Take me to the Fall Time Schedule
150. First Year Seminar.
Only first-year students, including those with sophomore
standing, may pre-register for First-Year Seminars. All others
need permission of instructor. (3). (HU). May be repeated for
a total of six credits.
Section 001 – Cultural Diversity of Russia, Eastern Europe &
Eurasia. 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. Two papers
and short reviews of films, stories, and articles. (Shevoroshkin)
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151. First Year Seminar.
Only first-year students, including those with sophomore
standing, may pre-register for First-Year Seminars. All others
need permission of instructor. (4). (Introductory Composition).
Section 001 – Russian Film, Russian Life. 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 difficulty 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. Cost:2
WL:4 (Eagle)
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225. Arts and Cultures
of Central Europe. (3). (HU).
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. (Carpenter,
Toman, Eagle).
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313/RC Hums. 313. Russian
Cinema. (3). (HU). Laboratory fee ($50) required.
In the 1920's Soviet film makers armed with bold new ideas about
cinematic art and with a revolutionary political ideology created the theory of film montage and through it a decade of acknowledged
masterpieces. In the 1930's experimentation gave way to an officially
sanctioned "socialist realist" art, ideologically dogmatic
and oriented toward the regime's specific political and social
goals. However, after Stalin's death experimentation and diversity
reemerged in Soviet cinema. Although "socialist realism"
remained the officially sanctioned style, directors were able
to reintroduce personal themes and, more subtly, religious and philosophical issues. The 1980's saw the reemergence of a variety
of approaches (from documentary to the grotesque) and open political
and social criticism in the spirit of glasnost with the
end of the Soviet Union, sexuality, gender, and ethnicity became
important issues as well. The course will examine this rich history
in terms of both themes and styles. Evaluation will be based on
contributions to class discussion and three short (5-7 page) critical
papers. Cost:2
WL:4 (Eagle)
Russian Pioneers of Cinema Language
Strike (Eisenstein 1924) – Avant-garde concepts
from literature and theater brought to cinema to create the shock
effects of the "montage of attractions."
Mother (Pudovkin 1925) – Using "plastic material"
in montage creates new concept of film acting in depicting a woman's
path from passivity to political action in 1905 Revolution.
Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein 1925) – In depicting the sailor's rebellion in 1905, Eisenstein created his masterpiece
of "collision" montage – the Odessa steps sequence.
Man With a Movie Camera (Vertov 1928) – Kino-eye cinema
verite used to observe life as it is (no sets, no scripts) and reassemble it as a collage with its own internal rhythms and visual
coherences.
Earth (Dovzhenko 1930) – Poetic cinema with use of imaginative
personal and folk elements in praise of the marriage of nature
and technology. Plot concerns the assassination by kulaks
of a collective farm activist.
Socialist Realism, Stalinist Monumental Epics &
Eisenstein's Reemergence.
Road to Life (Ekk 1931) – In the melodramatic
and exhortative style to become typical for socialist realism, Ekk chronicles the transformation of a gang of juvenile delinquent
orphans into a dedicated collective.
Chapayev (Sergei and Georgi Vassiliev 1931) – A "positive
hero" of folk origin (Chapayev) becomes a military leader
with the help of a politically conscious commissar.
Ivan the Terrible Parts I and II (Eisenstein 1944-46)
- Stalinist ideology and subtle dissent in this epic historical
tragedy.
Eisenstein integrates music and color into his theory and practice
of "overtonal montage."
The Contemporary Period. Personal Themes and Styles.
Philosophical Religious, and Ethnic values. Political and Social
Critique.
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (Paradzhanov
1964) – Folklore realism with dazzling color and use of camera
movement in this allegory about the struggle between material, worldly power and spirituality.
Andrei Rublev (Tarkovsky 1966) – Based on the life of the great Russian icon painter; an epic portrait of medieval Russia
and its political and spiritual values. Its applicability to contemporary
life led to its suppression for several years.
The White Bird With a Black Spot (Ilyenko 1972) – Symbolic
imagery and brilliant cinematography abound in this drama of conflict
between two brothers on opposite sides of the conflict in the
Ukraine during the Second World War.
Scarecrow (Bykov 1984) – The cruel ostracism and hazing
of a kind, decent though awkward, adolescent schoolgirl by her
classmates, amidst adult apathy, presents a critical allegory
about the behavior of the Soviet citizenry under Stalin and Brezhnev.
A Soviet Lord of the Flies.
My Friend Ivan Lapshin (German 1985) – German deconstructs
Socialist Realism and its effects in this subtle examination of
an apparent "positive hero," the tough but amiable police
detective Lapshin, on the trail of thieves and blackmarketeers.
Ultimately, though, Lapshin and his friends, in their naivete, singlemindedness and persistent blindness to the social realities
in which they live, provide a chilling portrait of Stalinist Soviet
society.
Little Vera (Pychul 1988) – Pychul's naturalistic portrait
of the confusion and poverty of Soviet urban life was ground-breaking
in its frank treatment of escapism through alcoholism, sex, and rock culture in a dispirited society.
Taxi Blues (Lungin, 1990) – This fast-paced fable of
a symbiotic love-hate relationship of a Moscow taxi driver and a brilliant, but alcoholic, jazz saxophonist explores the dynamics
of conflicts in contemporary life between workers and intellectuals, Russians and Jews, in the new hyper-realist style.
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395/REES 395/Hist. 332/Poli.
Sci. 395/Soc. 392. Survey of Russia: The Russian Empire, the Soviet
Union, and the Successor States. (4). (SS). Laboratory
fee ($10) required.
See Russian and East European
Studies 395. (Rosenberg)
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