RUSS 115: INTRODUCTION TO RUSSIAN CULTURE
A survey course going back to medieval times, it will focus on overarching themes in the culture of Russia and the Soviet Union, presented always in correlation with the historical context: the distinctiveness of Russian culture, and how that has been defined at various moments over the past thousand-plus years for both internal purposes and by an intrigued West; and Russia as a cultural space between West and East (the Mongol yoke; Ivan the Terrible as Asiatic; the cultural reverberations of imperial expansion of Muscovy and Russia into Europe, the Siberia, the Americas, the Caucasus and Central Asia; the notion of Westernization). Students taking this course will be introduced to the Russian language; foundational narratives of Russian collective memory; salient features of Russian Orthodoxy and its involvement in political and larger culture spheres; and many peak achievements of Russian literature, film, music, architecture and visual arts.
A survey course going back to medieval times, it will focus on overarching themes in the culture of Russia and the Soviet Union, presented always in correlation with the historical context: the distinctiveness of Russian culture, and how that has been defined at various moments over the past thousand-plus years for both internal purposes and by an intrigued West; and Russia as a cultural space between West and East (the Mongol yoke; Ivan the Terrible as Asiatic; the cultural reverberations of imperial expansion of Muscovy and Russia into Europe, the Siberia, the Americas, the Caucasus and Central Asia; the notion of Westernization). Students taking this course will be introduced to the Russian language; foundational narratives of Russian collective memory; salient features of Russian Orthodoxy and its involvement in political and larger culture spheres; and many peak achievements of Russian literature, film, music, architecture and visual arts.
Please contact Debbie Kraybill with questions, debrice@illinois.edu
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