Russian, Soviet and post-Soviet literature from the 1900 to the present viewed in a socio-cultural and political context. 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.

The Russian Revolution of 1917 inaugurated an unprecedented attempt to construct a new kind of society. It also occurred in a culture with a strong tradition of connecting literature to social change, where a vibrant artistic avant-garde advocated for the power of art to transform life. This course explores 20th-century Russian literature through the prism of utopia, understood as the ambition to create an ideal society. How did the drive to build a new, revolutionary society react to the legacies of the cultural past? What role did literature play in the construction of the "new human being"? At the same time, we will use the lens of “dystopia” to consider those works of 20th-century Russian literature that criticized the theoretical ideals and practical outcomes of the Soviet experiment. Ranging from science fiction and satire to the literature of the Soviet prison camp (Gulag), these works cast doubt on the perfectibility of human society and question the relationship between the ideals of the revolution and the reality of the society it created.

Prerequisites: None. Course and readings are in English.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills