Coverage of major movements and genres in the intellectual context of the times. Readings in Russian.

This graduate seminar will consider major trends, concepts, texts, authors, and institutions of Russian Realism. Topics include: the beginnings of the realist aesthetics and epistemology in literary ethnography (fiziologicheskii ocherk and “Zapiski okhotnika”); the rise of realism from personal documents and criticism (Belinsky); the novel (“Oblomov” and other); the institution of “thick journals”; literature and ideology (“Ottsy i deti,” “Chto delat’?”, “Zapiski iz podpol’ia”); the ideology of Slavophiles and Westernizers as narrative strategies (memoirs of S. Aksakov and Herzen); narrative and consciousness (Tolstoy and Dostoevsky); the “political unconscious” of Russian realism, and more. (Some topics may be substituted for others, depending on the students’ background and interests.) Format: Lectures and discussions. All primary texts are to be read in Russian; discussions in English. Requirements: Reading and class participation (with occasional written responses and short oral presentation); paper or take-home final examination

Prerequisite: solid Russian; graduate standing at Berkeley.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.