RUSS 392 - Nuclear Literatures: A Comparative Approach

This course is a comparative study of the nuclear theme in several literary traditions which are usually treated separately: Japanese literature on the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; Soviet and post-Soviet reactions to the ecological disasters at Chernobyl, Semipalatinsk, and other sites; American literature of the Cold War; and contemporary literary and artistic reactions to the 2011 disaster at Fukushima. We will also examine the interrelationship of political rhetoric, scientific language, and poetic language in the way nuclear power is imagined, implemented, experienced, and resisted. Our comparative approach will be informed by readings from the schools of postcolonialism, eco-criticism, and critical Indigenous theory. We will focus not only on the Atomic Age’s legacy of human and environmental devastation, but also on the geopolitical, existential, and epistemological questions raised by the threat of nuclear accidents and warfare. Conducted 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): RUSS 220 or equivalent
Instructional Method: Lecture-conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Cross-listing(s): LIT 382
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).