RUSS 173 - Focus on Literature (in English)

Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)

Topic for 2013/14a: Escaping the Eternal Feminine: Women Writers and the Russian Literary Canon. This course is a survey of the major literary achievements by women writers in Russia and the Soviet Union. While seldom studied as a cohesive literary tradition, women writers have made tremendous contributions to the Russian literary canon and continue to shape the trajectory of Russian literature to this day. The readings for this course will cover major literary genres, including prose, poetry, memoir and drama from the nineteenth century to the present. Lectures and discussions will explore questions of gender, genre and the socio-historical evolution of the female subject within the Russian literary canon. Accompanied by film screenings. Open only to freshmen. Satisfies requirement for a Freshmen Writing Seminar.

Topic for 2013/14b: Nabokov Before “Lolita”: The Making of a Genius in the Era of Jazz and Surrealism. This course considers the novels and novellas of Vladimir Nabokov written during the 1920s and 1930s in a broad cultural context of the period. Nabokov became an international celebrity with the publication of Lolita (1955). The scandal and sensationalism aside, the book earned him the reputation as one of the most accomplished stylists in the English language. But in the decades before producing Lolita, Nabokov had had a brilliant literary career as a Russian émigré writer in Europe. This course approaches Nabokov’s pre-Lolita works through a comparison with the writings of Franz Kafka, Evelyn Waugh, Nathaniel West, and the art of Surrealism. The goal of the course is to explore the cultural atmosphere that helped shape Nabokov as we know him. All readings and discussion in English. 2013/14a: Ms. Safariants. 2013/14b: Mr. Firtich.

Two 75-minute periods.