History and Memory in/of Socialism

Catalog description

State socialist societies shaped the history of the twentieth century. They also intently reshaped the history of past eras. Now, decades after the collapse of the USSR and the capitalist remake of the People’s Republic of China, those histories are often little more than memories, sometimes haunting the present, and sometimes weaponized for present purposes. This course will begin with consideration of state socialist societies’ representations of their own pasts and of global histories, from the historicization of the October Revolution, to the mid-century retellings of deeper histories of empire and nation, to non-conformist histories of state socialist mass violence. In the latter portion of the course, we will turn to investigate the history and memory of state socialism, covering post-socialist melancholy and nostalgia, the deployment of socialist history in memory wars and real wars in formerly state socialist lands, and recent revisions of socialist history in terms of empire, nation, and post- and de-coloniality. Primary materials will range from literature and film to public discourse, monumental art, and historiography (from Maxim Gorky’s “History of Factories and Plants” project [1930s] to Jasmina Wojcik’s _Symphony of the Ursus Factory_ [2018]). Our work will be ramified by readings in theory and method, covering social memory, invented traditions, lieux de mémoire, trauma studies, entangled and multidirectional memory, and other topics. All course materials will be available in English translation. Undergraduates may enroll with instructor’s permission.