OVERVIEW

Streets, courtyards, kitchens: Urban exteriors and interiors during the Thaw and the Stagnation

In this course, we will read and analyze 20th-century Russian prose, poetry and film.

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 and film analysis; (2) a thorough knowledge of several works that are significant for Russian 20th century culture; (3) a general knowledge of the main cultural figures and events from the period in question. 

TEACHING METHODS

Classroom lectures.

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.

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). 

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.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

COURSE A 

TEXTS AND FILMS REQUIRED OF ALL STUDENTS - Updates and changes, if any, will be announced via Aulaweb.

Books

• V. Aksënov, Il biglietto stellato, Mondadori, Milano 2009 (o altra edizione).
• B. Okudžava, L'ultimo filobus, Canzone dell’Arbat,  in B. Okudžava, Arbat, mio Arbat (a cura di G.P. Piretto), Guerini e Associati, Milano 1989 (pp. 64-65, 70-73).
• M. Chuciev, G. Špalikov, La Barriera di Il'ič, Einaudi, Torino 1965.
• V. Vysockij, Bol’šoj Karetnyj, Il mio amico se n'è andato a Magadan, 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, 26-29; p. 38-42, pp. 65-67, pp. 131-132).
• Ju. Trifonov, La casa sul lungofiume, Editori Riuniti, Roma 1988 (o altra edizione).

Films

• Ja šagaju po Moskve (A zonzo per Mosca, 1963), regia di G. Danelija. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuEWpdLatLI
• Zastava Il’iča (La Barriera di Il'ič, 1965), regia di M. Chuciev. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWtPR-2hwz8 oppure https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDzQbgkZRzQ

COURSE B 

TEXTS AND FILMS REQUIRED OF ALL STUDENTS - Updates and changes, if any, will be announced via Aulaweb.

Books

• E. Limonov, Eddy-baby ti amo, Salani, Milano, 2005.
• V. Vysockij, Il ballo in maschera,  Dialogo davanti al televisore, Mi sono spaccato la faccia per niente, 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).
• A. Rubanov, Babkiny trjapki, in A. Rubanov, Žëstko i ugrjumo, AST, Moskva 2019, 153-174.

Films

• Čerëmuški (1962), regia di G. Rappaport. https://youtu.be/wmKsJ2JfWug

Recommended criticism required for the exam

• 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.P. Piretto, Quando c'era l'URSS: 70 anni di storia culturale sovietica, Raffaello Cortina, Milano 2018, pp. 364-371
• 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.
• M.A. Curletto, Andrej Rubanov e il comunismo realizzato nella città-fabbrica di Ėlektrostal’, Lo studiolo, Sanremo 2022.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

MARIO ALESSANDRO CURLETTO (President)

SARA DICKINSON

LAURA SALMON (Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

COURSE A: 3 october 2022. 

COURSE B: 2nd semester, 17 february 2023. 

Class schedule

RUSSIAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE III

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Oral exam. Students may take the exam in either Italian or Russian.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Students with 9 credits will have the option of taking a pre-exam for the first 6 credits of the course in January / February. Details will be announced in classroom and on Aulaweb.

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.

Students certified with SLD, disabilities or other special education needs are advised to contact the instructor at the beginning of the course, in order to agree on teaching and exam methods that, in compliance with the course learning outcomes, take into account individual learning methods and provide suitable compensatory tools.