Department of Slavonic Studies

Paper Ru 10 (new for 2013-14)

Russian Culture after 1953

Course Convenor: Dr Rebecca Reich (J)

N.B. This page only introduces you to the paper.

Individuals with Raven passwords may download a sample examination paper from the Easter Term 2013

The Paper

Joseph Stalin’s death in 1953 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 launched new eras in Soviet and Russian cultural history as artists confronted the past and looked for new means of self-expression. This paper examines literature, film, drama, and visual art produced from 1953 to the present day. It situates cultural texts in historical, social and political context while providing a range of theoretical tools for analysing late Soviet and contemporary works.

• Ru10 Student Handbook for 2013-14 (pdf)

Texts and Topics

For study in 2013-14:

Topic 1: De-Stalinization
Grigorii Chukhrai, Ballada o soldate (film)
Мikhail Kalatozov, Letiat zhuravli (film)
Vladimir Pomerantsev, “Ob iskrennosti v literature”
Mikhail Sholokhov, ‘Sud’ba cheloveka’
Andrei Tarkovskii, Ivanovo detstvo (film)
Abram Terts (Andrei Siniavskii), ‘Chto takoe sotsialisticheskii realizm’

Topic 2: Testimony
Lidiia Ginzburg, Zapiski blokadnogo cheloveka
Varlam Shalamov, Kolymskie rasskazy
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Odin den’ Ivana Denisovicha and selections from Arkhipelag GULag
Iurii Trifonov, ‘Dom na naberezhnoi’

Topic 3: City and Country
Fedor Abramov, ‘Dereviannye koni’
Natalia Baranskaia, ‘Nedelia kak nedelia’
Andrei Bitov. ‘Zhizn’ v vetrenuiu pogodu’
Marlen Khutsiev, Zastava Il’icha (film)
Andrei Mikhalkov-Konchalovskii, Asino schast’ie (film)
Kira Muratova, Korotkie vstrechi (film)
Poetry and songs by by Bella Akhmadulina, Joseph Brodsky, Evgenii Evtushenko, Aleksandr Galich, Bulat Okudzhava, Robert Rozhdestvenskii, Andrei Voznesenskii, Vladimir Vysotskii and others.

Set Text 1: Venedikt Erofeev, Moskva-Petushki

Topic 4: Resistance
Sergei Dovlatov, ‘Kompromiss piatyi’ in Kompromiss
Abram Terts (Andrei Siniavskii), ‘Grafomanii (iz rasskazov o moei zhizni)’, Liubimov
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, ‘Pis’mo s’’ezdu Soiuza pisatelei SSSR’
Vladimir Voinovich, Ivan’kiada

Topic 5: Speech
Liudmila Petrushevskaia, ‘Rasskazchitsa’
Dmitrii Prigov, ‘Opisanie predmetov’
Liudmila Razumovskaia, Dorogaia Elena Sergeevna
Lev Rubinshtein, ‘Poiavlenie geroia’
Vladimir Sorokin, ‘Zasedanie partkoma’
Visual art by Erik Bulatov, Il’ia Kabakov, Vitali Komar and Aleksandr Melamid, Aleksandr Kosolapov, Andrei Monastyrskii, Viktor Pivovarov, and others.

Set Text 2: Viktor Pelevin, Chapaev i Pustota

Topic 6: Identity
Aleksei Balabanov, Brat (film)
Sergei Livnev, Serp i molot (film)
Vladimir Makanin, ‘Kavkazskii plennyi’
Kira Muratova, Nastroishchik (film)
Tatiana Tolstaia, ‘Sonia’
Liudmila Ulitskaia, ‘Sonechka’
Andrei Volos, ‘Chuzhoi’

Preparatory Reading

The following list includes Set Texts and background reading. Students are urged to buy and read both Set Texts during the summer. They are also recommended to begin reading the Core Texts listed under Topics.

• Beumers, Birgit. A History of Russian Cinema. Oxford: Berg, 2008.
• Evgeny Dobrenko and Marina Balina, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth-Century Russian Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2011 (available online with Raven ID).
• Venedikt Erofeev, Moskva-Petushki (Set Text; recommended edition: Vagrius 2007).
• Geoffrey A. Hosking. The First Socialist Society: A History of the Soviet Union from Within. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1992.
• Viktor Pelevin, Chapaev i Pustota (Set Text; recommended edition: Eksmo 2012).
• Richard Stites. Russian Popular Culture: Entertainment and Society Since 1900. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992.
• Ronald Grigor Suny, ed. The Cambridge History of Russia: The Twentieth Century. Vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2006 (available online with Raven ID).

Teaching

The paper is taught through a combination of weekly lectures and fortnightly supervisions, with two lectures and one supervision allocated to each Topic and Set Text. All writing assignments are due 48 hours before supervision. The schedule of lectures and supervisions is as follows:

Michaelmas Term: 8 weekly lectures and 4 fortnightly supervisions
Lent Term: 8 weekly lectures and 4 fortnightly supervisions
Easter Term: 4 weekly revision seminars and 2 fortnightly revision supervisions

Assessment

Students are assessed by examination at the end of Easter Term. The examination paper is structured as follows:

Section A: One essay or commentary on the Set Texts. Students may choose from one comparative essay question on both texts, one essay question on one of the texts, and one extract for commentary from the other text.

Section B: Two essays on the Topics. Students are presented with two questions for each of the six Topics. They may choose to answer those questions using primary material from the other Topics. However, all answers in Section B must refer to works by two or more artists, and to at least one written text.

Students in Part 1B will have the option of submitting a portfolio of essays in lieu of sitting the final examination.

Students in Part II will have the option of submitting an Optional Dissertation in lieu of sitting the final examination.

Course Contact

Dr Rebecca Reich, Jesus College, rr423@cam.ac.uk