CSLC 233 Codes, Cultures, and Killing

Winston Churchill famously described Russia as "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." Enigmas were very much on Churchill's mind that Fall of 1939, when the Soviet Union was busily partitioning Poland with Nazi Germany by secret agreement. This course examines the cultural history of Russia and the Soviet Union, in specific regard to its evolving theories of language, literature, and cultural phenomena during the early 20th century. Particular attention is paid to Russian formalism, poetics, and semiotics, as early radical experimentation in the substrates of verbal and non-verbal languages gave way to spasms of violence, mutual East-West suspicion, social repression, and exertions of state power through propaganda and censorship.