RUSN 334 Exploding Tongues: Language Art and Russian Avangard

How would you react to the nonsense poem "dyr bul shchyl," if you were a St. Petersburg pharmacist a century ago? What meaning would you apply to a wooden lapel spoon, face painting, declaration of "Victory over the Sun" and a brazen young poet's call to "toss Pushkin from the steamship of modernity"? This course examines linguistic innovation and (explosive) destruction at the forefront of a violent artistic assault on bourgeois complacency known otherwise as the Russian Avant-garde. Topics include poetry, painting, dance, theater, graphics, industrial design, fashion, book-making, sculpture, cinema, architecture, fictional literature, and artistic manifesti, from Azbuka to Zangezi.