We will discuss the works of philosophy, literature, and cinema to understand the mythos and logos of the multilingual and multiethnic inhabitants of the lands in-between Berlin and Moscow. Focusing on the pagan beliefs and rituals that survived under a thin veneer of Christianity, we will consider the ways in which human beings are shaped by their relationships with beings that might be (mostly incorrectly) called demonic. We will also discuss the role of laughter-and especially its absurd, carnivalesque, and grotesque aspects-in making (and unmaking) us as human beings. The texts of Bakhtin, Chaadaev, Gogol, Kotsiubynsky, Mamardashvili, and other writers and thinkers will guide our discussions. We will analyze films from Eastern Europe (for instance, by Eisenstein, Paradjanov, as well as contemporary film directors) to better understand the ways of being and thinking in the ambiguous lands in-between the Western European and Russian imperial cultures. Open only to first-year frosh.