ROMS 6525 - Historicizing Communism

(crosslisted) FREN 6525, HIST 6525, ITAL 6520, SPAN 6525

Fall. 4 credits. Student option grading.

Co-meets with FREN 4525/HIST 4525/ITAL 4520/ROMS 4260/SPAN 4525. Conducted in English.

E. Traverso.

Communism merged multiple theories, events and experiences. It’s complexity does not lie exclusively in the discrepancies that separate the communist idea from its historical embodiments; it lies in the diversity of its expressions. Sketching its “anatomy,” this seminar will distinguish at least four broad forms of communism, interrelated and not necessarily opposed to one another, but different enugh to be recognized on their own: communism as revolution, communism as regime, communism as anti-colonialism and communism as a varient of social democracy. The October Revolution was their common matrix, but their trajectories have been different. Exploring communism as a global experience, we will shape the profile of one of the central actors of the twentieth century.