NES 4530

The Caucasus: Captives, Cultures, Crossroads

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2017-2018.

The Caucasus occupies a distinctive place within both the ancient and modern imagination. It is a region long anchored to tropes of disobedience, punishment, and redemption. It is also a place in which liminality, betwixt and between Europe and Asia, endures as both a perceived geographic imaginary and an experienced condition in the detritus of imperialisms past. The Caucasus's extraordinary diversity in languages and ethnicities has generated a deep suspicion of it by those surrounding the region, and has sparked profound social tragedies. But it has also stimulated a curiosity that has generated meditations on culture, identity, and social life. This course explores the Caucasus through its archaeology, anthropology, history, literature, music, and film. We will examine the entanglement of the region's history with its internal and external representations in order to get a sense of the array of forces shaping the Caucasus today.

When Offered Spring.

Breadth Requirement (HB)
Distribution Category (CA-AS)
Course Subfield (RS)
Course Attribute (CU-ITL)

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