Love and Death in the Russian Short Story

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Love and death are overwhelming experiences that, in many ways, define our orientation in and toward the world. At the same time, love and death are not always describable within the framework of language. Nevertheless, authors have tried to capture some of their essence for centuries. In this course, we will be reading Russophone short stories from the 19 th through the 21 st centuries that grapple with these two philosophically beguiling ideas. Authors like Gogol, Dostoevsky, Korolenko, Babel, Teffi, and others ask: Does love exist and can it be knowable or comprehensible? Is death a self-evident end, or are we always already beings moving toward death from the moment we are born? We will explore these rich themes as offered by Russophone writers in their philosophical, political, historical, and social contexts. All readings and discussions will be in Russian.