Registration begins August 23, 2023 for Newberry Course “New Soviet Women: History, Art, Fiction, and Film (1917-1940)”

Natalia Danko (1892-1942). Discussing Stalin’s Constitution at an Uzbek Collective Farm, 1937. Self-portrait. At Work, 1920s. Porcelain. State Porcelain Factory @ The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.

This multi-disciplinary course will examine early 20th century Soviet feminism and gender policies, as well as the political, economic, social, and cultural implications of gender stereotypes against the real-life experiences and changing roles of Soviet women from the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 up to World War II.

The seminar will include both presentations and group discussion over a period of 10 sessions, supplemented by biographical, historical, visual, and critical information introduced at each meeting. Each week we will focus on one of ten propaganda models of “new Soviet woman” constructed by the Soviet authorities, which we will explore through life stories, art, fiction, and film: 1) Woman as Gendered Allegory of Revolution; 2) Brave Daughter of the Civil War: Red Army Soldier, Commissar, Pilot; 3) Woman as a Worker and a Peasant; 4) “Vostochnitsa” (Easterner): Colonial Dimension of Soviet Feminism; 5) “Dalnevostochnitsa” (Far Eastener): Building Socialism on the Frontiers; 6) Woman as an Athlete and Heroine; 7) “Engineers’ Wives” of the second half of the 1930s; 8) Woman as Mother and Consumer: Totalitarian Body; 9) “Former Women” and Gulag Women; 10) Women Artists: Self-Description.

We will meet online via Zoom on Saturday mornings from 10:00 am to noon, Central Time, starting September 30 and finishing on Dec 09, 2023. For the complete course description, click here. For the Newberry’s course description, click here.

Registration starts at 9:00 am Central Time on Wednesday, August 23, 2023. The class listings for fall will be available on Learning Stream soon. To see the current list of Adult Education classes at the Newberry, click here. For the Newberry’s registration policies, go to the Newberry’s Adult Education page and scroll to “Registration and Pricing.”