Orthodox Subtexts in Russ Fict

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

The course is in English. We will read a series of Russian books where Orthodox subtexts --liturgical or theological determine and motivate the plot ot the characters' behavior and mentality, or all of these. Ideally, we will take the works where this motivation would be imperative--i.e., where, without it, a particular plot or character's behavior would look like total nonsense without this factor. This will involve Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov, Leskov's Sealed Angel, Tolstoy's "Three Elders," Chekhov's "Holy Night," "The Student," and "The Bishop," as well as Platonov's Foundation Pit and, adequate translations permitting selections from Pasternak's poetry from Doctor Zhivago, at least two Orthodoxy related poems by Mandel'shtam (on the Eucharist and on Petersburg St. Isaac's Cathedral), and possibly at least a poem or two by Timur Kibirov (well translated into English by our former student Hannah Schneider). Our goal is to see when Orthodox mentality and spirituality seem indispensable for the Russian culture. The purest experiment allowing us to see that is when all other motivation for the plot or/and poetics in Russian literary texts seems to be absent. Consequently, we shall examine the role of nonsense and the absurd in Russian pious discourse.