OSUN Theme: Arts and Society
Literature and Art from the Soviet Union
Term: January 16, 2024 – May 7, 2024Level: 200-Level
Day/Time: Tuesday; Thursday 4:35 AM - 5:50 AM EST
Instructor: Maryna Batsman, American University of Central Asia
The course offers an overview of the most important literature and art produced in the Soviet Union from the 1917 Revolution until the country's dissolution in 1991. It examines works of prose and poetry from modernism to the 1950s - 1970s novel boom and early postmodernism of perestroika, as well as the concomitant movements in painting, film, and other fine arts. The required readings include short poems and stories of Mayakovsky, Akhmatova, Mandelshtam, Babel, Shalamov, and others, and some short novels (Solzhenitsyn, Bulgakov, Zamiatin, Yerofeyev, Platonov, or others). The art forms examined include the avant-garde (Malevich, Kandinsky, Eisenstein, etc.), Central Asian socialist realism (Chuikov, Aytiev, Obraztsov, etc.), and a few examples of non-conformist art (Kabakov, Neizvestny, etc.). The course pays special attention to the changing and complex relationship between the artist and the state and the socio-political moment in which the particular work of art originated. The instructor will give a guided tour of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Bishkek. All readings and projections are in English.
Prerequisites: First Year Seminar, English Composition, or another freshman course equivalent to these (e.g. Academic Writing).
Credits: 3 US / 6 ECTS