University of St Andrews

Key information

SCOTCAT credits : 15

ECTS credits : 7

Level : SCQF level 10

Semester: 1

Availability restrictions: Not automatically available to General Degree students

Planned timetable: To be arranged.

This module investigates contemporary Russian culture and society by examining its relationship with the Soviet past, the institutions of memory that mediate this relationship and the cultural practices that inform it. Students will be introduced to a number of critical ideas in memory scholarship, including 'sites of memory' [lieux de mÚmoire], institutions of memory, the falsification of memory, collective amnesia, aphasia, and others. While the module focuses on issues in Russian cultural memory, particularly memory of the post-Stalin and perestroika eras, the theory and criticism studied ranges more widely, including French and British theorists and practitioners. In seminars, students will engage with memoirs, diaries, oral testimony, films, documentaries, and online archives to explore the narrative and aesthetic consequences of the historicising impulse in contemporary Russian culture.

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact: 2 seminars and occasional film/video viewing, and 1 surgery hour.

Assessment pattern

As used by St Andrews: Coursework = 100%


Re-assessment: Coursework = 100%