Back to selection
75985-01 - Seminar: Socialist Cinema and Environment in Soviet Cultures (3 CP)
| Semester | fall semester 2025 |
| Course frequency | Once only |
| Lecturers | Oleksii Kuchanskyi (oleksii.kuchanskyi@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | The fall of the Russian Empire, brought about by the October Revolution, coincided with the spread of cinema in the newly established Soviet state. Socialist cinema not only mediated the geographical imagination of the culturally non-homogeneous USSR—which stretched from Transcarpathians to the Chukchi Peninsula and from the Arctic to Turkmenistan—but also contributed to the establishment of novel relations with lands, such as collective farming, kolhoz, and the all-out mineral extraction, associated with industrialisation (Dziga Vertov). Later cinematic practices ranged from the colonial display of “backward” peripheries in Socialist Realism (Mark Donskoi) to the reclamation of TV documentaries by indigenous actors and screenwriters (Zinaida Pikunova, Iurii Rytkheu), via the rediscovery of Soviet fringes in poetic cinema (Sergei Parajanov). The course investigates these multiple relations between media and environments that shaped socialist cinema cultures throughout Soviet history, employing the centre-periphery dichotomy as an analytical framework. It, therefore, proposes a series of case studies to enable developing the theoretical, historical, archival, and critical approaches to the cinematic mediation of spaces and lands. |
| Learning objectives | Through practical tasks of analysing the films, the students are invited to master the methods of close watching and intermediation (“translation” of a moving image into an academic writing). Additionally, the course aims to explore the critical archival approaches to the Soviet history, with a particular emphasis on non-Russian cinema cultures and racialization in Soviet film. |
| Bibliography | Voluntary preliminary reading: • Susan Buck-Morss, Dreamworld and Catastrophe: The Passing of Mass Utopia in East and West (London: MIT Press, 2000). • Caroline Damiens, A Siberian History of Soviet Film: Manufacturing Vision of the Indigenous Peoples of the North (London & New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2024). • Oksana Sarkisova, Screening Soviet Nationalities: Kulturfilms from the Far North to Central Asia (London & New York: I.B.Tauris, 2017). The mandatory list of films and bibliography will be provided later. |
| Weblink | https://vorlesungsverzeichnis.unibas.ch/ |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14-täglich | Wednesday | 16.15-19.45 | Rosshofgasse (Schnitz), Seminarraum S 02 |
Dates
| Date | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|
| Wednesday 17.09.2025 | 16.15-19.45 | Rosshofgasse (Schnitz), Seminarraum S 02 |
| Wednesday 01.10.2025 | 16.15-19.45 | Rosshofgasse (Schnitz), Seminarraum S 02 |
| Wednesday 15.10.2025 | 16.15-19.45 | Rosshofgasse (Schnitz), Seminarraum S 02 |
| Wednesday 29.10.2025 | 16.15-19.45 | Rosshofgasse (Schnitz), Seminarraum S 02 |
| Wednesday 12.11.2025 | 16.15-19.45 | Rosshofgasse (Schnitz), Seminarraum S 02 |
| Wednesday 26.11.2025 | 16.15-19.45 | Rosshofgasse (Schnitz), Seminarraum S 02 |
| Wednesday 10.12.2025 | 16.15-19.45 | Rosshofgasse (Schnitz), Seminarraum S 02 |
| Modules |
Modul: Interphilologie: Literaturwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: Slavic Studies) Modul: Interphilologie: Literaturwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: English) Modul: Interphilologie: Literaturwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: German Language and Literature) Modul: Interphilologie: Literaturwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: French Language and Literature) Modul: Interphilologie: Literaturwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: Spanish Language and Literature) Modul: Interphilologie: Literaturwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: Italian Language and Literature) Modul: Interphilologie: Literaturwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: German Literature) Modul: Interphilologie: Literaturwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: Latin Philology) Modul: Interphilologie: Literaturwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: Nordic Philology) Modul: Interphilologie: Literaturwissenschaft MA (Master's Studies - Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences) Modul: Literatur im Zusammenspiel der Künste und Medien (Master's degree program: Literary Studies) Modul: Slavische Kulturwissenschaft (Master's degree subject: Slavic Studies) Modul: Visuelle Medien in Osteuropa (Bachelor's degree program: Eastern European Studies) Modul: Visuelle Medien in Osteuropa (Bachelor's degree subject: Eastern European Cultures) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | no repetition |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Fachbereich Slavistik |