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. Students 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, tweets, forums, YouTube videos, etc. They will read articles and essays of Shenderovich, Novodvorskaya, and Rubinshtein, and short stories of Tolstaya, Pelevin, and Prilepin. In class, students will get practice in examining and interpreting readings and participate in the discussion of texts, whether assigned or found by the students themselves. They will prepare written assignments and produce various texts, ranging from essays to short fan fiction stories.