1

RUTGERS UNIVERSITY – JEWISH STUDIES / RUSSIAN / COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

RUSSIAN JEWISH EXPERIENCE in Literature and Film

Spring 2013 Dr. Sasha Senderovich Tues & Thus 1:10 – 2:30 PM Office: 14 College Avenue Location: 12 College Ave, Room 107 sasha.senderovich@gmail.com

“Memorials” (Grisha Bruskin, 1983) This course offers an examination of the experience of Russian Jews from the end of the 19th century to the present, focusing on the late Imperial, the Soviet, and the post-Soviet periods. We will study the cultural artifacts dealing with the challenges of co-existence of Jews and their neighbors in the Russian Empire; we will also consider experiences of and reflections on the Bolshevik Revolution, Stalinism, the Holocaust, the post-Stalin period; the place of Jews as individuals and members of a minority group within Russian and Soviet society, ideology, and culture; migration and emigration; everyday life in Russia, the Soviet Union, and among immigrant communities in America and elsewhere at the beginning of the 21st century. We will study fiction, films, diaries, memoirs, political propaganda, transcripts of trials, essays, and contemporary scholarship. All readings in English. BOOKS TO PURCHASE 1. Isaac Babel’s Selected Writings, edited by Gregory Freidin (A Norton Critical Edition) 2. Moyshe Kulbak, The Zelmenyaners: A Family Saga (Yale University Press) All other readings will be made available, in PDF, on the course website; all films will be streamed through the course website. It’s also recommended that you purchase Zvi Gitelman’s A Century of Ambivalence: The Jews of Russia and the Soviet Union, 1881 to the Present, for reference on the history of Jews in Russia.

2

Course requirements and learning outcomes: 1. Writing assignments. The philosophy of this course is that most effective learning happens when students have a chance to complete frequent writing assignments that help them sharpen their ideas about the readings. Therefore, this course takes an unorthodox approach to the course workload: the amount of readings per class session is relatively low compared to many university courses, with reduction in reading assignments aimed at creating time for frequent writing assignments. The writing assignments themselves, though frequent, are not, in total, longer than the traditional course requirements of 2-3 papers in addition to a midterm and a final; rather, the length of the writing assignments is spread evenly throughout all weeks of the course. Think of this as low-grade constant pressure that helps you always stay on top of your reading, and to always think about what you read through writing, rather spikes of intense pressure at several points in the semester when you have work due for your other classes. This approach aims to achieve the following: the continued improvement of each student’s ability to respond to most reading assignments with an argument or a set of arguments in clear, concise format and to emphasize the importance of writing as a skill more generally. a. 10 short position statements (250-300 words each) are due once a week every week beginning with the second week of the course (we will model this assignment jointly in class during the first week of the semester). The total number of required submissions allows you to skip posting this assignment during any two weeks of the course out of the total of 12 weeks. Position statements must be posted on the course website, by 11 AM at the latest, either on Tuesday or Thursday each week depending on the day you choose to post in any given week. These statements must focus on a small detail from the assigned reading or film, and use that detail to make an argument (in the form of a thesis statement) about some larger issue within that day’s assigned reading or film. Given the brief nature of this assignment, your argument should be at the very top of each entry, followed by a few sentences in which you elaborate on your idea by pointing to textual (in case of readings) or visual (in case of films) evidence that supports your argument. We will read and comment, as a group, on at least one statement during each class session with the aim to improve everyone’s ability to construct and critique others’ arguments. b. Two short papers (1,000-1,200 words each), one due at mid-term (date TBA) and one due during the exam period (date TBA). Each of these two papers should be longer versions of, respectively, two of your ten position statements. If position statements could be seen as kernels of longer papers, these two assignments will allow you to expand on your argument in more detail by engaging with textual and visual evidence you examine. As part of this assignment, you will meet with me twice, prior to writing each of these papers; in each of these one-on-one conferences, we will go over all of your short position statements to date and discuss strategies for turning one of them into a longer paper. 2. In-class participation. This course is conducted in seminar format, so participation of each student is essential. We will discuss you mid-term grade for in-class participation when we meet to discuss your mid-term essay. 3. Attendance is mandatory. You may not miss more than two classes without a compelling excuse (such as a note from a doctor or a dean). Final grade breakdown: 50% - 10 position statements (5% each) 30% - two essays (15% each) 20% - in-class participation

3

Schedule of Classes Note: you need to finish all readings and film screenings by the date listed on the schedule below. Tues 1/22 INTRO: THE RUSSIAN JEWS BETWEEN IMAGINATION AND REALITY

• In class: watch a clip from Love and Death (dir. Woody Allen) • In class: read and discuss Isaac Babel, “The Old Shloyme” (3 pp)

Thurs 1/24 JOURNEYS INTO MODERNITY

• Sholem Aleichem, “On Account of a Hat” (8 pp) • In class: What is a thesis / an argument?

