The course traces Slavic, Uralic Altaic and other peoples from prehistoric tribal migrations through the events of the post-communist era. Survey of Jewish experience in Central and Eastern Europe, primarily in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, focusing on contact and coexistence in the multiethnic environments characteristic of the area, studied mainly through literature and film, making the course primarily an investigation of cultural history. Central European Cinema. A knowledge of Russian is not required. Films by many of the above directors and others are viewed, analyzed, and discussed both with respect to their intrinsic aesthetic structure and with respect to the cultural trends and socio-political events of the period and country.
Special emphasis is given to issues of ethnicity and gender.
Russian cinema studied against the background of the artistic and political revolutions which helped shape it. Films by all of the above directors and others are viewed, analyzed, and discussed both with respect to their intrinsic aesthetic structure and with respect to the cultural trends and socio-political events of the period and country. The Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and the Successor States. An interdisciplinary survey of the history, politics, government, economy, social institutions, literature, and arts of the Soviet Union and its successor states and their relations with the rest of the world. Lectures and discussion.