RUSS 251 - 19th Century Russian Literature

19th-century Russian authors reflect on imperial expansion in Romantic poetry and fictions about dashing horsemen, jaded dandies, and Caucasian beauties (Pushkin, Lermontov). Realistic prose (Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev) celebrates and satirizes provincial life and glorifies the center’s power, while also showing its crushing bureaucracy, its self-destructive underground men, its poor clerks, and dens of prostitution. Writers interrogate autocracy, serfdom, incipient industrialization and women’s equality. Nihilists, Westernizers, and Slavophiles philosophize about free will, national identity, life, and death. The course concludes with Chekhov’s short stories and innovative plays. Readings include all major genres and some theory. This course is topical and themes vary depending on faculty/student interests and areas of expertise. Specific theme will be announced in advance of registration. Lectures, readings and discussions are in English. Alternate years. (4 Credits)