What has happened to the relationship between performance and religion? Has the Enlightenment project successfully secularized Western civilization and our thinking about a human subject in light of its most important horizon — the finitude of existence? Or can we still decipher religious thinking in the works of theatre artists whose practice, like that of the leading Western philosophers, such as Walter Benjamin, Emmanuel Lévinas, and Jacque Derrida, still bear traces of theological underpinnings when dealing with this finitude? These questions, among others, lead our investigation into transgressive cryptotheologies at the crossroads of performance, philosophy and religion in the Western theatre of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Critical study of major literary and cultural paradigms, starting with the revaluations of the often misunderstood Sarmatian culture and the memory of it in the 19th century, moving on to the Romantic paradigm and its (dis)continuations, and ending with the strongest counter-proposals for Polish mentality, identity, and self-identifications (such as the Enlightenment, Positivism, and the Inter-war struggles for modernization).

In this course we will examine European science fiction, focusing on literature, drama, and film produced in Central and Eastern Europe. Shaped by the experience of two world wars, two totalitarianisms, and several revolutions, continental sci-fi is known for its radical and uncompromising thought experiments and daring aesthetics. We will discuss works by H.G. Wells, Evgenii Zamiatin, Karel Čapek, Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky, Fritz Lang, Stanisław Lem, Andrei Tarkovsky, Jacek Dukaj, and others against the cultural and theoretical background of modernity. We will base our methodology on the theoretical framework developed by science fiction studies, yet our focus in the course will be various strategies of re-enchanting the modern world that European authors deploy in their texts.

Recent geopolitical events in Eastern Europe — such as the war in Ukraine, persecution of the Roma, or the incarceration of Syrian and Afghan refugees in the Balkans on their way to the EU — have generated continuous reportage and commentary from journalists and analysts. While these events are taking place in locations at a remove from each other, they are connected by the imperial strategies and histories of racialization in the region. This course explores — through both theoretical and cultural texts — the historical and contemporary issues of race, empire, and gender in the region.

As a "confession without absolution," and a "discourse without a mother" psychoanalysis for decades now has had a bad reputation. Labeled as a cult, attacked for its focus on childhood, and criticized for strengthening the foundations of patriarchy, its critical potential was often belittled, and its key terms simplified or misused. One of the main objectives of this class is to disenchant this philosophical school of thought and use its tool to unmask and talk through some of the deepest wounds of the 20th century. We will sit down the traumatized and frenzied modern and postmodern writing on the couch and investigate its fixations, obsessions, repulsions, and passions to learn more about the contemporary ideological wars, post-truths, perpetual inequalities, and escalating mental health crises, which are the markers of our civilization. Through the lens of writings by, among all, Freud, Jung, Ferenczi, Klein, Torok, Abraham, Lacan, Kristeva, Grosz, and Žižek this course will explore narratives from Central Europe — the playground of the 20th-century history and the witness of some of its most horrific atrocities.

An examination of the modernist movement (1890-1914) in Ukrainian literature. Readings in the authors of the Moloda muza and the Ukrains'ka khata groups as well as other authors. Among the issues examined in the course are questions of genre, gender, nationality, decadence, morality, social issues, and the relation of Ukrainian modernism to other modernist movements in European literatures.

Readings of poetry, prose, and criticism from 1960 to the present. Special attention to fiction since 1991.

An examination of works of fiction, whether novels, short stories, or any other prose genre, that deliberately challenge established conventions, introduce new concepts or techniques, and subvert dogmas of various kinds. The goal is to explore the dynamics of literary history while surveying those works that modify or deviate from its course. The period covered is 1920s with an eye toward student interest and might include; feminist novels, the poem in prose, intellectual fiction, experimental novels from the 1920s, challenges to socialist realism, and the "whimsical novel." Secondary readings on the problems of Ukrainian literary history will also be examined.

We examine Ukrainian modernist writing after 1930 in Ukraine and outside Ukraine, specifically the modernist works that appeared in the diaspora Ukrainian community, for example, the Prague School, MUR, and the New York Group.

Fantastic and grotesque works by the most hilarious, obsessive, and delusional character in Russian literature, who teased, fascinated, and polarized readers. Gogol's writings are examined with various theoretical approaches. Includes cinematic (Taras Bulba, Viy, Overcoat) and musical (Ribsky-Korsakov's "Chirstmas Eve," Shostakovich's "Nose") re-creations of Gogol's works.

Painting, literature, and film from 1890-1930s. New revolutionary paths for the advancement of man and society through art. Symbolism, neoprimitivism, futurism, suprematism, and constructivism. Chekhov, Kandinsky, Bely, Stravinsky, Goncharova, Malevich, Tatlin, Eisenstein, and many others.

A general survey of Ukrainian literature written outside Ukraine. The writing examined in the course includes three categories: 1) Literary works by writers who live(d) outside Ukraine. 2) Literary works focused on exile or diaspora topics and written by writers who spent at least part of their lives outside Ukraine. 3) Literary works in languages other than Ukrainian (primarily English) on the subject of Ukrainians in the diaspora. The writers considered will include Emma Andievska, Ievhen Malaniuk, Todos Osmachka, Ulas Samchuk, Ihor Kostetskyi, and others.

This course seeks to examine both the representation of women in the plural literary traditions of Eastern Europe and the theoretical and interpretive dimensions of works by East European women authors from the late nineteenth century to the post-socialist era and beyond.

An examination of works of fiction, whether novels, short stories, or any other prose genre, that deliberately challenge established conventions, introduce new concepts or techniques, and subvert dogmas of various kinds. The goal is to explore the dynamics of literary history while surveying those works that modify or deviate from its course. The period covered is 1920s with an eye toward student interest and might include; feminist novels, the poem in prose, intellectual fiction, experimental novels from the 1920s, challenges to socialist realism, and the "whimsical novel." Secondary readings on the problems of Ukrainian literary history will also be examined.

This seminar investigates how filmmakers and theorists have related the categories of fact and fiction to the production of films in Eastern Europe. At the center of our inquiry is the history and theory of cinematic authenticity, historical referentiality, and the production of reality effects. The seminar tracks how the framing of material reality in moving images produces new aesthetic relations and political implications beginning with the understanding of fiction and nonfiction in early cinema to later contentious debates over fractography and historical reconstruction. Additionally, the seminar considers the emergence of biographical films and the use of documentary fiction in the service communist governments. As part of anti-totalitarianism, we examine how filmmakers undermined the distinction between fact and fiction through collage aesthetics and the fictionalization of reality. We conclude by considering contemporary developments and the continuing experimentation with combining fact and fiction.

Individualized study with a faculty member on any topic which is not sufficiently covered by other department courses. Syllabus and grading scheme to be mutually agreed upon by instructor and student.

Individualized study with a faculty member on any topic which is not sufficiently covered by other department courses. Syllabus and grading scheme to be mutually agreed upon by instructor and student.