Literature and Revolution

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

The 20th century brought violent upheavals to Russia and East Europe in both culture and politics. This course covers the broad sweep of 20th-century Russian culture. We examine great works of prose, poetry and other arts that bore witness to the seismic changes of the last hundred years, starting before the Bolshevik Revolution and continuing up to the post-Soviet era. We interrogate the relationship between political and cultural revolution, asking whether revolutionary literature can truly remake human nature, whether literary resistance can bring down a hated regime, and what lessons can be drawn from this volatile history that might be applied to our increasingly unstable world today.