First-Year Seminar (101-6-24)

Topic

Revolutions: Visualizing Radicalism

Instructors

Nina Gourianova
847/491-2937
1880 Campus Dr. #3365
Office Hours: Wednesdays 1:00-2:00pm and by appointment

Meeting Info

Kresge Centennial Hall 2-335: Tues, Thurs 3:30PM - 4:50PM

Overview of class

NOTE: This course is only open to first-year undergraduates selected to be Kaplan Humanities Scholars.

This course examines the travelling aesthetics and politics of radicalism triggered by the Russian (1917) and Mexican (1910) social and cultural revolutions, up to their internationalist conundrums materializing around the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). It follows an interdisciplinary and comparative approach engaging with Russian, Latin American, and European critical theory, visual arts, and literature. Prospective field trips may include visits to the Russian avant-garde collection at the Art Institute of Chicago, Diego Rivera's Industry Murals at the Detroit Institute of the Arts, and Mexican-American muralism in the Chicago neighborhood of Pilsen. (Note: the Kaplan Institute pays for field trips.) We will examine the continuity of radical aesthetics and politics in works situated on the borderline of art, literature, film, monumentality, and propaganda, both understood in their historical background and rethought in the context of the cultural and social issues the world is facing today.

Class Materials (Suggested)

Sample texts may include:

Films

Sergei Einsenstein, October (1928), Que viva México! (1930)

Esfir Shub, Spain (1939)

André Malraux, Espoir: Sierra de Teruel (1938-1939)

Luis Buñuel, Las Hurdes (1933)

Literature

Vladimir Mayakovski, Aleksandr Blok, poetry

Nellie Campobello, Cartucho (1931)

Federico García Lorca, The House of Bernarda Alba (1936)

John Reed, 10 Days That Shook the World (1919)

Visual Art

Murals by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Josep Renau

Russian Constructivist and Production art

Avant-garde Books by El Lissitzky, Kazimir Malevich, and others

Ephemeral and Performative Art

Revolutionary Posters

Agitation Trains

Transient Monuments

World Exhibitions

Soviet, Mexican and Spanish pavilions at the Paris World's Fair (1937), including the first-ever exhibition of Pablo Picasso's Guernica

Class Notes

NOTE: This course is only open to first-year undergraduates selected to be Kaplan Humanities Scholars.

Class Attributes

WCAS First-Year Seminar

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: Reserved for First Year & Sophomore only
Add Consent: Department Consent Required
Drop Consent: Department Consent Required