Text, Context, Intertext: Readings and New Media in the 21st Century

The goal of this course is to develop students’ skills in reading and interpreting contemporary texts in the post-Soviet era. They will learn how to comprehend the background of the text, to grasp the meaning of the context, and to distinguish intertexts. Students will work with different kinds of new media texts including online news, social media excerpts, forums, YouTube videos, interviews, etc. They will read articles of Shenderovich, Rubinshtein, and Milshtein; political verses of Bykov; and essays of Tolstaya and Genis. Students will gain practice in examining and interpreting texts, from the assigned readings to those found by the students themselves. They will also have the opportunity to improvise and write texts of various genres on a range of topics.