Realism in Russia
Week 1: The Legacy and Context of Gogol’s “Overcoat”
Readings:
The Physiology of Petersburg: Introduction (Belinsky), “Petersburg & Moscow” (Belinsky), “The Petersburg Yardkeeper” (Dal’), “Petersburg Organ-Grinders” (Grigorovich) [Chalk]
Optional Reading: Vissarion Belinsky – “Thoughts and Notes on Russian Literature” [Chalk]
Lecture will include: the rise of realism; the flaneur; the physiological sketch
Week 2: Russian Literature in 1847
Readings:
Fyodor Dostoevsky - Poor Folk
Belinsky –“Letter to Gogol,” “Survey of Russian Literature in 1847” [Chalk]
Lecture will include: Nikolai Gogol - Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends
Week 3: The Russian Landscape
Readings:
Ivan Turgenev – from Notes of a Hunter: “Khor and Kalinych,” “Yermolai and the Miller’s Wife,” “Raspberry Water,” “Bezhin Lea” [Chalk]
Lecture will include: The Peredvizhniki and peasant portraiture; landscape painting, photography
Week 4: The Young Tolstoy
Readings:
Lev Tolstoy – “History of Yesterday,” “Sevastopol in December,” “Sevastopol in May,” “Three Deaths” (in Tolstoy’s Short Fiction)
Grads: selections from Эихенбаум – Молодой Толстой
Lecture will include: Tolstoy’s early diaries, Boris Eikhenbaum - The Young Tolstoy
Week 5: The Ascendancy of the Critic
Readings:
Nikolai Chernyshevsky – “The Russian at the Rendez-vous” [Chalk]
Nikolai Dobrolyubov – “What is Oblomivitis?” “When Will the Real Day Come?” [Chalk]
Nikolai Nekrasov – selected poetry [Chalk]
Ivan Goncharov – from Oblomov [Chalk]
Lecture will include: Oblomov, Dmitri Pisarev, the journal Contemporary
Week 6: Emancipation
Readings:
Turgenev: Fathers and Children
Optional reading: Ekaterina Breshkovskaya - “Going to the People,” Marko Vovchok – “Katerina,”
Lecture will include: Nihilism and the revolutionary intelligentsia, the music of Mussorgsky
Week 7: Reaction
Readings:
Dostoevsky: Notes from Underground
Chernyshevsky: from What Is to Be Done? (in Notes from Underground)
Lecture will include: Chernyshevsky, The Aesthetic Relation of Art to Reality
Week 8: The Later Tolstoy
Readings:
From Tolstoy’s Short Fiction: “The Kreutzer Sonata,” “Master & Man,” “Father Sergius” “The Death of Ivan Ilych”
From “The First Step” (on Chalk)
Lecture will include: Tolstoy - "What is Art?" and other late writings
Week 9: The End of the Age (of Realism)
Readings:
Anton Chekhov – Selected Stories
Lecture will include: Chekhov's plays (briefly), the rise of decadence
Week 10: New Directions
Readings:
Maksim Gorky – “Twenty-Six and One”
Vladimir Sologub – “The Wall and the Shadows”
Leonid Andreyev – “The Thought,” “The Abyss”
Lecture will include: Max Nordau, degeneration
Required texts (available at Seminary Co-op)
Dostoevsky, Poor Folk and Other Tales. Penguin USA. [ISBN: 0140445056]
Tolstoy's Short Fiction. Norton Critical Edition. [ISBN: 978-0-393-93150-1]
Turgenev, Fathers and Sons. Norton Critical Edition. [ISBN: 978-0-393-92797-9]
Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground. Norton Critical Edition. [ISBN: 978-0-393-97612-0]
Stories by Anton Chekhov. Bantam. [ISBN: 0553381008]
Assignments
Undergraduates:
A midterm and final, comprised of take-home, short essay assignments. You will be given 10-12 prompts, and asked to write about two of them in essays totaling 8-10 pages (in sum). As an alternative to writing the final, you may opt to write a short research paper (8-10 pages).
Papers and exams should be typed and double-spaced. Please be sure that your paper is stapled and that the pages are numbered, and make an extra copy for yourself.
Graduates:
You may complete the assignments for the undergraduates, but are encouraged as an alternative to write a single research paper of 18-20 pages. If you choose the latter option, please see me to discuss your topic some time before the 9th week of class.
Evaluation
The mid-term and final paper will each be worth 40%, with the remaining 20% based on attendance and participation in discussion. Each class meeting is 1/10 of the course, so missing more than one meeting may adversely affect your grade. If you find yourself in this situation due to illness or other circumstances, speak to me about how to make up for your absence.