Soviet Literature

4.0 credits

After the October 1917 Russian Revolution, all art was to serve the formation of the first socialist state in the world. Art was to be infused with the spirit of the revolution and the ideology of the new Soviet state, which was anti-capitalist and atheist. Along with idealism, however, came state control over all art. We will investigate the dual nature of Soviet literary production by reading examples from the official canon designed to forge the "New Soviet Man" and works that covertly challenged state authority, including We, Master and Margarita, Doctor Zhivago and shorter works such as Envy and House on the Embankment. Taught in English.