This research seminar will examine a number of texts and films produced during and after the socialist era. Writings from the former period include memoirs, diaries, fiction, and film produced during the 1960s and 1970s in the Soviet Union and other countries of the "socialist camp," including Yuri Trifonov's novel, House on the Embankment (1976); Natalya Baranskaya's novella A Week Like Any Other (1979) and the films The Joke, by Jaromil Jires (1969) and Man of Marble by Andrzej Wajda (1976). Works produced after 1991 include Andrzej Stasiuk's novel On the Road to Babadag (2004), and the films Goodbye Lenin! by Wolfgang Becker (2003) and 24 City by Jia Zhangke (2008). Additional readings are critical works dealing with the concept of "real (existing) socialism," its legacy, and issues of nostalgia.