Magical Mystery Tour: The Legacy of Old Rus'

3 points · University catalogue

Winston Churchill famously defined Russia as "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." This course aims at demystifying Russia by focusing on the core of its "otherness" in the eyes of the West: its religious culture. We will explore an array of texts, practices and pragmatic sites of Russian religious life across such traditional divides as medieval and modern, popular and elite, orthodox and heretical. Icons, liturgical rituals, illuminated manuscripts, magic amulets, religious sects, feasting and fasting, traveling practices from pilgrimages to tourism, politcial myths and literary mystification, decadent projects of life-creation, and fervent anticipation of the End are all part of the tour that is as illuminating as it is fun. No knowledge of Russian required.