| Unit name | Theatre and Theatricality in Russian Society |
|---|---|
| Unit code | RUSS30085 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Professor. Andreas Schonle |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
None. |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
None. |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None. |
| School/department | Department of Russian |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Why is this unit important
“All the world’s a stage”, penned Shakespeare, and there are few countries where this applies more fully than in Russia, where performance and theatricality have long been a foundational characteristic of political and public life. Indeed, rulers from Catherine the Great to Stalin, to Putin have all taken a keen interest in using theatre to foster their political aims. This unit will explore the role of drama, theatre, and performance in Russian society from the late 18th century to the near present. Topics of discussion include the performative actions of protest groups such as Pussy Riot, the political resonance of particular plays and productions (including film and opera adaptations), Avant-garde attempts to shape life through theatre, and the theatricality of everyday life. For reasons we will probe, Russian society has taken on a strongly performative character, while authorities have often used theatre as a way to forge loyal subjects or citizens. Equally, protest culture has often resorted to performative action. Theatre and performance therefore provide a unique lens through which to consider the fraught relationship between the arts and politics over the course of Russia’s history.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study
For students of Russian, this unit will build on the knowledge of Russian society you have acquired over previous years of study. It will also bring together and further refine the inter-disciplinary interpretive skills you have developed to date. Finally, since it takes a cross-period perspective, it will enable you to make connections between the past and the present and to think through how the arts create memory cultures that shape contemporary times.
For non-Russian specialists, this unit will offer a rich and distinctive case study that you will be able to compare and contrast with the specific disciplinary knowledge you have acquired in your degree programme. It will thus offer an opportunity to make transnational connections and comparisons, while allowing you to deploy and extend your interpretive skills on the basis of new material. At the same time the unit will give you an insight into the distinctive ways in which Russia has used theatre to advance its political and cultural mythologies.
Materials will be available in Russian as well as in translation so the unit is open to students across the Faculty of Arts
An overview of content
In this unit you will read some of the most central plays in the Russian repertoire, which may include Pushkin’s Boris Godunov, Gogol’s The Inspector General, and works by Chekhov, alongside less canonical authors and plays. We will study specific historical performances of the plays, as well as adaptations in opera and/or cinema, putting them in the relevant political context to understand their resonance with audiences. We will thus be able to trace how a play text acquires different meanings through actual performances at specific historical junctures. This will also allow us to discover the work of renowned theatre directors such as the avant-garde artist Meyerhold. Finally, we will also consider the theatricality of everyday life and explore the shifting boundaries between stage and society. Sources will include play texts, memoirs, photographs, video clips, manifestoes and director’s notes, along with a rich corpus of secondary literature.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit
You will gain an acute sense of the centrality of theatre and performance to social and political life, developing specific inter-disciplinary skills and an interpretive grid that will allow you to conceptualise the significance of theatre in identity formation. This methodology is useful for approaching the artistic production of any country, but it will also equip you to become a more astute observer of contemporary political and everyday life. This will be useful as you consider how people forge and enact identities, including in the workplace.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of the unit, students will be able to:
Each week, you will have one two-hour class that will include, broadly, three types of learning: lecture, discussion, and presentation.
Lecture: Lectures equip you with foundational subject knowledge. Far from being a passive mode of learning, lectures help you build critical analysis and evidence-gathering skills by modelling textual interpretation and posing key questions related to the discipline. We will often have a lecture followed by plenary or small-group activities. The lectures will provide the basic contextual knowledge that will facilitate the analysis of specific documents.
Discussion: discussions are a student-centred mode of learning. You will discuss key questions about the texts, developing, sharing and defending your own arguments as we discuss the material together as a class, and/or in pairs and small groups.
Presentation: All students will deliver a presentation. Through participation in presentations, both as a presenter and an audience member, you will become familiar with the key critical debates on the topic, and learn to engage with and critique existing ideas. You will also sharpen your presentation skills.
Beyond the classroom, you will devote much time to primary and secondary reading, essential in the humanities. You should anticipate reading in a number of different genres and media: play texts, memoirs, manifestos, visual illustrations, video clips, scholarly articles and book chapters. Reading is sometimes misunderstood as a ‘passive’ activity, but engaged reading is an active process, as you will not only be expanding your subject knowledge, but also developing your sense of empathy, imagination and critical judgment judgement.
In total, you will have 22 hours of class teaching and 178 hours of independent learning.
Tasks that help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative):
You will prepare for weekly sessions by responding to study questions provided on Blackboard. You will prepare for your oral presentation by participating in class discussions and responding to your peers’ presentations. You will prepare for your final essay by preparing an essay proposal, including a thesis statement and bullet point plan, for which you will receive individual feedback.
Tasks that count towards your unit mark (summative):
The group presentation will set out a production concept for a chosen play and the individual written piece will reflect on what you have learned about the chosen play from devising a production concept. Each component is worth 50% of the overall assessment mark.
A list of possible topics will be provided, inviting you to apply and extend knowledge developed in the unit.
When assessment does not go to plan
When required by the Board of Examiners, you will normally complete reassessments in the same formats as those outlined above. However, the Board reserves the right to modify the form or number of reassessments required. Details of reassessments are normally confirmed by the School shortly after the notification of your results at the end of the academic year.
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. RUSS30085).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
