RUSS 368 - Modern Queer Cultures in Russia, Eastern and Central Europe

The course is a comparative study of the fraught history of LGBTQ+ literature and art in Russia and East-Central Europe-a subject urgent and timely in light of the current resurgence of anti-queer oppression worldwide. Examining queer voices from modern Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Serbia, students will be introduced to the uniqueness of queer experiences in the region, often so divergent from the history of sexuality in the West. Drawing on Western theory (Butler, Kosofsky Sedgwick, Stryker, Halberstam, Ahmed), we will seek to problematize and enrich the dominant Western paradigms by examining diverse local discourses on gender and sexuality (Vasily Rozanov, Alexandra Kollontai, Yevgeny Kharitonov and others). The course materials include classics of queer art across various media-literary works by Mikhail Kuzmin, Olha Kobylianska, Marina Tsvetaeva, Witold Gombrowicz; opera by Karol Szymanowski; visual art by Toyen and El Kazovsky; film by Sergei Parajanov-discussed in their historical contexts. While our chief focus will be on the twentieth century, with a brief look at the nineteenth-century prehistory, we will also consider the queer culture of the present, such as the poetry of Slava Mogutin, the drag performance and activism of Merlinka and the cinema of Rustam Khamdamov. All readings and discussions are in English. An additional weekly session will be scheduled for students taking the course for Russian credit.

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group I
Prerequisite(s): For Russian credit: RUSS 212 or equivalent.
Instructional Method: Conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Cross-listing(s): LIT 368
Group Distribution Learning Outcome(s):

Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).