RSS1020

Post-Soviet literature and culture

S M Vladiv-Glover

6 points
* 3 hours per week
* Second semester
* Clayton

Objectives On successful completion of the subject, students should have become familiar with the more recent products of Russian post-Soviet culture, such as postmodern literary texts, films and art works in the context of the political and social developments of the 1980s and 1990s.

Synopsis An introduction to contemporary cultural and social issues arising out of the end of the Soviet era and treating such topics as the cultural revivals among the nationalities of the former USSR, the role of the new art and literature in the transition from repression to relaxation of controls, and cultural pluralism. Texts will include fiction, art and film.

Assessment Written (3500 words): 70%
* Examination (1.5 hours): 30%

Prescribed texts

Aitmatov C The day lasts more than a hundred years Indiana U P, 1983
Chukhontsev O (ed.) Dissonant voices: The new Russian fiction Harvill/Harper-Collins, 1991
Tolstaya T On the golden porch Penguin, 1989
Tolstaya T Sleepwalker in a fog Vintage, 1993
Yerofeyev V Moscow circles Writers and Readers Publishing Cooperative, 1981