Modern Russian Literature and Culture: The Age of War and Revolution

What makes Russian modernism special? Or is there anything special about Russian modernism? And how did modernist poets, prose writers, and filmmakers respond to the turbulent events of the first half of the 20th century, when Russia was shaken by revolution and war? This course aims to answer these questions through close readings of works by authors like Vladimir Mayakovsky, Isaac Babel, Osip Mandelstam, Mikhail Zoshchenko, Andrei Platonov, Yuri Olesha, and Mikhail Bulgakov, as well as early Soviet film. Aesthetic issues such as hero, plot, language, and poetic and narrative devices will be addressed with the aid of contemporaneous literary theory (e.g., Shklovsky, Tynianov, Eikhenbaum, Bakhtin). Novels and theory will be read in English. NOTE: This course must be taken for a minimum of 3 units and a letter grade to be eligible for Ways credit.