Information may be Subject to Change

Time & Place

2023 Winter Term 2
Tuesdays & Thursdays
9:30am to 11:00am

Live Stream & Lecture Recordings

Our sessions will be streamed live and recorded.

Language & Prerequisites

This course is taught in English and there are no prerequisites.

Course Description

The Black Sea Region has been suffering under political and cultural instability for the better part of the past two centuries. Above all, this state of perennial crisis was a result of the encroachment of the colonial empires of Central and Eastern Europe: Prussian, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, Russian, Soviet, National Socialist, and – most recently – Putinist. All current hot and ‘frozen’ conflicts in the region – including Russia’s ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine – have their roots in this history.

This course explores the conflictual cultural history of Central and Eastern Europe from the eighteenth century to the present. We will investigate the historical roots of present-day conflicts, such as the fight for political stability on the Balkans, the struggle for Ukrainian lands, and the latent state of war in the Caucasus. Classes will be dedicated to lectures on and discussion of films and literary texts that reflect on these issues.

Primary Materials

Andrić, Ivo – The Pasha’s Concubine (Yogoslavia, 1926)
Andrukhovych, Yuri – Recreations (Ukraine, 1992)*
Gogol, Nikolai – Taras Bulba (Imperial Russia, 1835)
Lermontov, Mikhail – A Hero of our Time (Imperial Russia 1841, excerpt)
Said, Kurban – Ali and Nino (Azerbaijan, 1937, excerpt)
Shataidze, Nugzar – November Rain (Georgia, 2004)
Urushadze, Zaza – Tangeringes (Georgia, 2013)
Vazov, Ivan – Under the Yoke (Bulgaria, 1888, excerpt)
Žbanić, Jasmila – Grbavica (Bosnia, 2006)

All texts and films will be available through our Canvas site. *The only exception is Recreation by Yuri Andrukhovych. Please purchase this item through the UBC Bookstore or your trusted bookseller.

Evaluation of Student Work

Two Midterm Exams (33% each)
FInal Exam (34%)

Exam Modalities

All our exams are open-book exams that are based online, and you can complete them from anywhere in the world: your dorm, your apartment, your family home out of province – as long as you log in during the proper time slot. This also means that our final exam should not meaningfully impact your end-of-term travel plans. As long as you are travelling to a location where internet connections are readily available, you need not stay in Vancouver on account of our course’s final.