Post-Soviet Cultures

4 credits · Undergraduate

This course explores the literary and visual culture that emerged in post-Soviet societies following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Students will learn how literature and cinema transformed during a period of dramatic and even traumatic change, in the context of intense debates over national identity, the relationship to the socialist past, and the inter-relations of art, politics and commerce. While our focus will be on the literature, cinema and popular culture of post-Soviet Russia, we will also consider texts and films produced in other post-Soviet spaces: Ukraine, Armenia, and Central Asia.