HISTORY 4710Topics in History: History of Soviet Cinema

Summer 2013 (on-line course)

Elena Strokanovaelena.strokanova@lyndonstate.edu Tel. (802)748-3256 home

I. PURPOSE AND GOALS:

This course features watching movies and discussions based on watched movies made in different period of the Soviet history.

Emphasis will be placed on the specifics of Soviet and Russian culture and historical specific in the cinema and impact of time and political circumstances on the movie makers. The course will help in developing skills in analysis of documents and particular movies in connection with historical background, improving students’ skills to understand history and culture of different peoples around the world.

The goals of this course are threefold: to help students better understand other cultures; to encourage a respect for and interest in the study of history; and to improve students' analytical, communication, and critical thinking skills.

Minimum Learning Outcomes of this course for students will be their ability to:- demonstrate an ability to analyze movies, think, write, and speak interpretively and

analytically;- discuss and recognize the aesthetic qualities of history, literature, cinema, and art;- support judgments about a movie by drawing from experience and other sources.

II. COURSE REQUIREMENTS: (watching movies, journal, discussions: on-line response and comments; two papers and reading)

A. METHODS: THE ON-LINE EXPERIENCEThis is an on-line course, and so it is very much "self-taught." Each week, on your own, you will be watching movies, budgeting your time as you go along, doing assignments for each film, discussing key details with other students on-line (on the Discussion Board), interacting with both other students and the instructor via e-mails, and e-mailing your work to me. You have the ability to interact with me on a regular basis - personally, and quietly - in a way that normal classes does not afford you.

Now, since there are no classroom lectures, each and every student needs to be focused, organized, and motivated to keep abreast of all assignments. Falling behind can not only impact on your immediate grades, but can also make it impossible for you to catch up. So, make a disciplined plan out for yourself that involves watching assigned movies for the week, doing assigned readings, for the week, making entries into your journal, participating in the on-line discussions immediately thereafter. This needs to be done in addition to the construction of your two assigned papers.

If you have never experienced on-line learning, let me talk for just a moment about its strengths and weaknesses. On the one hand, this way of learning is exciting and engaging ... it is possible for the individual student to ingest more than that which is learned in a normal, in-

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person course. The work is done at the student's own pace, when she or he can get to it, and thus it is better, more available for the working person or for anyone who just has a very full plate in front of them in life!

However, the central weakness of this format for learning is that you are neither able - in a face-to-face way - to ask questions of the instructor, nor to interact with other students. Students DO interact - on the Discussion Forum. And you CAN utilize each other's e-mail addresses to interact about class-related issues and topics ... and students sometimes even open up social interaction(s) in this way. But the give-and-take of genuine "discussion" is absent.

So, we will have a Discussion on the Forum that lasts Thursday and Friday, off and on, in lieu of taking up just one particular hour. The good news here is that - again - students work when there is time in their lives to work ... and on the Forum, EVERYONE PARTICIPATES. Furthermore, with the individual, personal e-mail address of the instructor in your possession, students end up asking many more questions, getting more solidly focused answers, and - in essence - have personal "office hours" with the instructor. In today's college atmosphere, students very, very, VERY rarely come to office hours. In an on-line course, this problem of a lack of interaction with the instructor is (largely) solved!

B.EACH WEEK YOU WILL HAVE TO - watch assigned movies;- write journal entries about watched films; - read documents and works on the Moodle site; - work on discussions: one Message Board question to which you must respond with a

"major post"/response (3-4 paragraphs or so) and the requirement to respond to "at least" two comments by other students to that question.

Additionally, two papers has to be written. [Note: This might sound like a lot of work. But remember that there are ZERO lectures and

discussions in the classroom ... and so this work is to be done in lieu of traveling to and from the college, parking, going to class, attending lectures and discussions, and so forth. When you add it all up, you will end up spending LESS TIME than you normally do for an in-the-classroom course.]

C.WATCHING ASSIGNED FOR THE WEEK MOVIES REGULARLY IN TIME: Regular watching the assigned for the week movies in time is expected. The watching of the assigned for the week movies has to be done before Thursday every week. Do not forget to write all important information about movie into a response journal.

D. RESPONSE JOURNAL: You will keep a journal where you will reflect on those movies that you watched. You also reflect on interesting for you elements of discussions (do not forget to cite the authors). The journals will be checked on Thursdays July, 26 and August, 16 via e-mailing their e-versions to my LSC e-mail elena.strokanova@lyndonstate.edu. Journal has to content entries of all assigned movies (see the list) that you watched. I expect to see inside entry the title, the year (when it was made) the names of a director and studio (Mosfilm, Dovzhenko, etc.), major actors, names of the main characters, plot and the main massage of the film. In the core, each entry has to present by itself the movie review. Of course, I expect that you will make connections between history of the country, the time of the shown event and the time when the movie was made, supporting your arguments by details, episodes or any other elements of the film, articles, words of director, etc. If you finish watching before the scheduled time you are very welcome to send me your journal earlier.

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E. DISCUSSIONS (ON-LINE RESPONSE AND COMMENTS). Each week I will expect from you by 6 pm, on Thursday, the on-line response on Moodle to my question(s) about movies which were assigned for watching that week. The response has to be 3-4 paragraphs long. Your responses will be first part of our class on-line discussions about movies. The second part of the each week on-line discussion will be your answer/comment/response to other students’ answers to my question/questions, posted on Moodle. Comment has to be at least several sentences/paragraph long. I expect all comments to be done by 6 pm Friday each week. So, each week you have to participate in discussion working on one response and 2 comments.

