Russian Empire in Russian Film HIS 350L – 39905 T Th 2-3:30 (screenings M 5:30) GAR 0.132

Prof Joan Neuberger [email protected] GAR 2.102

In this class we will try to build an understanding of the Russian Soviet Empires based on reading films as primary documents. We will be asking questions specific to each film. For example: how does this film represent colonial people and Russian colonizers? How is difference portrayed? How is Russia and Russianness portrayed? What kind of power is depicted? How does gender figure in the calculus of power? How does the filmed depiction of empire differ from historians’ depictions? Does Soviet empire cinema have its own history? The goals of the course: • To learn about the basic categories of film analysis • To learn about the Russian and Soviet Empire • To learn about Russian and Soviet cinema • To learn about the differences between political power and creative, pop culture representations • To become a better writer • To learn to use visual technologies to make compelling oral presentations • To learn to construct an historical narrative based on analyzing films as primary documents Required Reading • Timothy Corrigan, A Short Guide to Writing About Film • Jeremy Smith, Red Nations: The Nationalities Experience in and after the USSR • The Cambridge History of Russia: The Twentieth Century vol 3 • All other readings will be posted as pdfs on Canvas.

Screenings Films will be screened Mondays at 5:30 pm in GAR 1.102 All films are also available online or on reserve in FAL (The Fine Arts Library) Informal Writing Weekly 1-paragraph responses to films, to be posted on Blackboard by noon, Tuesday. Weekly 1-paragraph responses to reading, to be posted on Blackboard by noon, Thursday Formal Writing 1 1500-word essay 1 2000-2500-word Final Exam essay Video assignments 1 Three-minute video essay on filmic technique or term 1 Ten-minute video essay GRADING (+/- are used) Participation 25 (15+10)% Each student is expected to read critically and participate actively in discussion of films and readings (10%). Participation grade includes map and weekly response paragraphs (15%). Formal Written Essay 20% Video Assignments 30 (10+20)% Final Exam 25% Week 1. T Jan 14 Introductions Th Jan 16 Russia, Empire, & Film Films (in class) Actualitiés, Kinopravda, Around Samarkand READ: Geoffrey Hosking, “The Russian Empire, How and Why,” 3-41 Red Nations, 17-52 Timothy Corrigan, A Short Guide, chap 1-2. Week 2 M 1/20 Screening: Sergei Bodrov, Prisoner of the Mountains T 1/21 Empire as Cinema READ: Corrigan, A Short Guide, chap 3 Red Nations, 53-72 Harsha Ram, “Prisoners of the Caucasus: Literary Myths and Media Representations of the Chechen Conflict,” 1-29

Th 1/23 SHOT PRESENTATIONS. Each student will choose a clip of no more than 30 seconds from Prisoner of the Mountains that demonstrates a specific visual effect (camera movement, editing, sound synchronization, etc) that conveys a specific idea or feeling. (Watch the film on Youtube and remember the time code of your clip so you can pull it up in class.) Write one paragraph describing your clip, the effect, the idea or feeling it conveys. Post on Blackboard forum “Jan 23” by noon Thursday. Week 3 M 1/27 Dziga Vertov, One-Sixth of the World (1926) T 1/28 Empire as Building Socialism READ: Oksana Sarkisova, “Across One-Sixth of the World,” 19-40 Lines of Resistance, Dziga Vertov in the Twenties, 182-87, 193-94, 199, 206-09, 215-16, 220-222, 226-28. *MAP ASSIGNMENT DUE: BRING COMPLETED MAP TO CLASS. Th: 1/30 Read: Cambridge History of Russia chaps 4-5, 114-167. Red Nations, 73-96 Terry Martin, “An Affirmative Action Empire,” 67-90 Week 4 M 2/3 Protozanov, Aelita: Queen of Mars (1924) T 2/4 Empire’s Others Imagined Read: Cambridge History of Russia, ch 6, 167-191 Ian Christie, “Down to Earth: Aelita Relocated,” 80-102 Denise Youngblood, “Historical Overview from Below,” Movies for the Masses, 1-34 Th 2/6 Orientalism READ: Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism (excerpts), 62-64, 80-84 Edward Said, Orientalism (excerpt), 132-49 Patricia Kerslake, “ The Self and Representations of the Other in Science Fiction,” Week 5 M 2/10 Kalatozov, Salt for Svanetia (1930) [Turin, Turksib optional] T 2/11 Constructing Empire READ: Oksana Sarkisova, “Edges of Empire: Representations of Borderland Identities in Early Soviet Cinema,” 167-186

