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Literature Memoirs and autobiographical prose have been a major genre of Russian literature, particularly for women, since the eighteenth century. They offer a chance for the individual to make sense of his or her relationship to larger historical forces and allow writers of fiction and poetry to reflect on the tensions between biography and the creative process. We will read major works from the 18th century to the present, including Nadezhda Durova's account of her life on the front lines in the Napoleonic Wars; Dostoevsky's prison memoirs; the poet Mandelstam's reminiscences of a pre-revolutionary childhood and his wife's account of Stalin's terror; and intense memories of childhood by Marina Tsvetaeva and Vladimir Nabokov. Attention will be paid throughout the course to related theoretical problems (narratology, feminism, historiography, etc.). All works will be read in English translation.
COURSE FORMAT: Discussion Lecture
Level: UG Credit: 1.00 Gen Ed Area & Dept: HA RUSS
Prerequisites: None
Last Updated on MAR-10-1997
A page from the memoirs of Dostoyevsky
Frank, Joseph and David Goldstein (editors). SELECTED LETTERS OF FYODOR DOSOTYEVSKY, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987.
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459