Discussion of Aksyonov, Siniavsky, Voinovich, Zinoviev, and others. A study of major Russian writers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Among authors read are Pushkin, Gogol, Lermontov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Babel, Ilf and Petrov, Olesha. Course content varies from quarter to quarter. In either Russian or English.
All readings are in English.
Compares East European and Western production of those directors who worked partially in the West, e.g., Polanski, Forman, Holland, Makavejev. Topics include film in socialist versus market economy, politics, gender, sexuality. Language as a mirror of culture and national character. VLPA Topics vary. VLPA Systematic analysis of the Russian sound system as well as intonational patterns.