Course Syllabus: REE 325/CL 323 “Russian Prisons in History and Literature” Instructor Information: Marina Potoplyak, PhD Class Meetings: Mon, Wed, Fri 10 – 11 AM in GEA 114 Office Hours: Wed 1:00 – 2:00 PM (Caffé Medici); Tue 2:00 – 3:00 PM (BUR 228) and by appointment E-mail:
[email protected] Course Description: With its current prison population second only to the United States, Russia offers a rich and unique history of exile, incarceration, hard labor, deportation, and various other forms of legal punishment for both criminal and political transgressors. From the first medieval rudimentary holding cells, ostrogi, to Stalin’s sprawling GULAG system, to the overcrowded prisons of today, Russian penitentiary system underwent several waves of reforms that at times echoed similar developments in the West, but often reveal a unique Russian “way,” as evident in the phenomenon of Siberia, that proverbial locus of the worst imaginable punishment from the Tsarist times to our days, with its many important functions and the fame of an unlikely oasis of free thinking. Importantly, in its cultural and political significance, “zona,” a slang term for all forms of penal confinement, far exceeds its purely punitive function and affects all aspects of life in Russia, even dictating the norms of conducting business in the highest echelons of power. In addition, this course examines a broad range of popular attitudes toward the law, state, punishment, crime, prisoners, and subversion, the stereotypes about Russian lawlessness and the arbitrariness of law enforcement, and the role of prisons in the formation of Russian national identity.