[ Wesleyan Home Page ] [ WesMaps Home Page ] [ WesMaps Archive ] [ Course Search ] [ Course Search by CID ]
Academic Year 2003/2004


Gogol: Witches, Con Men and Runaway Noses
RUSS 277 SP

Crosslistings:
REES 277

Close reading and analysis of the fictional and dramatic works of Nikolai Gogol (1809-52), who along with Alexander Pushkin dominated the Russian literary scene of the first half of the 19th century. Gogol created a phantasmagorical world of devils and witches coexisting with the gritty details of life in St. Petersburg and the Russian provinces. His satirical observations delighted socially-conscious contemporary critics, while his linguistic experimentation and subversion of the rules of logic inspired modernist writers at the beginning of the twentieth century. We will consider Gogol's response to Romantic aesthetics, the permutations of his interest in the demonic, his appropriation of the legacy of Pushkin, and the history of his reception by Russian and Western writers and critics.

MAJOR READINGS

"Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Auntie"
"Vii"
Essays from ARABESQUES
"Nevsky Avenue"
"The Portrait"
"The Nose"
"The Overcoat"
MARRIAGE
THE INSPECTOR GENERAL
DEAD SOULS
Excerpts from SELECTED PASSAGES FROM CORRESPONDENCE WITH FRIENDS
Nabokov, GOGOL
Fanger, THE CREATION OF NIKOLAI GOGOL
Karlinsky, THE SEXUAL LABYRINTH OF NIKOLAY GOGOL
Fusso and Meyer, eds., ESSAYS ON GOGOL

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Frequent short ungraded papers; two papers for a grade. Attendance and participation required.

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture/Discussion

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-19-2004


Contact wesmaps@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions. Please include a url, course title, faculty name or other page reference in your email

Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459