Syllabus
The teaching will begin with a third week of the semester, from October 11, 2021. 1) 11.10. Lecture - Introduction (syllabus of the course) 2) 18.10.
Soviet Identity as ethnonational coexistence: Slavs versus Turkic speaking people of the USSR 3) 25.10. Arts and culture as mediums of propaganda and a political tool 4) 1.11.
Soviet powerhouses in political practises and promotion: centre - periphery in the USSR 5) 8.11. Soviet influence on the satellite countries (with Maria Asavei as Guest Lecturer) 6) 15.11.
Post-Soviet Migration and diasporas in transition: the pop music case 7) 22.11. Musical dissent alternatives to the state cultural policies in the East European transnational perspectives (Jiri Kocian as Guest lecturer) 8) 29.11.
The Soviet-Afghani war and its impact on culture (Slavomir Horak as Guest lecturer) 9) 6.12. Religion and secularism: the Soviet Union’s experience (Guest Lecturer Zilia Imamutdinova , Moscow, Arts Study Institute) 10) 13.12.
Music and media as a tool of political propaganda in the Soviet and post-Soviet Turkmenistan (with Jamal Yazliyeva as a Guest lecturer) 11) 20.12. Gender and religions in the USSR: Central Asian case
Annotation
This course aims to explore and expand on the relationship between culture and society in the USSR and its satellites countries. Specifically, this course will explore how culture was employed as an ideo-logical tool by the Soviet state - through the lenses of education and propaganda of Socialism inherent to the Soviet aesthetic. Drawing on a rich range of insider-outsider recollections this course seeks to analyse a comprehensive view of culture in the USSR. Anchored in qualitative research the course will advance the knowledge about both how culture can be altered ideologically, as well as about culture’s potential to act as a cohesions factor in revisiting authority and cultural hegemony.
Lecturer contact: razia@raziasultanova.co.uk