Francine Hirsch, “Getting to know the peoples of the USSR: Ethnographic Exhibits as Soviet Virtual Tourism,” 683-709 Th 2/13 NO CLASS Week 6 *ESSAY DUE: EMAIL BY MONDAY 2/17 AT 5:00PM. Compare the representation of empire in film and in historiography based on films and articles we have read in this class. 1500 words. More information about the assignment will be discussed in class. M 2/17 Vertov, Three Songs of Lenin (1934) T 2/18 John MacKay, Allegory and Accommodation: Vertov’s Three Songs of Lenin (1934) as a Stalinist Film,” 376-91 Th 2/20 Read: Read: Cambridge History of Russia, ch 7, 192-216 Red Nations, ch 5, 97-121 Douglas Northrop, “Nationalizing Backwardness: Gender, Empire and Uzbek Identity,” 191-220 Adeeb Khalid, “Backwardness and the Quest for Civilization: Early Soviet Central Asia in Comparative Perspective,” 231-51 Week 7 2/24 Eisenstein, Alexander Nevskii (1938) 2/26-28 Empire in Danger David Brandenberger, “The Popular Reception of S. M. Eisenstein’s Aleksandr Nevskii, and “Alexander Nevskii as Russian Patriot,” 233258 READ: Brandenberger and Dubrovsky, “The People Need a Tsar: the Emergence of National Bolshevism as Stalinist Ideology,” 873-892 “Cult of Personality” Week 8 M 3/3 Dovzhenko, The Battle for Our Soviet Ukraine T 3/4 Empire at War READ: Cambridge History of Russia ch 8, 217-42 Red Nations, chs 6-7, 122-162 Jeremy Hicks, “Dovzhenko: Moving the Boundaries of the Acceptable,” 107-133. (and optional: “Mark Donskoi’s Reconstruction of Babyi Yar,” 134-56. Dovzhenko, documents

SPRING BREAK Week 9 M 3/17 no screening TTh-18-20 NO CLASS Short Video essays: Meet with groups to share & peer review drafts. Week 10 M 3/24 Konchalovsky, The First Teacher (1965) T 3/25 Empire as collision Alexander Prokhorov, “Cinema of the Thaw,” 14-31 Coxe, “Sonic Disparities and the Clash of Discourses in Andrei Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky’s First Teacher,” 107-121 Th 3/27 Read: Cambridge History of Russia, Ch 10, 268-291 Red Nations, ch 9, 189-215 Adrienne Edgar, “Emancipation of the Unveiled: Turkmen Women Under Soviet Rule,” 132-49 Week 11 M 3/31 Gaidai, Kidnapping Caucasian Style (1967) Empire as Hi-jinx 4/1 READ: Aleksandr Prokhorov, “Cinema of Attractions versus Narrative Cinema: Leonid Gaidai's Comedies and El'dar Riazanov's Satires of the 1960s,” 445-72 4/3 SHORT VIDEO ESSAYS DUE. PRESENT SHORT VIDEOS Week 12 M 4/7 Motyl, White Sun of the Desert (1969) T 4/8 Empire as Macho Adventure READ: Emily Hillhouse, “White Sun of the Desert,” 221-23 Elena Prokhorova, “Mending the Rupture: The War Trope and the Return of the Imperial Father in 1970s Cinema,” 51-69 Th 4/10 READ: Cambridge History of Russia, ch 11 292-315 Red Nations, ch 10, 216-55 Week 13 M 4/14 Mikhalkov, Urga (Close to Eden) (1991)

T 4/15 Empire between East and West READ: Lars Kristensen, “The Far-East Neighbor in Nikita Mikhalkov’s Urga (1991),” 277-301 Th 4/17 READ: Cambridge History of Russia, ch 12, 316-51 Red Nations, ch 11, 256-81 Week 14 M 4/21 (no screening) T 4/22 Empire on screen Read: Richard Taylor, “Now that the Party’s Over: Soviet Cinema and its Legacy,” 34-42 Nicholas Breyfogle, “Enduring Imperium: Russia/Soviet Union/Eurasia as Multiethnic, Multiconfessional Space,” 75-129 Mark Beissinger, “Soviet Empire as ‘Family Resemblance,’” 294-303 Week 15 M 4/28 (no screening) TTh 4/29-5/1 LONG VIDEO ESSAYS DUE: Student Video Presentations. 5/9 FINAL ESSAY DUE VIA EMAIL BY 5:00pm