Ideology on the Screen: Cinematic Adaptations of Russian and Soviet Literature

This course begins by examining the films Mother (Vsevolod Pudovkin 1926) and Chapaev (Vasilyev Brothers 1934), based on the eponymous novels by Maxim Gorky and Dmitri Furmanov. These films were released during a time of consequential social and political change in Soviet cinema and society. These changes were significant determinants of the subsequent generic and ideological fate of Soviet and Russian cinema. In this course, films of different genres – fairy tale, sci-fi, history, and war – will be discussed in the context of Soviet and Russian culture from ideological and aesthetic points of view. Students will read literary texts, reviews, and criticism.