RUSS3422: Literature: Tolstoy to the Present in Translation

This course helps you meet the Liberal Education core requirement in Literature through close study of the structure, ideas, cultural context, and meaning of the works we read together. Russian 3/5422 introduces students to five of the most significant Russian writers from the mid-19th to the 20th century through close study of the structure, ideas, cultural context, and meaning of their works. At the same time, some of the course?s primary objectives include analyzing complex texts, integrating context, developing interpretive skills, and engaging with scholarly conversation through carefully designed writing assignments such as textual analysis, informal canvas reflections, and a final research essay. In the course of our readings, we will engage in the detailed analysis of assigned works informed by an understanding of the general cultural and historical context, as well as expectations of the time and place in which these literary works were created. The cultural and historical background will be presented through a series of lectures and assigned readings given as an introduction to the close study of the texts themselves. During the subsequent discussions, the works will be considered from the varied points of view existing contemporaneously to them as well as from the perspective of later literary developments both in Russia and in the West. Special attention will be given to major trends, experiments, searches, traditions, and conventions of Russian literary history. Main emphasis will be put on the exploration of the works themselves, their significance in Russian culture, history, and human experience as a whole. We will also enrich our exploration of these literary master works by viewing the selected excerpts of their creative screen adaptations both in the Russian and Western cinema.

View on University Catalog