MOSCOW & ST PETERSBURG

This interdisciplinary course explores Russian culture through Russia's two capitals, Moscow and St. Petersburg. We will traverse these cityscapes as historical, cultural, and mythological spaces - from the past to the present day - in literary works, historical accounts, art, and film. We will investigate the sites of key landmarks, including the Moscow metro, the Hermitage, and Red Square, in order to excavate the layers of cultural history, which underlie contemporary Russian identity. From Dostoevsky's Petersburg underground to Bulgakov's fantastic Moscow, we will contrast and synthesize the cultural landscape, questioning whether these two distinctly different, but undeniably Russian cities, reveal certain constants in Russian culture across time and space. No previous Russian language or Russian culture necessary.