Gordienko, Anastasia | Department of Russian and Slavic Studies

gordienko@arizona.edu

Phone

520-621-9790

Office Hours

Please contact instructor for office hours.

Gordienko, Anastasia

Associate Professor

Dr. Anastasia Gordienko's interests lie in the intersection of Russian and Ukrainian politics, history, culture, collective memory, and identity. She is an author of Outlaw Music in Russia: The Rise of an Unlikely Genre (UW Press, 2023), the first full history of the shanson (Russian underworld music), which traces the genre from its tenuous ties to early modern criminals’ and robbers’ folk songs, through its immediate predecessors in the Soviet Union, including the bard song, to its current incarnation as the soundtrack of daily life in Russia. In addition, the book examines shanson’s place and function in contemporary popular culture, where it is celebrated for—rather than divorced from—its criminal undertones (or overtones), embraced by the common people while simultaneously enjoying a quid pro quo relationship with Putin’s politics.

Dr. Gordienko’s secondary interest embraces the issue of collective remembering: her ongoing empirical study, “Memories of the Past” (Pamiatʹ proshlogo), investigates the role of collective memory in Ukrainian and Russian national self-identity and intergenerational transmission of memories for these nations. Additionally, Dr. Gordienko studies stardom, fame, and politics, with a focus on how the concept of Slavic celebrity evolves during significant socio-political changes.

ORCID iD icon https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5307-4009

Currently Teaching

RSSS 320 – Criminal Russia: From Rasputin to Putin

In contemporary Russia -- marked by extreme inequality; political prosecutions; government discrimination against racial, ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities; extensive corruption, and prisoners' human rights violations -- the illegal has permeated the legal. "Criminal Russia" centers on the concept of power, and specifically, on the process of its consolidation and application by legitimate and illicit structures, and on the effect these processes have on different populations. To do this, the course begins with considering the influence of crime on the government in imperial Russia and the nation's fascination with a glorified criminal archetype. Then, moving to the more recent period, "Criminal Russia" explores the oppressive nature of the Soviet state, realized in unlawful mass incarcerations into Gulags; the interweaving of the criminal code into Russian politics; the rise and (alleged) fall of the Russian mafia; the country's penitentiary system as a reflection of societal power verticals and the collective sense of right and wrong; and the paradoxical place of the criminal culture within the national consciousness. Upon completing the course, students will be able: (1) to critically analyze issues of power (and power abuse) by the state and by its shadow using various disciplinary approaches, (2) to address issues of freedom, oppression, incarceration, and human rights, in Russia and elsewhere, and (3) to explain how counter cultures subvert dominant ideologies.

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RSSS 212 – Mythic Russia: Russian Fairy Tales and Folklore

"Mythic Russia" is an invitation to consider a non-Western--Russian--culture's belief system as expressed in its folklore. This course comprises four major themes, articulated in the following categories of texts, both verbal and visual:(1) a survey of Russian demonology, which illustrates the animistic nature of Russian popular beliefs about the world that persist to this day; (2) a large selection of the best-known Russian fairy tales, to be compared with German and English tales; (3) scholarly articles analyzing the differences between folklore and literature and representing various theoretical/critical schools: Structuralism, Marxism, Freudianism; and feminism; (4) literary fairy tales. Visual materials (film, paintings, graphics, and handicrafts) and music inspired by Russian folklore and fairy tales figure regularly in the course. Through examination of such materials and experiential learning activities, students will develop hermeneutical skills, specifically in analyzing fairy tales in order to understand what underlies their strikingly simple yet enigmatic surface. In addition, they will master the principles of various schools of criticism, in the process assessing their relative explanatory power vis-à-vis sundry texts. Finally, students will develop their understanding and appreciation of the intellectual benefits of diverse perspectives and cross-genre continuities provided by an interdisciplinary, multi-media approach to the cultural phenomenon of the Russian folk tale.

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RSSS 696D – Russian Literature: 20th Century

The development and exchange of scholarly information, usually in a small group setting. The scope of work shall consist of research by course registrants, with the exchange of the results of such research through discussion, reports, and/or papers.

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