RUS 420 - Tolstoy’s War and Peace (in English)

In this course we devote the entire semester to Tolstoy’s masterpiece, War and Peace, alongside selected critical and theoretical readings. We consider everything from genre and historiography to the text’s surprising relevance in our current era of global upheaval and populism. War and Peace is frequently deemed the greatest novel ever written, yet its sheer size can be intimidating. Students find that tackling the novel for a class, alongside their peers, is the best way to keep up with the reading, while also getting the most from this incredibly rich text. After immersing yourself in War and Peace this semester, you will find that it stays with you throughout your life. No small promises, to be sure, but War and Peace delivers.

Satisfies the Cultural Diversity requirement.
Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement.
Satisfies a requirement for the Russian minor.
Satisfies a requirement for the major in Russian Studies.
Satisfies a requirement for the major in Russian Language and Literature.
Satisfies an ENG seminar requirement.

 

Prerequisites & Notes
No knowledge of Russian required or expected.
Course is repeatable for credit given different topic/title.