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RUSS220

Speak, Memory: Autobiography and Memoir in Russian Literature
RUSS220 SP

SectionClass Size*AvailableTimes
1 25 14 Times: .T.T... 2:40PM-4:00PM;

*The number of spaces listed as available is based on class seats open for the current phase of registration. Some seats may be taken in previous phases while others may be held out for subsequent phases of registration. (Last Updated on Wed Mar 4 05:00:40 EST 1998 )

Photo Caption and Credits

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.

MAJOR READINGS

MEMOIRS OF PRINCESS NATALYA DOLGORUKAYA
Nadezhda Durova, THE CAVALRY MAID
Lev Tolstoy, CHILDHOOD
Fedor Dostoevsky, THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD
Vera Figner, MEMOIRS OF A REVOLUTIONIST
Viktor Shklovsky, THIRD FACTORY
Osip Mandelstam, THE NOISE OF TIME
Nadezhda Mandelstam, HOPE AGAINST HOPE
Marina Tsvetaeva, selected works
Evgenia Ginzburg, JOURNEY INTO THE WHIRLWIND
Vladimir Nabokov, SPEAK, MEMORY
Sasha Lehrman, THE SONG OF THE REED
selected theoretical works

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Three papers (5-7 pp.), oral presentations

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

COURSE FORMAT: Discussion Lecture

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UG Credit: 1.00 Gen Ed Area & Dept: HA RUSS

Prerequisites: None

Section 01
Fusso, S
Times: .T.T... 2:40PM- 4:00PM;
Grading Mode: Mixed
Registration Preference (1 high to 6 low, 0=Excluded) Sr: 0, Jr: 0, So: 2, Fr: 1
No Major Preference Given

Last Updated on MAR-03-1998



About the Photo:

A page from the memoirs of Dostoyevsky

Reference:

Frank, Joseph and David Goldstein (editors). SELECTED LETTERS OF FYODOR DOSOTYEVSKY, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987.



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