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Academic Year 2004/2005

Parody: Russian and Western, Theory and Practice
RUSS 267 SP
Crosslistings:
REES 267

Parody is a form of artistic expression that is difficult to define but that has played a major role in literary history. This course will consider various definitions of parody offered by Russian and Western literary theorists. The major case study will be a slow reading of Fedor Dostoevsky's magnificently parodic novel THE DEVILS, along with the "target texts" to which the novel responds and with which it plays (works by Pushkin, Druzhinin, Turgenev, and others). Serious literary parody as employed by Dostoevsky will be compared to parody as pure humor (Woody Allen, MAD magazine). The final part of the course will be devoted to discussion of recent legal issues raised by parody, in the cases of 2 Live Crew versus Roy Orbison (which led to a Supreme Court decision in which Justice David Souter offered his own definition of parody), LOLITA and LO'S DIARY, and GONE WITH THE WIND and THE WIND DONE GONE.

MAJOR READINGS

Yuri Tynianov, THEORY OF PARODY (GOGOL AND DOSTOEVSKY)
Mikhail Bakhtin, selected works
Linda Hutcheon, A THEORY OF PARODY
Nikolai Gogol, SELECTED PASSAGES FROM CORRESPONDENCE WITH FRIENDS (excerpts)
Fedor Dostoevsky, THE VILLAGE OF STEPANCHIKOVO, THE DEVILS
Aleksandr Druzhinin, "Polin'ka Saks"
George Sand, JACQUES
Poetry by Fedor Tiutchev, Afanasii Fet
Ivan Turgenev, FATHERS AND SONS, "Enough!," "Phantoms," "The Execution of Troppmann"
Woody Allen, selected works
D wight MacDonald, PARODY (excerpts)
MAD magazine, vintage issues from the private collection of the instructor
Vladimir Nabokov, LOLITA (excerpts)
Pia Pera, LO'S DIARY
Supreme Court decision in re 2 Live Crew
Margaret Mitchell, GONE WITH THE WIND (excerpts)
Alice Randall, THE WIND DONE GONE (excerpts)

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Three papers (including one parody). Attendance and participation.

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-21-2005

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