F. PAPERS : Additionally to the journal and discussions and comments, two papers have to be written.

The first paper (5-6 pages) will be based on several presented on-line works and documents written by Sergei Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov, V. I. Lenin, Clara Zetkin, A. Lunacharsky, L.Trotsky, Meyerhold, Maxim Gorky, V. Mayakovsky and others. Read them all and then make a choice. You can write a document analysis paper focusing on one of those mentioned above texts, or you write a comparative analysis paper of several documents and trying to identify major distinguishing characteristics of the Soviet Cinema in 1920-s and 1930-s. Documents and works for the first paper will be marked as Readings For The First Paper part 1 (for the first week) and part 2 (for the second week). The first paper due is July 24th.

The second paper will be a formal at least 5-6 page analysis of a particular theme, topic, period or works of a famous movie maker or genre, based on 2-3 films. For example, historical topics in the cinema, World War II, the role of a women in the society, archetypes in the films about World War II, or any other topic which you will prefer; comedy, tragedy, romance, etc., Eisenstein, Vertov, Pudovkin, Gaidai, Bondrachuk, Tarkovsky, Menshov and others. The second paper due is August 16th. The second paper serves as your final exam in the class.

Papers should be typed. Consult The Bedford Handbook, 5th edition for handling citations and bibliographies/work cited. Use the Chicago Style, pp.700-719. Please note that late papers will be penalized 2 points for each day late. Papers have to be sending on my e-mail address -elena.strokanova@lyndonstate.edu.

E.THE SEMESTER GRADE. write this all down right now ... and put together a "semester calendar" aimed at accomplishing them all. The semester grade will be count in the following way:

Journal 30%Message Board posts/responses 20%1st paper 20%2nd paper (final exam) 30%

IV. ACADEMIC HONESTY : All students are expected to conduct themselves in a manner consistent with the ideals of the University. This means that student behavior should exemplify respect, consideration and integrity. Any student caught engaging in acts of academic dishonesty (cheating on a test, plagiarism or giving or receiving any other form of unauthorized assistance) will, at minimum, receive a zero for the assignment on which they received unauthorized assistance, although in most cases, students will be assigned a failing grade for the entire course. For further information on the issue of academic honesty consult the University of Vermont Undergraduate Catalog.

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V. DEALING WITH PROFESSOR:

A. GRADING:A + is for exceptional work with 100-97 points, A 96-93 points,A - 92-90 points,B + 89-86 points,B 85-83 points,B - 82-80 points,C + 79-76 points,C 75-73 points,C- 72-70 points,D + 69-66 points,D 65-63 points,D - 62-60 points,F 59 and below.

B. COMMUNICATIONS: Here are several ways I will communicate with students in the class about course news, assignments, and other important information.

- When you log into this course each time, please look for new announcements on the opening page. You may want to check announcements within the last 7 days to make sure that you are up to date on news for the course.

- Check the Discussion Board for new postings. Your fellow students and I will often post interesting links, ideas, and discussion questions that you can respond to as part of your participation in the class.

C. INDIVIDUAL COMMUNICATIONS: To contact me, you should send me an email. Most questions regarding the course can be answered over email. Except on weekends, I will answer emails within 24 hours. Emails sent after noon on Fridays may, in rare cases, not receive a response until Monday morning.If you really need to talk to me you may call me home. I may not be there when you call, but if you leave me a message I will call you back later.

VI. MAJOR TOPICS OF THE COURSE :

Please note, that the list of the films corresponds with major events in the Soviet/Russian history and, please, do not forget to use your historical knowledge about the Russia and the USSR, making conclusions and statements, comparing the time of the production of the film and the time and the significance of the presented event.

Week 1. You have to watch two movies.07/08 – 07/12 Battleship “Potemkin”/ Броненосец Потемкин and Three Songs About Lenin/ Три песни о Ленине Thursday (response) – Friday (comments): Weekly Discussions Due

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Recommended reading for the first paper (on the Moodle)

Week 2. You have to watch two movies.07/15 – 07/19 Circus/ Цирк and Bright Way/ Светлый путь Thursday (response) – Friday (comments): Weekly Discussions DueRecommended reading for the first paper (on the Moodle)

Week 3. You have to watch three movies this week. 07/22 – 07/26 Alexander Nevsky/ Александр Невский and Come And See/ Иди и смотри and Destiny Of A Man/ Судьба человека or Ballad About Soldier/ Баллада о солдате July 24th – First Paper DueThursday (response) – Friday (comments): Weekly Discussions DueJuly 26th – Journal Due (1st part – 7 entries)

Week 4. You have to watch two movies. Choose from three below.07/29 – 08/02 Ivan’s Childhood/ Иваново детство and Ascent/ Восхождение and Cranes Are Flying/ Летят журавли Thursday (response) – Friday (comments): Weekly Discussions Due

Week 5. You have to watch two movies. Choose from three below.08/05 – 08/09 Hussar Ballad/ Гуссарская баллада and Elusive Avengers/ Неуловимые мстители and Ivan Vasil’evich Changes His Profession/ Иван Васильевич меняет профессию Thursday (response) – Friday (comments): Weekly Discussions Due

Week 6. You have to watch two movies. 08/12 – 08/16 Irony Of Fate, or “Enjoy Your Bath”/ Ирония судьбы или « С лёгким паром !» and Moscow Does Not Believe In Tears/ Москва слезам не верит August 16th - Second Paper Due August 16th - Journal Due (2nd part – 6 entries) Thursday (response) – Friday (comments): Weekly Discussions Due

VII. FINAL WORDS:Good luck and have a productive semester!!!

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