Expressive Culture of Soviet and Indepen

Expressive culture in the form of traditional and mediated performing and visual arts, film and literature has reflected and shaped modern Georgian social life in immeasurable ways. This seminar brings anthropological perspectives to bear on how expressive culture has served to articulate national and local senses of identity, grappled with collective trauma, and forged avant-garde creative networks within and beyond Georgia’s borders in the socialist and postsocialist periods. The course is organized in three units: it begins by interrogating the curatorial interventions of international organizations like UNESCO and their role in commodifying Georgian culture for global markets, proceeds by exploring powerful creative responses to colonial and totalitarian experience, and concludes by focusing on the capital city of Tbilisi–its built spaces, ever-changing social configurations, and shifting value systems–as a persistent muse in expressive cultural forms.

There are no prerequisites and the course assumes no prior knowledge of Georgian history, language, or culture.