Department of Slavonic Studies
Paper Ru1
Introduction to Russian Culture (Part IA, Option B)
The Paper
This paper offers an interdisciplinary overview of key issues in Russian history, literature and the visual arts from earliest times to the present. The paper is designed to introduce students to the analysis of a wide range of
cultural artifacts and practices: its primary sources and prescribed texts include not only literary and historical documents, but also icons, buildings, paintings, posters, films, monuments, maps and ritual dress. The primary sources, topics and methodologies explored in this paper are intended to provide both ab initio and post-A-level students of Russian with a solid foundation for more specialized study in Part IB and Part II.
The paper consists of five topics and one set text, Mikhail Lermontov's Geroi nashego vremeni [A Hero of Our Time]. The topics examine historical, literary and visual materials produced between the 11th century and 1940. They are presented in rough chronological order, but are organized thematically. Lectures will address both the immediate historical contexts and cultural impact of prescribed topics and texts, as well as their continuing resonance within contemporary Russian cultural debates.
Paper Ru A3 (required of all students in Part IA, Option A) and Paper Ru 1 (required of all students in Part IA, Option B) follow the same course of lectures, but supervision arrangements and reading lists for the two papers have been designed to accommodate the differing language skills of students in Options A and B.
A mandatory organizational meeting for all students taking Ru A3 and Ru 1 will take place on the Wednesday preceding the start of Michaelmas term at 2:45 pm.
Texts and Topics
For 2013-14:
1. Origins and Identities
2. Empire and Monuments: The Eighteenth Century and its Legacies
3. Mythologizing the National Space: The Russian Countryside
4. The City: Modernity and Tradition
5. Revolution: Ideology and Discourse
Click here for the updated course handbook with detailed descriptions and reading lists.
Preparatory Reading
Before arriving in Cambridge to start the Michaelmas term, all students beginning Part IA, Option A are expected to have read at least the following:
1. An overview of Russian history from the 9th through at least the 19th centuries in EITHER
a. Gregory Freeze, ed., Russia: A History, 3rd ed. (Oxford), OR
b. Catherine Evtuhov et al., A History of Russia: Peoples, Legends, Events, Forces (Houghton Mifflin), OR
c. Nicholas Riasanovsky and Mark Steinberg, A History of Russia (Oxford, 7th or 8th edition only).
2. At least the first half of Robin Milner-Gulland, The Russians (Oxford, 1998).
3. English translations of the principal literary texts assigned for RuA3:
Mikhail Lermontov, A Hero of Our Time
Ivan Turgenev, A Huntsman's Sketches
Nikolai Gogol, ‘The Overcoat’
Anna Akhmatova, 'Requiem'
Teaching
Lectures will be held weekly in Michaelmas and twice weekly in Lent. No formal lectures will be offered in Easter. Students are strongly urged to attend all lectures, as they will provide the essential historical, cultural, and conceptual contexts for the work to be discussed in supervisions and examinations.
Students in Ru 1 will have fortnightly supervisions in all three terms. All supervisions will be organized centrally through the Department of Slavonic Studies. All supervisions will be organized centrally through the Department of Slavonic Studies.
Assessment
The examination consists of three sections. The questions set in each section for Ru A3 and Ru 1 will reflect the differences in their reading lists, but the format of the exam will be identical for all candidates.
Section A: A commentary on an extract drawn from Lermontov's Geroi nashego vremeni [Ru1].
Section B: Three short responses that analyze a) brief extracts from the literary texts assigned for this paper, and b) images selected to complement the visual works studied in the paper. Candidates will choose from five pairs of texts and images (one pair for each topic). Each candidate must write a short response to at least one image and at least one text.
Section C: Each candidate will write one essay question, selected from a list of five pairs of questions (one pair for each topic).
*Students in Ru 1 must make substantive reference to material produced before 1800 in at least one answer in EITHER section B OR in section C.
Individuals with Raven passwords may download copies of recent examination papers from the Faculty CamTools site here.
N.B. This paper was redesigned in 2010-2011. In preparing for the examination students should rely only on the reading list and examination papers set on or after Tripos 2011.
Contact
Course Co-ordinator: Dr Susan Larsen, Fitzwilliam College, sl545@cam.ac.uk
Course Lecturers in 2013-2014: Prof Simon Franklin, Dr Jana Howlett, Dr Susan Larsen, Dr Rebecca Reich, Dr Chris Ward.