Tues 1/29 TEVYE THE DAIRYMAN: BETWEEN TRADITION AND MODERNITY (I)

• Sholem Aleichem, “Tevye Strikes it Rich,” “Today’s Children” (35 pp)

Thurs 1/31 TEVYE THE DAIRYMAN: BETWEEN TRADITION AND MODERNITY (II) • Sholem Aleichem, “Hodl,” “Chava” (29 pp)

Tues 2/5 ISAAC BABEL (I): STORIES OF OLD ODESSA

• Isaac Babel, “The Story of My Dovecote” (pp. 347-355); “How Things Were Done in Odessa” (pp. 266-272)

Thurs 2/7 ISAAC BABEL (II): ENCHANTED BY THE REVOLUTION • Isaac Babel, “The Awakening” (pp. 260-264), “The Road” (pp. 44-50)

Tues 2/12 ISAAC BABEL (III): A JEW ON THE HORSEBACK

• Isaac Babel, Red Cavalry (pp. 94-136)

Thurs 2/14 ISAAC BABEL (IV): THE REVOLUTIONARY MESSIAH • Isaac Babel, Red Cavalry (pp. 135-176)

Tues 2/26 THE OLD AND THE NEW: A FAMILY SAGA

• Moyshe Kulbak, The Zelmenyaners, pp. 3-62

Tues 2/28 JEWISH COURTYARD, SOVIET CITY • Moyshe Kulbak, The Zelmenyaners, pp. 63-124

Tues 3/5 SALVAGE ETHNOGRAPHY

• Moyshe Kulbak, The Zelemyaners, pp. 127-200

Thurs 3/7 BUILDING SOCIALISM • Moyshe Kulbak, The Zelemyaners, pp. 201-267

Tues 3/12 STALINISM (I): THE RED PROMISED LAND

• Watch: Seekers of Happiness

Thurs 3/14 STALINISM (II): VISIONS OF DOOM • Der Nister, “Under a Fence” (25 pp)

Tues 3/19 Spring Break, No class Thurs 3/21 Spring Break, No class

4

Tues 3/26 Passover, No class Thurs 3/28 THE HOLOCAUST (I): JEWS AND THEIR NEIGHBORS

• Watch: Ladies’ Tailor Tues 4/2 THE HOLOCAUST (II): WRITING THE LOSS

• Vasily Grossman, letters to his mother; “The Old Teacher” (40 pp) Thurs 4/4 POST-WAR AESTHETICS AND BANNED FILMS

• Watch: Comissar Tues 4/9 THE JEW AS A ROOTLESS COSMOPOLITAN

• Ludmila Ulitskaya, “March Second of That Year” (15 pp) • Transcripts of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee Trial (10-15 pp)

Thurs 4/11 THE JEW AS A SOCIAL DEVIANT

• Joseph Brodsky, “In a Room and a Half” (40 pp) • Excerpts from Joseph Brodsky’s 1964 trial (3-4 pp)

Tues 4/16 JEWISH IDENTITES AND THE ART OF SUBVERSION

• Field trip to the Zimmerli Museum of Art at Rutgers

Thurs 4/18 RUSSIAN JEWISH CHRISTIANS • Judith Deutsch Kornblatt, Doubly Chosen: Jewish Identity, The Soviet Intelligentsia, and the

Russian Orthodox Church (excerpts, 35 pp) • Joseph Brodsky, excerpts from Nativity Poems

Tues 4/23 JEWISH MOSCOW

• Ludmila Ulitskaya, “Genele the Purse Lady” (8 pp) • Dina Rubina, “Apples from Schlitzbuter’s Garden” (25 pp)

Thurs 4/25 DIASPORA OR HOMELAND? RUSSIAN JEWS IN ISRAEL

• Watch: Yana’s Friends Tues 4/30 ONLY IN AMERICA

• David Bezmozgis, “Roman Berman, Massage Therapist” (15 pp) • Anya Ulinich, “Operation Exodus” (8 pp)

Thurs 5/2 CONCLUSIONS: RUSSIAN JEWS IN THE 21ST CENTURY

• Gary Shteyngart, Super Sad True Love Story (excerpt, 10 pp)