This is a course in modern THEORIES of fiction and narrative and in the PRACTICE of reading fiction. Each week we will read major works of twentieth century literary theory paired with classic stories and short novels which illustrate the concepts defined in the theory. The course will cover three contemporary schools of theory (French structuralism, Anglo-American studies of diction and narrative, and contemporary Soviet structuralism) in relation to their Russian formalist heritage. Theoretical readings will be from Tynyanov, Shklovsky, Jakobson, Eikhenbaum, Bakhtin, Genette, Barthes, Todorov, Frye, Booth, and Lotman. The readings in fiction will be by Boccacio, Cervantes, Sterne, Pushkin, Balzac, Melville, Chekhov, Joyce, Nabokov, and Kafka.
COURSE FORMAT: Seminar
Level: UG Credit: 1.00 Gen Ed Area & Dept: HA RUSS
Prerequisites: None
Last Updated on MAR-10-1997
Vladimir Nabokov
Boyd, Brian. VLADIMIR NABOKOV: THE AMERICAN YEARS. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1991.
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459