The Russian Novel

When one considers the impact of Russian literature on world literature, one thinks first of all of the novel. And indeed, since the late nineteenth century its readers all over the world could not resist its artistic powers. The course explores selected Russian novels form the nineteenth- to the twenty-first century. Our in-depth (slow) reading and discussions will be guided by the questions concerning the stylistic peculiarities of the novel, and its development in changing historical and cultural contexts. The course includes: Gogol’s Dead Souls, Goncharov’s Oblomov, Dostoevsky’s Idiot, Bely’s Petersburg, Platonov’s The Fountain Pit, among others.