HISTORY OF THE RUSSIAN CULTURE

The course falls into the learning area "Literatures and cultures" and is entitled “Modern Russian Culture". It focuses on some of the key movements of Russian literary and cultural history of the 20th and 21st centuries with an emphasis on major key theoretical concepts, major events and central figures. The goal of the course is to familiarize students with the major directions of development of the modern Russian culture, the original works and modern debates and critical works on Russian culture.

1. Knowledge and understanding
● Acquisition with the history of Russian culture, its key concepts and major trends.
● Familiarization with the central figures of modern Russian culture of the 20th and 21st centuries.
● Development of cultural awareness, critical analysis, creative thinking and intellectual independence.

2. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
● Students will learn how to demonstrate a basic knowledge of key features and historical analysis of cultural texts.
● Students will learn how to use a basic special vocabulary for discussing cultural history development, how to build a structured and reasoned argument to support ideas about cultural texts and evaluate secondary sources.
● Students will be able to discuss key critical concepts in the context of various manifestations in the history of Russian culture and critically analyse and apply theoretical approaches to the material.
● Students will extend their awareness of the origins, contexts and development of the most important trends in Russian literature, such as Socialist Realism and Russian Postmodernism.
● Students will develop critical thinking about the theoretical bases and aesthetic practices of modern Russian culture.

3. Judgment capacity
● Students will be able to gather, process and evaluate critically information from a variety of paper and electronic sources.
● Students will develop a conceptual approach to the materials they will be working with and will learn how to provide in their exam presentations substantial proof for the ideas that were developed as a result of their individual research.
● Students will develop skills in analysis, drawing on primary and secondary materials to explore the relationship between political and cultural contexts, aesthetics, and audiences.

4. Communication skills
● Development of verbal and written communicative skills in target language.
● Development of quality of expression of ideas (appropriate register/specialised terms) in target language.
● Development of linguistic competence (grammar, spelling, etc.) in target language.

5. Learning skills
● Development of awareness of and engagement with a range of debates and critical (secondary) works in target language.
● Development of independent analyses and interpretation with primary sources in target language.
● Knowledge of how to work with the primary and secondary sources in the process of individual research.

The knowledge of the historic, cultural and literary evolution of Russia of the 20th century. Russian language at B1/B2 level is required. EAPLL students of Balkan and Slavic studies who study other languages (Serbo-Croatian, Czech, Neo-Greek...) and do not know Russian or have a lower level than required should contact the lecturer promptly to assess the possibilities of taking the exam or arrange an alternative program.

The lectures will cover the following topics:
· Soviet and Post-Soviet Society, Politics and Culture
· Revolutionary Culture and Stalinist Culture
· Culture of Normalization and Post-Soviet Culture
· History as Trauma
· Politics of Memory and Memory Wars
· Nostalgia
· Political Culture: Resentment, Conspirology, and Political Discourse
· Nationalism into Fascism
· Dystopias
· High Culture and Low (Middlebrow) Culture. Totalitarian Kitsch.
· Popular Culture: Glamour and Politics
· Socialist Realism into Conceptualism
· Modern Art and Political Activism
· Gender Aspects of Modern Russian Culture

A bibliography and filmography will be given at the beginning of the course by the Lecturer on Moodle.

The oral exam (in Russian) will be as follows: all students will receive a list of three questions that were discussed during the course. The questions will cover the topics covered during the classes. From this list, each student will choose one topic and prepare it for the exam. Each exam will last up to 20 minutes.

Lectures and seminars by the professor. Taught in Russian.

The course of "History of the Russian Culture 2" is borrowed by "History of the Russian Culture", so we suggest to attend the two exams in two different years. Students who, for some valid reason, have to attend both the exams in the first year should explain their situation to the lecturer well in advance: they will attend "History of the Russian Culture 2" with the programme of "History of the Russian Culture" of the previous year.

oral