History of Russian Culture Through Film and Literature

This course provides an overview of the historical development of Russian culture, both artistic and material. We examine the major movements in Russian art, music, literature, film, and dance within their historical context. Among the topics discussed are saints lives, icons, chronicles, the writings of Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoi, Pasternak, and Bulgakov; the music of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich; the art of serf artists, Repin, Shishkin, Kandinsky, Mayakovsky, and Socialist Realism; and the films of Eisenstein, Mikhalkov, and Zviagintsev.