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Academic Year 2002/2003

Reading Stories
RUSS 240 FA
Crosslistings:
REES 240

How does narrative form create meaning? Many of the best works of 19th-century Russian literature are stories that reflect upon the nature of storytelling and the capacity of stories to represent truth. In the 20th century, Russian literary theoreticians like Shklovsky, Tynianov, Eikhenbaum, and Bakhtin joined fiction writers in developing a powerful and useful critical vocabulary for describing and understanding narrative. Their work led them and writers of their generation into innovative experiments in short fiction. This course looks at the creative interplay between story writing and thinking about stories in modern Russian literature. The reading for the course will be short stories and short novels by Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Mandelstam, Zoshchenko, Babel, Tsvetaeva, Nabokov, Platonov, and Petrushevskaia.

MAJOR READINGS

Pushkin, "Queen of Spades," THE BELKIN TALES
Gogol, "Ivan Shponka and his Aunt," HOW THE TWO IVANS QUARRELED
Turgenev, FIRST LOVE
Dostoevsky, "The Story of Akulka's Husband," NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND
Tolstoy, DEATH OF IVAN ILYCH, THE KREUTZER SONATA, HADZHI MURAD
Chekhov, "Lady with the Dog," "Anna on the Neck," "The Name-Day Party," "Ward #6"
Zoshchenko, "Victoria Kazimirovna," "The Aristocrat," "The Bathhouse"
Babel, "How it was Done in Odessa"
Bulgakov, THE HEART OF A DOG
Plantonov, POTUDAN RIVER, "Aphrodite"
Tsvetaeva, "Mother and Music"
Petrushevskaia, THE TIME:NIGHT
Nabokov, DESPAIR

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Four or five short papers, final exam.

Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the Registrar's Office.

COURSE FORMAT: Seminar

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: HA RUSS    Grading Mode: Student Option   

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-18-2003

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