For affiliate students in Term 1 only.

Russian cinema has borne important witness to the turbulent and traumatic events of the last 100+ years, reflecting,...

Russian Cinema: History, Ideology, Society (SERS0065)

For affiliate students in Term 1 only.

Russian cinema has borne important witness to the turbulent and traumatic events of the last 100+ years, reflecting, more than other national cinemas, key ideological and social shifts. This module examines the way in which Russian cinema has represented, interrogated and responded to historical, ideological and social change. Ranging from the pre-Revolutionary period to the post-Soviet present, it explores 17 films that illustrate and explore some of the major changes that have taken place in Russia since the release of the first Russian feature film in 1908, including: social developments in the late-Tsarist period, the Revolution and subsequent Civil War, the Stalinist thirties, the Khrushchev thaw, the Brezhnevite stagnation, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the immense upheaval and social changes of recent years. This module also considers the cinematic evolution of Russian film during this period, examining such issues as: the first filmmakers’ attempts to differentiate film from theatre by creating a specifically cinematic language, the uses of melodrama, the development of montage, the fraught relationship between Soviet and American cinema, the coming of sound in the 1930s, Socialist Realism, the introduction of new genres, such as the musical, the war film and the gangster film, the representation of identity that is Soviet, but not Russian, the emergence and development of post-Soviet auteur cinema, and the arrival of new young filmmakers.

This module provides an introduction to the development of Russian society and culture from the 1917 Revolution to the present day. The materials chosen to...

The Making of Modern Russian Culture (SERS0010)

This module provides an introduction to the development of Russian society and culture from the 1917 Revolution to the present day. The materials chosen to illustrate this development are drawn from the areas of prose fiction, poetry, art and film. The module focuses on the contexts in which these works emerged, their themes, and their formal properties. The texts will be read in good quality and accessible English translations, but with the introduction of some Russian language material as appropriate. Students with A-level Russian will be required to undertake more reading in Russian. Film showings will be scheduled as appropriate. The texts studied include: Evgenii Zamiatin’s My (We, 1920), Sergei Eizenshtein’s Stachka (Strike, 1924), Mikhail Bulgakov’s Sobach′e serdtse (Heart of a Dog, 1925), Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Odin den′ Ivana Denisovicha (A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, 1962), and Viktor Pelevin’s Sinii fonar′ (Blue Lantern, 1993) collection.