Art, Nature, and Empire in Russian and Soviet Culture

Catalog description

How does the state draw political power from nature? What is the relationship between the environment and national and/or imperial identity? How does the environment resist political control, or support human resistance? This course will explore these questions from the perspective of Russian and Soviet culture. Analyzing literature, art, and film in historical context, we will consider the environment as worker and victim, refuge and rebel, commodity and national(ist) emblem, exploring the degrees of agency it is granted in different artistic depictions. With special attention to the history of Russian imperialism and Soviet ?internal colonization? and to non-Russian writers and artists of the Russian Empire and USSR, including Indigenous writers. All readings will be in English. (HIST-HEU)