RUSS2261: ST PETERSBURG-PETROGRAD-LENINGRAD: CULTURE, MEMORY, MYTHOLOGY

• Russian Language 1A (RUSS1161) OR Russian Language 1B (RUSS1042).

• Either Russian Language 2A (RUSS2191) Or Russian Language 2B (RUSS2012).

• None.

• To impart an understanding of how an historic urban space (the city of St Petersburg-Petrograd-Leningrad as a uniquely rich case study) serves as an arena for the social construction of Russia's cultural identity more generally.
• To examine specific domains of Russian culture, including literature, cinema, photography, art, architecture, music, memoirs, travelogues etc. in the above context.

• Drawing on a wide variety of different kinds of sources (literature, cinema, photography, art, architecture, music, memoirs, travelogues, and maps) this module explores St Petersburg-Petrograd-Leningrad as a conflicting arena for the social construction of Russia's cultural identity from the 18th century to the present.
• This urban space serves as a unique case-study for a wide-ranging cross-disciplinary culturalhistorical exploration of Russian modernity.
• The module will inter-relate major social and cultural themes with specific historical events, key urban sites and relevant cultural artefacts.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Students will acquire a wide and versatile knowledge of Russian culture and society from 1700s to the present, and will gain insight into how the urban space of St Petersburg-Petrograd-Leningrad functioned in the modern era as a key site of Russian national memory and cultural-historical identity.

Subject-specific Skills:

• Students will acquire the ability to work independently with a range of very different types of sources, including literary works, films, photographs, art, architecture, music, historical documents, memoirs, travelogues, and maps (some of which will be in the original Russian).
• Students will learn how to assess these sources in terms of their interrelated and context-dependent social, ideological and aesthetic specificity.

Key Skills:

• Students will develop their ability to work independently within a prescribed framework. On completion of the course, students will be able to present a cogent and structured argument in both oral and written form

• Lectures are designed to set the historical and conceptual framework, and to introduce key concepts specific to each particular domain of culture.
• Seminars provide a forum for the presentation of results of independent study, and are designed to stimulate and facilitate detailed engagement with particular aspects of the topic in question.
• The summative assessment gives equal weight to two essays intended to encourage independent study and research-led learning.

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