Soviet Culture, Above and Below Ground

This interdisciplinary survey explores Soviet literature, art, and film after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. Students will learn to analyze a rich body of works produced in the Soviet Union, including avant-garde poetry and movies, official and underground artists and writers, and Princeton's extensive collection of late-socialist posters. In the analysis, we will focus especially on the relationship between cultural production and the shifting political and ideological demands of the regime and on the role of writers and artists in society.