Nineteenth-century Russian literature, including Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov. The class is taught in English, on the basis of English translations; students with knowledge of Russian are encouraged to do at least some of the reading in the original.

In this course we will be reading some of the great masterpieces of the nineteenth-century by authors such as Pushkin, Gogol, Lermontov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Chekhov. Russia’s nineteenth-century writers posed all the decisive questions of the modern era. What is the role of the writer in contemporary society? What is the writer’s relationship to national destiny? How could Russia catch up, culturally and politically, with the West? What is the romantic hero? How does literary realism situate the writer’s responsibilities as an agent for social change? How should we define the relationship between the personal and the collective, the political and the metaphysical? To define the Russian nineteenth century and make it speak to us will be our goal this semester. No knowledge of Russian is required. There are no prerequisites. Required texts Alexander Pushkin, Eugene Onegin, trans. James Falen, Oxford World Classics ISBN 0-19-283899-7 Nikolai Gogol, The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol, trans. Pevear/Volokhonsky, Vintage ISBN 0-375-70615-1 Mikhail Lermontov, A Hero of our Time, trans. Paul Foote, Penguin Classics ISBN 10-0-140-44795-4 Ivan Turgenev, Fathers and Children, trans. Michael R. Katz, Norton Critical Edition ISBN-13-978-0 393 92797 9 Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, trans. Oliver Ready, Penguin, ISBN 978-0-141-19280-2 Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Short Stories, trans. Richard Pevear, Penguin Random House, ISBN 978-0-307-38865 Anton Chekhov, Stories of Anton Chekhov, trans. Pevear/Volokhonsky, Modern Library, ISBN 978 0 553 38100 9

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills