Fall 2008

RUS 391 • Vysotsky: Life and Works

Course Description

2008 marks the 70th anniversary of the birth of Russia's premiere bard, Vladimir Semyonovich Vysotosky. Bard, stage actor, poet, film star - Vysotky captured the imagination of a generation of Soviet citizens in the height of Brezhnevs so-called "period of stagnation" in the 1970s. Significantly, virtually no Russian alive even today is unfamiliar with the life and work of Russias leading leading man. This seminar will engage students in the exploration of Vysotskys texts, including his poetry, lyric verse, filmic portraits, stage roles, and television appearances during his brief lifetime. The goal of the course is to bring together not only these varied and extraordinary texts, but also the artifacts and documents of the particular Soviet era of the 1960s and '70s via documentaries, news articles, television broadcasts and epistolary correspondence. All texts  written and aural/oral  will be in Russian, and the seminar will be in conducted in Russian. Final papers, however, may be written in either English or Russian

Grading Policy

Seminar presentation (in Russian) 20% Editorial/review (in Russian) 20% Final Essay (in English or Russian) 40% Active Participation 20%

Texts

" Vysockij. V.I. Novikov, Moscow: Moldaya gvardiya, 2003. " Vladimir Vysockij - Koni priveredlivye , V. Korkin, ed., Moscow: Eksmo Press, 1999. " Vladimir Vysockij  Monologi so sceny , O.P. Terent'eva, ed., Moscow: AST Press, 2000. " Packet of readings available at Speedway Printers (First floor, Dobie Mall)

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