Love, Sex and Modernism

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

At the turn of the 20th century, Russian culture witnessed unprecedented experimentation in regard to romantic and erotic relationships, gender identity, and expression. Many cultural figures rejected procreative sex, traditional gender roles, and identities in favor of less individualistic, less binary alternatives, with the hope of uniting humanity into a tight-knit collective and transforming the world. In this course, we will consider not only the Russian modernists' idealistic projections of future alternatives but also the problematic pathologies that went hand in hand with their erotic utopias. This course examines literature, visual and performance art created between 1889 and 1930, with a focus on romantic relationships, sex, gender, and how these issues bridge pre-revolutionary and Soviet Russian culture. Alongside novellas, poems, essays, and visual art, students consider writers’ and artists’ personal biographies through the lens of "zhiznetvorchestvo" or the modeling of life as a work of art. Taught in English.