RUSS 401
Senior Seminar:Representations of the Caucasus in Russian Literature and Film Fall 2014
Division I Writing Skills
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Class Details

Media coverage of the recent Chechen wars and terrorists acts in Moscow has exposed the troubled relationship between Russia and the Caucasus, a conflict that is hundreds of years old. Over the past two centuries, Russian writers and filmmakers have addressed this tension in central works of poetry, prose, and film. This course offers a survey of the most emblematic representations of the Caucasus in Russian cultural productions of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. We will focus on literary works by Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy, Esenin, Mayakovsky, Pristavkin, Pelevin, and Politkovskaya, and will analyze a number of relevant films– Kidnapping, Caucasian Style (1966); The Color of Pomegranates (1968); Prisoner of the Caucasus (1996); War (2002); and Aleksandra (2007). We will strive to investigate how the Russian writers and filmmakers have used the image of the Caucasian Other to address the issue of Russia’s self-representation, and to what degree contemporary Russian artists have transformed the image of the Caucasians compared to the Romantic period. The course will be conducted entirely in Russian. All readings and viewings will be in Russian.
The Class: Format: seminar
Limit: 10
Expected: 4
Class#: 1240
Grading: no pass/fail option, no fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: requirements will consist of four short essays, a conference-style presentation, and a final paper
Extra Info: may not be taken on a pass/fail basis; not available for the Gaudino option
Prerequisites: Russian 251, 252 or consent of instructor
Enrollment Preferences: Russian majors
Distributions: Division I Writing Skills

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