RUS 260 - 19th Century Russian Literature (in transl.)

This course explores the great 19th-century Russian literary tradition, including works by Pushkin, Lermontov, Pavlova, Turgenev, Khvoshchinskaya, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy. We will consider the ritualized violence of dueling, rapidly evolving attitudes toward gender, sexuality and love, questions of social justice related to serfdom, Russia’s complicated relationship with the West, religion vs. scientific progress, and the Russian writer’s role as prophet of truth in a land of autocracy. Throughout we will consider questions of genre and narrative. Importantly, in the context of Russia’s current war of aggression against Ukraine, we will grapple with the terminology of “Russian” vs. “Russophone” literature and the Russian nationalist and imperialist ideas in these canonical texts.

Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement
Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing and Rhetoric requirement
Counts as an elective in the English major and minor.
Satisfies a requirement in the Global Literary Theory interdisciplinary minor.

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