Russian Postmodernism and Cold War Narratives

Catalog description

The course explores dystopian imagination, post-apocalyptic narratives, and the idea of the end of history in Russian postmodernist fiction. It will include discussion of some of the major Western theories on postmodernity, as well as comparisons with major American postmodern novels in connection with Cold War culture and sensibility. By looking at artistic and philosophical deconstructions of socialism and capitalism, the two main political regimes of the 20th century, we will study postmodernism as an art and literary current and as a cultural paradigm, pervading every aspect of contemporary culture and everyday life.