Putin's Russia

Winston Churchill famously said that Russia is “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” Strikingly, today many informed Russians would agree: no one can provide definitive answers concerning what has driven Russian public life and politics over the past three decades, from the unexpected collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, to the rise of powerful oligarchs amid social violence in the 1990s, to the seeming stabilization of social and economic life under president Vladimir Putin in the 2000s, to the whiplash of mass, oppositional protests in 2011-2012 that culminated in Putin’s reelection, the stabilization of a conservative, "patriotic regime," renewed belligerence between Russia and western states, and finally notoriety in the US as a shadow force in our own political life.   In this course we will examine how Russians themselves represent Russia and what this reveals about this complex society and its development, as well as how Russia has been viewed from abroad. We will consider print journalism, novels, films, televised media, and the internet—paying close attention both to particular representations and to social institutions for their production, dissemination and consumption. Our work will triangulate between analysis of media representations and public discourse and close readings of works of literature and film, in order to analyze cultural life in the light of political and social actuality, and to learn how works of art and culture comment upon and inform social life and politics. Topics of special concern will include representations of Russian history, collective identity and patriotism, intellectuals and elites, gender and sexuality, consumption and wealth, and of course, the career and public image of Vladimir Putin himself.    No prior knowledge of Russian history, culture or society is required.