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Lingue e culture europee euroamericane ed orientali

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RUSSIAN LITERATURE

Academic Year 2022/2023 - Teacher: CLAUDIA OLIVIERI

Expected Learning Outcomes

The course provides an overview of cultural history of Russia in the 20th century. According to the Dublin descriptors, students will learn to recognise and correctly collocate characters, events, phenomena and texts of different nature (anthological, film, literary etc), on which they will be encouraged to reflect independently, also with a view to further investigation.

Course Structure

The course is divided into several blocks corresponding to the different periods of the century in question. Each block includes introductory lectures on the correspondent historical and cultural context and the analysis of some characteristic texts. These texts will also be studied in the original language and discussed in the classroom with a broad participation of the students, who are invited to read and/or view the texts before the lessons dedicated to them (it is therefore advisable to subscribe to the teaching page on STUDIUM, in order to be updated and prepared). Students will also carry out an individual work with the visual material indicated in the programme (films and tv shows).

Detailed Course Content

Cultural and Literary history of 20th century Russia:

 

Block 1: from the Revolution to the end of the 1920s

- Literature and Revolution; the NEP era; 20s-30s;

- E. Zamjatin, Noi. 

 

Block 2: 1929 to 1953

- Stalinism;

- A. Ždanov, Socialist Realism;

- Selection of verses and songs;

- M. Bulgakov, Il Maestro e Margherita; 

- film/serial: Cirk, Svetlyj put’, Novaja Moskva (watching movies and tv shows inspired by Bulgakov's novel is optional).

 

Block 3: 1953 to 1964 (1968)

- The ‘Thaw’;

- A. Solženicyn, Una giornata di Ivan Denissovič;

- film/serial: Stiljagi, Ottepel’, Zastava Il’iča. 

 

Block 4: 1964 to 1982

- The ‘Dissent’;

- Samizdat: poetry, music, prose;

- Ven. Erofeev, La notte di Valpurga

- A. e B. Strugackie, Picnic sul ciglio della strada

- film/serial (optional): Stalker, Tainstvennaja strast’.

 

Block 5: 1982 to the present day

- Postmodernism;

- V. Pelevin, Omon Ra;

- V. Sorokin, Eros Moskvy;

- film: Moskva, Kopejka oppure Nočnoj dozor, Dnevnoj dozor.

Textbook Information

Critical and reference reading

- G.P. Piretto, Quando c’era l’URSS, Milano, Cortina editore, 2018; pp. 1-605 (o, in alternativa, G.P. Piretto, Il radioso avvenire, Torino, Einaudi, 2001, pp. 3-332); 

- *G. Manganelli, Leggere i russi;

- *C. Olivieri, Mosca (ieri e) oggi: Sorokin e dintorni, in “Europa Orientalis”, 2006, XXV, pp. 205-236.

 

Literary and anthological texts

- E. Zamjatin, Noi, Fanucci editore, 2021 oppure Voland edizioni, 2013;

- M. Bulgakov, Il Maestro e Margherita, Milano, Mondadori, 2016 (the student may also opt for an edition of his choice);

- A. Solženicyn, Una giornata di Ivan Denissovič, Torino, Einaudi, 2019 (the student may also opt for an edition of his choice);

- *Ven. Erofeev, La notte di Valpurga, in V.V. Erofeev, Moskva-Petuški, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2004, pp. 211-312;

- A. e B. Strugackie, Picnic sul ciglio della strada, Milano, Marcos y Marcos, 2011 (or 2003);

- V. Pelevin, Omon Ra, Milano, Mondandori, 1999;

- *V. Sorokin, Ėros Moskvy, in V. Sorokin, Moskva, Moskva, Vagrius, 2001, pp. 9-16.

 

Additional teaching materials

Slides, texts, videos, audio, songs, films, exercises, supplementary readings on Russian language and culture of the 20th century will be provided on STUDIUM during the lessons.

 

All the texts in the programme are available in the library and/or at the teacher's room; the texts marked with an asterisk will be made accessible on the STUDIUM platform.

VERSIONE IN ITALIANO