ADVENTURES IN SOVIET IMAGINATION

This course explores Soviet history through its media: film, art, literature; and the producers of this media: artists, who worked with the support of the State, those worked in secret "for the desk
drawer," and those who did both. It investigates the structure and aesthetics of ideology, propaganda, and resistance. It accesses the reception of this media and how they shaped people's imagination about what it meant to be a Soviet citizen. The course asks: Is ideology a static backdrop throughout the Soviet Union? How does ideology inform projects that had official State endorsement and those the State considered suspect? What makes a work of art successful in this historical context? Finally, what response does art provide when ideology fails? 

Readings, media, and discussion are all in English. No knowledge of Russian is necessary.