Empire and Periphery: Narratives of Powe

The Soviet Union was a country of paradoxes. While the Soviet government promoted national self-determination by establishing autonomous territories and fostering the development of national languages and cultures, it simultaneously engaged with practices of domination and control akin to European colonial empires. This course seeks to elucidate the inherent ideological tensions of the Soviet system through the works of authors and filmmakers from the Caucasus and Central Asia, situating them within the broader context of what has come to be known as postcolonial theory.

Beginning with the Soviet Union’s self-championing as the first anti-imperialist state, we will explore how writers and filmmakers from the Soviet metropole imagined and constructed the idea of an internal Other. Moving beyond the metropolitan imagination, we will examine how imperial categorizations were challenged by writers and filmmakers from the so-called Soviet "periphery." How did the non-European part of the population of the Soviet Union negotiate questions of identity, assimilation into the dominant culture, and resistance within the frameworks of Soviet modernization, nationality policy, and the official aesthetic doctrine of the Soviet Union - Socialist Realism?  Finally, we will delve into how Soviet-era discourses persist and evolve in the post-Soviet context, influencing contemporary geopolitical and social realities across the Eurasian region. All course materials will be available in English.