Wk. 1-2

 An Introduction into History and Theory

Sept. 26

Introduction.  Discussion of Aleksandr Blok, “The Scythians”

Sept. 29

Clifford Geertz, “Thick Description”

Edward Said, Orientalism (selections)

Victor Shklovsky, "Art as Device"

Vs. Ivanov, “The Child”

Oct. 3 

Manuel Castells, “Nations and Nationalism in the Age of Globalization.”

Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (selections)

Oct. 6

Cold War. America looks at Red Russia.

John Milius, Red Dawn (1984).

Oct. 10

Martin Malia, Russia Under Western Eyes. “Russia as Oriental Despotism” (chapter  2, 1815-1855) and “Through the Soviet-Russian Looking Glass” (Chapter 5, 1917-1991)

Wk. 3

The West Looks at Russia

Oct. 13

Marquis de Custine, Russia in 1839 (and Kennan’s Introduction)

Excerpts from Ernst Lubitsch, Ninotchka (1939)

Wk. 4

Challenging the West and the West as Menace

Oct. 20

F. Tiutchev, “Russia Cannot Be Fathomed by Reason”

F. Dostoevsky, Winter Notes On Summer Impressions

A. Solzhenitsyn, The Harvard Speech

Oct. 24

Aleksei Balabanov, Brother II (1999).

Wk. 5

The West Internalized

Oct. 27

A. Pushkin, "Bronze Horseman"

A. Mickiewicz, Digression from Forefathers' Eve

Nik. Leskov, “The Archbishop and the Englishman”

Mikh. Zoshchenko, “The Bath”

Vlad. Mayakovsky, “The Brooklyn Bridge”

Oct. 31

Oct. 31

Alexander Rogozhkin, Kukushka  (2002)

Wk. 6

The East as Menace

Nov. 3

Zadonshchina

A. Blok, "On Kulikovo Field"

Vl. Soloviev, “A Short Story of the Anti-Christ” (Three Conversations)

Nov. 7

Vlad. Motyl, White Sun of the Desert (1970)

Wk. 7-9

Orientalism

Nov. 10

Leo Tolstoy, Hadji Murad

Nov. 14

Alexander Pushkin, "Prisoner of the Caucasus"

Leo Tolstoy, "Prisoner of the Caucasus"

Nov. 17

Sergey Bodrov, Prisoner of the Caucasus (1996).

Nov. 24

Nik. Leskov, The Enchanted Wanderer

Nov. 26

Alexei Balabanov, War (2002)

Wk. 10

Summing up

Dec. 1

Student presentations

Dec. 5

Final discussion

Dec. 12

Final paper due to both professors