This course examines contemporary Russian literature and art, 
which seek to question the establishment and transgress its 
boundaries.  For each of the works studied we will analyze its 
strategies of representation as it pushes against accepted 
political, social, aesthetic and ethical norms.  Our texts will 
include the “homosexual literature” of Evgenii Kharitonov; 
the “feminist fiction” of Liudmila Petrushevskaia, Tatiana 
Tolstaya and Elena Shvartz; the conceptualist texts of Vladimir 
Sorokin; the sexual-mystical prose of Yuri Mamleev; the style- 
and genre-breaking novels of Sasha Sokolov and Venedict 
Erofeev; the pop post-modernism of Viktor Pelevin; the 
miniature prose of Viktor Goliavkin and Anatolii Gavrilov, and 
others.  We will also pay attention to contemporary Russian art 
and cinema. 
         
Students will be evaluated on the basis of written assignments 
such as compositions and short reflective papers, participation 
in class discussions, and oral presentations.

The following is a representative outline. Appropriate texts 
and other material illustrating the various topics will be 
chosen at the discretion of the instructor.
1. Introduction
2. How Did Underground Literature Reach Its Public: 
Samizdat/Tamizdat
3. Camp Prose of Varlam Shalamov
4. Anti-Soviet Songs of Alexander Galich
5. Lianozovo School: Prose and Poetry of Igor Kholin and 
Genrikh Sapgir
6. Women Artists: Liudmila Petrushevskaia and Tatiana Tolstaya
7. Russian Rock Music as a Form of Social Protest
8. The Other in Literature:  Homosexual Prose of Evgenii 
Kharitonov
9. Contemporary Literature as Spiritual Philosophy:  Prose of 
Yuri Mamleev
10. Literary Science Fiction:  Short Stories of Viktor Pelevin
11. Sots Art: Poetry of Alexander Prigov and Lev Rubinshtein
12. Post Modernism: Vladimir Sorokin
13. After the Fall: Russian Films of the 90s (“Brother,” “Of 
Freaks and Men,” “The Piano Tuner”)
14. The New Beginning: Films after 2000: (“4,” “The Road to 
Coctebel,” “How I Spent Last Summer”)
15. Conclusion