First-Year Courses in Slavic Linguistics, Literary Theory, Film, and Surveys (Division 474)

Fall Term, 1999 (September 8 - December 22, 1999)

Section 001 – Cultural Diversity of Eastern Europe, Russia, and Eurasia.

Instructor(s): Vitalij Shevoroshkin (vvs@umich.edu)

Credits: (3).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This course will explore firsthand the extraordinary cultural diversity of Eastern Europe, Russia and Eurasia, where European and Asian cultures met and often clashed, and whose culture is a unique blend of Western and Oriental influences. One paper and short reviews of films, stories, and articles.

Section 001 – Russian Film/Russian Life. Required Film Screening Mondays, 7-9 PM.

Instructor(s): Herbert Eagle (hjeagle@umich.edu)

First-Year Seminar,

Credits: (4).

Lab Fee: Laboratory fee ($35) required.

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

In this seminar we will explore the competition between differing social and cultural values in 20th-century Russian life by examining how these values have been represented in Russian film. All of the films to be discussed in the seminar involve events in Russian history (from life in the medieval period to the collapse of the USSR) and in contemporary Russian society. Even what the “historical” films have to say about art, politics, religion, gender, ethnicity, and social issues is always targeted toward the debates of the periods in which the films were made. Thus, two time periods are always relevant: the era the film depicts and the era in which it was produced. Film in Russia was subject to varying degrees of ideological control. But visual film language proved in many ways difficult to censor completely, so that in many periods ingenious film directors were able to work within the system, balancing the Communist Party’s preferred views on issues with their own, more or less dissident, views. The end of censorship in the mid-1980s brought a new, more frank, treatment of many themes: nationalism, religion, youth culture (rock and roll, punk), women’s issues, the role of the artist in society. In all cases, we will have an eye not only on issues as they were relevant in the past, but also on their effects on perceptions and debates within Russia today.

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Jindrich Toman (ptydepe@umich.edu) , Herbert Eagle (hjeagle@umich.edu)

Credits: (3).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

The course is an introduction to the rich cultures of the peoples of Central Europe (Croats, Czechs, Hungarians, Jews, Poles, Serbs, and Slovaks) seen against the background of two world wars, communism and its recent disintegration. Culturally vibrant, Central Europe reveals the tragic destiny of twentieth-century civilization which gave rise to two totalitarian systems: fascism and communism. The course will outline the ethnic complexities of the region, with special attention to Jewish culture and its tragic destruction during the Holocaust. The trauma of the war on the civilian population will be documented by contemporary films. The course will examine the fate of culture under totalitarianism and study subterfuges used by novelists, dramatists, and artists to circumvent political control and censorship. Students will read works by Kafka, Milosz, Kundera and Havel; see movies by Wajda and others; become acquainted with Czech and Polish avant-garde art and music and the unique cultural atmosphere of Central European cities: Vienna, Prague, Budapest, and Warsaw.