OVERVIEW

In this course, we will read and analyze 20th-century Russian prose, poetry and film. The precise focus of the course and the reading list will vary each year. For the 2020/2021 academic year:

Prof. Mario Alessandro Curletto, "Streets, courtyards, kitchens: Urban exteriors and interiors during the Thaw and the Stagnation"

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Our first-year course introduces students to Russian literature and culture from its medieval origins to the mid 1800s; in the second year, students focus more specifically on problems of literary style and evolution by examining texts from the 19th and 20th centuries that are linked by a particular theme; students who take the third-year course will go still more deeply into the literature and culture of a more specific historical period (such as the first half of the 20th century).

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

This course (A+B) will provide students (1) familiarity with the basic tools of literary analysis; (2) a thorough knowledge of several works that are significant for Russian literary tradition; (3) a general knowledge of the main cultural figures and events from the period in question. 

PREREQUISITES

None

TEACHING METHODS

This course will be held online during the first semester via Teams. During the second semester, The course will be held online or in the classroom (to be determined). 

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

This course has two parts: Course A and Course B. The program is the same for students who attend and for those who do not.

COURSE A (1st semester, 6 credits, 36 hours) is required of ALL students registered in this course.

Prof. Mario Alessandro Curletto,"Streets, courtyards, kitchens: Urban exteriors and interiors during the Thaw and the Stagnation"

After Stalin's death in 1953, Soviet society enjoyed the first signs of liberalization. With the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party in 1956 and the beginnings of "Destalinization", it seemed that a new epoch had begun. After decades of closure, of caution in personal relationships and choreographed manifestations of institutionalized rejoicing, the population was finally allowed to socialize, to express itself more spontaneously, and to occupy "autonomously" the spaces designated for such activities: university lecture halls, theaters, even stadiums, but most of all, beginning on a humbler plane: houses, courtyards, city squares. The authorities encouraged this tendency, attempting to direct it towards well-defined goals, such as the renewed conquest of the Soviet countryside. The leaders in this rebirth were, understandably, members of the younger generation. Through the analysis of cinematographic and literary texts (novels, stories, songs), this course will attempt to reevoke the ideas, emotions, illusions and subsequent disillusionment of the brief epoch that terminated in the long Brezhnevian stagnation, leaving indelible traces in Soviet society.

COURSE B (2nd semester, 3 credits, 18 hours) is the continuation of Course A and is available ONLY to those students who need 9 credits (and who thus must also take Course A). 

Prof. Sara Dickinson, "Science and Science Fiction in the 20s"

The 1920s was a decade of dramatic social, political and cultural change. Widespread interest in science, in technology and, generally, in the future, merged with sentiments of ambivalence, pushing some writers and directors towards unusual subjects and settings. We will examine, in particular, how the construction in these texts of the "Other" -- whether conceived in terms of social class, biological species or home planet -- responds to themes and problems from life in the young USSR.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

TEXTS REQUIRED OF ALL STUDENTS - Per cambiamenti e precisazioni vedi Aulaweb.

CORSO A - Prof. Mario Alessandro Curletto, "Streets, courtyards, kitchens: Urban exteriors and interiors during the Thaw and the Stagnation"

Books

V. Aksënov, Il biglietto stellato, Mondadori, Milano 2009 (o altra edizione).

B. Okudžava, Tu scorri come un fiume, strana definizione, Canzone dei ragazzi dell’Arbat, Canzone di Mosca di notte, in P. Zveteremich (a cura di), Canzoni russe di protesta, Garzanti, Milano 1972.

M. Chuciev, G. Špalikov, La Barriera di Il'ič, Einaudi, Torino 1965.

V. Vysockij, Bol’šoj Karetnyj, Ero l’anima di una cattiva compagnia, «Ehi, autista, portami alla masseria della Butyrka…», La gelata, Verbale di polizia, in E. Buvina, M.A. Curletto, L’anima di una cattiva compagnia, I libri di Emil, Bologna 2009 (pp. 18-20, 27-28; p. 38-42, pp. 65-67, pp. 131-132).

Ju. Trifonov, La casa sul lungofiume, Editori Riuniti, Roma 1988 (o altra edizione).

Film

Ja šagaju po Moskve (A zonzo per Mosca, 1963), regia di G. Danelija https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuEWpdLatLI#t=7.905104

Zastava Il’iča (La Barriera di Il'ič, 1965), regia di M. Chuciev https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWtPR-2hwz8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDzQbgkZRzQ

Corso B .

Books

E. Limonov, Eddy-baby ti amo, Salani, Milano, 2005.

V. Vysockij, Bol’šoj Karetnyj, Il ballo in maschera, La ginnastica mattutina, Dialogo davanti al televisore, Mi sono spaccato la faccia per niente, Sul diavolo,  in E. Buvina, M.A. Curletto, L’anima di una cattiva compagnia, I libri di Emil, Bologna 2009 (pp. 68-70;  pp. 147-149;  pp. 237-238, pp. 298-304).

A. Rubanov, Babkiny trjapki, in A. Rubanov, Žëstko i ugrjumo, AST, Moskva 2019, 153-174.

Film 

Čerëmuški (1962), regia di G. Rappaport

https://youtu.be/wmKsJ2JfWug

Recommended criticism

G.P. Piretto, 1961. Il Sessantotto a Mosca, Moretti & Vitali, Bergamo 1998, pp. 31-47, 86-100, 124-138.

G.P. Piretto, Il radioso avvenire. Mitologie culturali sovietiche, Einaudi, Torino 2001, pp. 229-239, 290-329.

G.P. Piretto, Indirizzo: Unione Sovietica. 25 luoghi di un altro mondo, Sironi, Milano 2015.

G. Buttafava, Il cinema russo e sovietico, Fondazione Scuola Nazionale di Cinema, Roma, 2000, pp. 163-169, 174-177.

M.A. Curletto, Il motivo dell’alcol nell’opera poetica di Vladimir Vysockij, in “Il Confronto Letterario (Quaderni di Letterature Straniere Moderne e Comparate dell'Università di Pavia)”, vol. 60, dicembre 2013, Como-Pavia, Ibis, pp. 307-332.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

MARIO ALESSANDRO CURLETTO (President)

SARA DICKINSON

LAURA SALMON (Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

First semester. The week of October 4.

Class schedule

RUSSIAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE III

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Oral

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Students may take the exam in either Italian or Russian.

The exam will test whether or not students have actually read the literary texts and seen the films found on the syllabus and will evaluate students' ability to offer a critical interpretation of these. The quality of students' exposition and the correct use of scholarly terms will be taken into consideration.

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

Attendance is strongly recommended.