andrei+Rublev+(1).avi (Part 1 47:43-1:01:20)
-read: https://www.theguardian.com/fil m/2010/oct/20/andrei-rublev- tarkovsky-arthouse
PRESENTATION 1: Russian Icons: The Purposes and Methods of Orthodox Icons
Thurs Concepts: -Read Thompson Ch. 3 + quiz 2 Sept Semiotics of images 12th Competing historiographies -Watch Ivanov-Vano and Norshtein’s “The Battle of Topics: Kerzhenets”: https://www.youtube.com/watch? Moscow and “The Gathering of the Russian v=5P7tNGRMHvQ Lands” (1328-1533) The Mongol Yoke: competing accounts PRESENTATION 2: Russian The Evolution of the National Hero: competing Monasteries in the 14th-16th representations Centuries and Saint Sergius Rimsky-Korsakov’s “The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezhv”
Tues, Concepts: -Read Ivanits’ “The Pagan Sept Cultural Legacy: preservation and Background” 17th interpretation. -Read Ivanits’ Rusalka (mermaid) essay and legends Topics: -Read Pushkin’s “The Mermaid” Dual faith in Medieval Russia and write reflection 4 (1/2 page): Paganism and fairy tales Based on your understanding of The nineteenth century folklore boom dvoeverie, what elements of the Gogol’s “A May Night” and Kramskoi’s “The conflict of the two opposing Mermaids” worldviews (pagan vs. Christian) Kandinsky can you identify in Pushkin's poem "Rusalka" ("The Mermaid")? What do you think Pushkin’s point was?
Thurs -Read Thompson Ch. 4 Sept Concepts: read: 19th Cinematic image: approaches to interpretation https://www.nytimes.com/1988/02 /14/books/the-prince-and-his- Topics: czar-letters-from-exile.html Ivan the Terrible and the Time of Troubles (1533-1618) (“Smutnoe vremya”) -Read Ivan Grozny and Andrei Eisenstein’s “Ivan the Terrible” Kurbsky correspondence Andrei Kurbsky, the first Russian “dissident” Repin’s “Ivan the Terrible” PRESENTATION 3: Ivan the Terrible’s Oprichnina: Purpose and Punishment
Tues, Concepts: -Read Thompson Ch. 5 Sept Religion as vehicle for cultural preservation 24th -Read the Life of Avvakum Topics: (selections) The molding of Russian Society (1613-1689) The Great Schism PRESENTATION 4: Old Believer Communities in the United Old Believers in Russia and America States Guest speaker: Professor Jeff Holdeman?
Thurs Concepts: -Read Thompson Ch. 6 + quiz 3 Sept Allegory and symbol. 26th PRESENTATION 5: Peter the Topics: Great’s Kunstkamera, The First Peter the Great and Westernization (1689-1725) Russian Museum Westernizers vs. Slavophiles, then and now. -Read Pushkin’s “The Bronze Tues, Peter the Great in Art Horseman” and write reflection 5 Oct (1 page): In your view, how is 1st Peter presented in the poem? Does Pushkin emphasize his role as a visionary and founder of a beautiful city or does he problematize Peter’s impact on Russian life?
Thurs Concepts: -Read Thompson Ch. 7 + quiz 4 Oct Enlightenment 3rd -read: Topics: https://lareviewofbooks.org/articl Change and Continuity (1725-1801) e/write-human-skin-catherine- Paradoxes of Russian Enlightenment: great-rule-law/#! Dashkova, Lomonosov, Novikov, Radischev, Suvorov, Pugachev. PRESENTATION 6: Pugachev’s Potemkin villages Rebellion: Peasant Revolts
Tues, Concepts: -Read Gogol’s “The Nose” and Oct Irony, satire, the absurd, literary/cultural “The Overcoat” and write 8th movements from classicism to realism reflection 6 (2 pages): How does Gogol mix fantasy with realism Topics: to make an effective cultural The Petrine dream goes wrong! critique? What is that critique? The St. Petersburg of nineteenth-century Russian literature Gogol, in prose and film
Thurs Oct MIDTERM EXAM IN CLASS 10th
Tues, Topics: Read Thompson Ch. 8 Oct Power, backwardness, and creativity: The 15th Decembrist Revolt PRESENTATION 7: The Decembrists in Siberia Decembrist Lives in Siberia Scenes from Motyl’s The Captivating Star of Happiness
Thurs Topics: -Read Thompson Ch. 10 + quiz 5 Oct 17th Revolution, Reform, and War (1904-1917) -Listen to Dan Carlin podcast on The Duma Russia and WWI The end of the Romanovs Episode 54: 1:12-1:51 Rasputin (via legend, photograph, Boney M) https://podfanatic.com/podcast/d an-carlin-s-hardcore- history/episode/show-54- blueprint-for-armageddon-v
Tues, Concepts: -Watch short documentary on Oct Cinematic techniques; montage. revolution: 22nd https://www.youtube.com/watch? Topics: v=cV9G1QUIm7w Russia in the Whirlwind of Revolution. The poetics of Revolution. -Watch Pudovkin’s “Mother” (https://www.youtube.com/watch ?v=vh9cxevRbEg) and write reflection 7 (1/2 page): Pudovkin claimed that he tried to appeal to his viewers’ emotions not through the acting of his characters but through editing and montage. Choose one moment in the film in which you think the editing—rather than the story itself—lends emotional value to the scene.
