Reading and composition course based on works of Russian and other Slavic writers, either written in English or translated into English. As students develop strategies of writing and interpretation, they will become acquainted with a particular theme in Russian and/or Slavic literatures and their major voices. R5A satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement, and R5B satisfies the second half.

The modern world we live in seems to be a constant procession of overlapping and intersecting catastrophes. From climate change to the Covid-19 pandemic, it appears that we are living in a unique historical period. However, to truly understand the world of crises we currently inhabit, one must look back. The Russian and Yiddish literary traditions provide just such a means of seeing how culture preserves the scars of tragedy, along with testimonies of survival and perseverance which inspire us today. To think about how culture responds to historical catastrophe, Russian and Yiddish literature make for a good comparison. Both traditions predominantly developed in Eastern Europe and responded to many of the same, or co-occurring, historical events. By the late 19th century, many Yiddish writers were actively turning to models developed in the Russian literary tradition, and many Russian writers were grappling with the social injustices which Jews faced in the Russian Empire through their prose. However, despite their similarities, Russian and Yiddish literature developed distinct forms for representing and responding to historical catastrophe. This course will look at the broad arc of Russian and Yiddish literature’s reaction to moments of destruction and rupture throughout history. Starting with the Book of Lamentations, we will then turn to an investigation of texts which primarily respond to the historical catastrophes of the modern era including the pogroms of the late 19th century, the Holocaust, and the Gulag. Throughout the course we will ask ourselves the questions: how do writers develop and adopt literary forms in depicting historical catastrophe? How do literary texts work with and present the dynamics of cultural memory and collective trauma? How do ideas such as messianism and millenarianism inform our understanding of historical catastrophe? Authors may include Nikolai Gogol, Lev Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Maxim Gorky, Isaac Babel, I.B. Singer, Lamed Shapiro, and Varlam Shalamov. The focus of this course will be academic writing and literary analysis. By the end of the class students should be able to produce short and medium length compositions which are tightly argued, text-based, and stylistically appropriate. Students will also learn how to closely read texts, place texts in their appropriate cultural and historical contexts, and utilize concepts foundational to literary analysis such as: genre, style, point-of-view, figurative language, and intertext.

Requisites

• Satisfaction of the Entry Level Writing Requirement.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills