Tolstoy (in English)

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Lonely, lost, wondering about the meaning of it all? Tolstoy has the answers! “War and Peace in Literature and Life (in English)” is an in-depth survey of the major fiction of one of the world’s greatest and most provocative writers and thinkers. Topics to be discussed: the evolution of the Tolstoyan hero and heroine within the contest of the writer’s fiction, as well as with the social and literary polemics of the age; the interplay of “patriarchal,” “matriarchal,” and “messianic” voices; the dynamics of Russian soul and soil; the conflict between city and country, “old” and “new,” nobleman and peasant, Russia and the West; and, Tolstoy’s political, theological, and epistemological visions, in particular, his theory of history, his defense of love, marriage, and family, his endorsement of “rational egoism,” his distrust of “great men” in life, and most importantly, his tried-and-true program for happy and productive lives.