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

Department: Modern Language and Cultures (Russian)

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

Prerequisites

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

Corequisites

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

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• 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.

Content

• Imperial metropolis, capital of culture, literary obsession and crucible of history, St Petersburg-Petrograd-Leningrad occupies a unique place in the Russian national consciousness. 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 cultural-historical exploration of Russian modernity.
• The module will start with four lectures that will: 1. introduce the module; 2. situate St Petersburg in Russia’s urban, national and cultural history; 3. introduce the city’s cultural-historical topography; 4. discuss possible ways of exploring an urban space, such as St Petersburg, as a site of cultural production, collective memory, and national as well as local self-identity.
• The rest of the module will be seminar-based. Each seminar session will combine: 1. a collective class discussion of a major source and/or a wider theme relevant to the module; 2. short independently-prepared individual student reports on narrower questions related to the core theme discussed in the seminar session as a whole (e.g. presentations might focus on a specific city location, urban object, literary work, cultural product, historical event, social group, or artistic representation). All seminar questions (whether ‘group/core’ or ‘individual/presentation’ ones) will be supported by a carefully structured set of compulsory and further recommended reading, including primary as well as secondary sources.
• In this module St Petersburg-Petrograd-Leningrad is explored as a cultural time-space and the structure of the module is designed to reflect this. The module will inter-relate major social and cultural themes with specific historical events and key urban sites.
• Broader themes tackled in the module will include: St Petersburg: ‘Window into Europe’; Russia’s Capitals: St Petersburg vs. Moscow; Imperial Metropolis; Revolutionary St Petersburg; Literary St Petersburg; Remembering 1917; Remembering the Blockade; Leningrad and the Soviet Underground, etc.

Learning Outcomes

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• 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 assessment gives equal weight to the two essays and the examination (which takes the form of a single essay, written under exam conditions).

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

In the seminars students will be expected to produce brief reports as relatively informal oral presentations of around 5-10 minutes, based on specially set seminar questions and reading materials. These oral reports might also be accompanied by written handouts and/or PowerPoint presentations. Presentation questions will be set on a weekly basis. While these will be compulsory assignments, they will not be formally assessed or awarded marks, although oral feedback and comments will be provided regularly in the course of the seminar discussion.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University