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2007/08 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

HIST3702 Redefining Russia in Literature, Music and Art, 1836-1881

40 creditsClass Size: 19

Module manager: Professor SM Dixon
Email: s.m.dixon@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2007/08

This module is not approved as an Elective

Objectives

Students should be able to:

- demonstrate an understanding of the extent to which literature, music and art acted as 'nation-builders' in nineteenth-century Russia;
- comment critically on the primary sources they have studies;
- compare and contrast the relative contributions of individual writers, artists and composers to the construction of Russian national identity in this period; and
- reflect on the value of literature, music and art as sources for the historian.

Skills outcomes
Further enhances Common Skills listed below:

High-level skills in oral and written communication of complex ideas.
Independence of mind and self-discipline and self-direction to work effectively under own initiative.
Ability to locate, handle and synthesize large amounts of information.
Capacity to employ analytical and problem-solving abilities.
Ability to engage constructively with the ideas of their peers, tutors and published sources.
Empathy and active engagement with alternative cultural contexts.
Plus:
Skills in interpretation and analysis of complex documentary-based material.

Syllabus

Two forms of national identity competed in nineteenth-century Russia: the one elitist and cosmopolitan, the other populist and ethnic. This special Subject explores the tensions between them with reference to literature, music and art - all three crucial vehicles for social thought under a regime which censored explicitly political treatises. Beginning with the debate between Slavophiles and Westernisers in the 1840s and 1850s, we shall move on to the rival constructions of national identity stimulated by the emancipation of the serfs in 1861. How far was Russia part of Europe? How far did social divisions within Russia hinder the acceptance of a single national identity uniting both nobles and peasants? Semester 1 will examine individual 'texts' in chronological order, beginning with Glinka's opera, A Life for the Tsar (1836) and ending with Dostoevsky's speech at the Pushkin celebration of 1880. Semester 2 will return to these texts in a series of thematic comparisons exploring the essential problematic of national identity (including history, leadership, anti-Semitism, the individual and the family in society). Candidates will set some of the world's best-known writers, composers and artists (notably Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Musorgsky, Tchaikovsky and Repin) in their historical context. Knowledge of a foreign language is not required; neither is the ability to read music. Candidates will be expected to purchase translations of three or four novels, all of the available in inexpensive paperback editions.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Seminar	22	2.00	44.00
Private study hours			356.00
Total Contact hours			44.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			400.00

Private study

Exam preparation; researching, preparing, and writing assignments; undertaking set reading; and self-directed reading around the topic.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Contributions to class discussions, two assessed exercises, an exercise or exercises worth 10% of module marks.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Oral Presentation	2 presentations, supported by 1,000 word written summary	10.00
Essay	3,000 word written exercise or equivalent to be submitted by 12noon on Friday of the second week of the January examination period.	20.00
Essay	3,000 word written exercise or equivalent to be submitted by 12noon on Monday of the May revision week	20.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		50.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Exams

Exam type	Exam duration	% of formal assessment
Standard exam (closed essays, MCQs etc)	3 hr	50.00
Total percentage (Assessment Exams)		50.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 25/04/2008

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