Thurs Topics: -Read Thompson Ch. 11 Oct Civil War and the Founding of Soviet Society 24th (1917-1928) -Read Alexandra Kollontai N.E.P. “Soon”
PRESENTATION 8: Alexandra Kollontai and the Working Women’s Movement
Tues, -Read Marinetti’s “Futurist Oct Topics: Manifesto” and th 29 The Avant Garde: Futurism, Cubo-Futurism, https://www.theartstory.org/mov Suprematism, Zaum. ement-russian-futurism.htm
-Read Khlebnikov’s “Radio of the Future”: http://imaginaryinstruments.org/t he-radio-of-the-future/
PRESENTATION 9: Kazimir Malevich and The Black Square
Futurism Continued: Dziga Vertov -Choose one of Malevich’s Cubo- Thurs Futurist paintings from this page: Oct https://www.wikiart.org/en/kazi 31st mir-malevich/all- works#!#filterName:Style_cubo- futurism,resultType:masonry and write reflection 9 (1/2 page): What parts of the Futurist Manifesto do you see reflected and represented through the visual art? (Be sure to specify which picture you have chosen!)
Topics: -Background reading: Socialist Realism https://web.archive.org/web/2013 Tues, The 1934 Writers’ Conference and Maxim 1208102428/http://soviethistory.or Nov Gorky’s speech. g/index.php?page=subject&Subj th 5 ectID=1934socrealism&Year=193 4 -Look through paintings at: http://www.russianartdealer.com/ socialist-realism/ and be prepared to discuss them in class
-Read Zhdanov on Socialist Realism + quiz 6 -PRESENTATION 10: Maxim Gorky and Socialist Realism
Thurs Topics: -Listen to the following Russian Nov Canonization of Russian folk traditions in the folk classics (with English 7th late nineteenth century and Soviet periods subtitles) “Katyusha”: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=WNIlyUmSlDs
“Moscow Nights”: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=yHx2MQuXdKU
“Oh, Frost, Frost”: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=UoOjwJtiuWU
Tues, Topics: -Read Thompson Ch. 12 + quiz 7 Nov Stalinization and World War II 12th Scenes from Iannucci’s “The Death of Stalin” -Read as intro to Shalamov: (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-death-of- https://www.theguardian.com/bo stalin-russia-bans-satirical-film/) oks/2015/mar/19/short-story- survey-varlam-shalamov-kolyma- tales-gulag
-Read Selections from The Kolyma Tales (“A Pushover Job,” “In the Night,” “Dry Rations,” “Lend Lease”)—Varlam Shalamov
PRESENTATION 11: The Kolyma Gulag
Thurs Topics: -Watch Weinstein’s “The War Nov Resistance and Parody Symphonies: Shostakovich 14th Dmitri Shostakovich Against Stalin”: https://vimeo.com/92100423 + quiz 8
Tues, Topics: -Read Thompson Ch. 13 Nov The Cold War 19th Krushchev and De-Stalinization PRESENTATION 12: The Stilyagi Stilyagi of the Soviet 1950s
Thurs Nov Topics: -Read Thompson Ch. 14 + quiz 9 21st Gorbachev The Collapse of the Soviet Union -Watch BBC interview with Herzog’s “Meeting Gorbachev” Gorbachev: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=vj1IIlqGeu8
THANSKGIVING BREAK
Tues, Topic: Corruption in Contemporary Russia -Watch Zvyagintsev’s Dec “Leviathan” and write reflection 3rd 10 (1 page): How does Zvyagintsev represent the contemporary political scene in Russia? Does he use any strategies of dissidence that we have seen in other periods of Russian history? https://sovietmoviesonline.com/d rama/211-leviafan.html
PRESENTATION 13: Russian Oligarchs
“The Making of Mr. Putin”— Thurs Topic: Putin Tatiana Tolstaya Dec https://www.nybooks.com/article 5th s/2000/05/25/the-making-of-mr- putin/ login [email protected] password: hoosier10
-Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=ZZ-Kwr0VFUE + quiz 10
Presentation 14: The Crimean War (Annexation of Crimea)
Tues, -watch videos of Pussy Riot Dec performances 10th -watch Pussy Riot on the Colbert Topic: Dissidence Report: Pussy Riot http://www.cc.com/video- clips/49r39y/the-colbert-report- pussy-riot-pt--1 -read Pussy Riot closing statements: https://nplusonemag.com/online- only/online-only/pussy-riot- closing-statements/
PRESENTATION 15: Pyotr Pavlensky: Contemporary Shock Artist
Thurs Dec Final Exam 12th