Spirituality in Russian Literature

Spirituality -- understood as the intimate, spiritual life of individuals as opposed to corporate expressions of religiosity -- occupies a large place in Russian national life, and its exploration has become the central issue of many famous literary texts. The course will examine selected Russian texts -- from symbolism to postmodernism -- from the perspective of the spiritual sensibility that combines atheism, Russian Orthodoxy, Gnosticism, and sectarian or unconscious religiosity. Authors to be studied include: Nabokov, Sologub, Rozanov, Erofeev, Sorokin and Pelevin. In English.