RUSS 251: HUSSARS, HOOKERS, HOLY FOOLS: 19TH-CENTURY RUSSIAN LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION
MWF 1:10-2:10 in H 212

SCHEDULE of Classes, FALL 2011
(This is tentative and may be adjusted as we move along: it is your responsibility to keep up-to-date).
Ideally you should have finished reading each work when we are scheduled to begin our discussion of that work. Keep in mind that Crime and Punishment is especially long. It is a good idea to start reading this novel much before it is scheduled. Read the work carefully, take notes as you read, mark interesting passages, jot down questions you have and anything that strikes you as important, interesting, good, bad, ridiculous, controversial, or otherwise worthy of discussion. These kinds of notes and jottings will help you in classroom discussions (and in your papers!).

CODE
MR: Some of the readings are linked to the Readings folder in Moodle
RES= hard copy reserve in the library

Reading assignments should ideally be completed by the date for which they are first scheduled.

Wed 9/7
Introductions, discussion of syllabus & projects.
Start background lecture: Old Russian Literature

Wed 9/14
Discussion: Karamzin & "Poor Liza" & Hammarberg article

For Mon 9/19
Make sure you've finished "The Demon." Think about Written Project options!

Mon 9/19
Discussion: "The Demon"--conclusions

Wed 9/21
Lecture / discussion: The Byronic poem II: Pushkin: Eugene Onegin. Versification and translation.

Fri 9/23
Discussion: Eugene Onegin, continued

Pictures of Imperial Petersburg

For Mon 9/26
FINISH READING:
* Pushkin: Eugene Onegin

VIEW IF YOU WANT:
*A short biographical background for Pushkin (Filmfair Communications MAC: MEDIA SERV. PG3350.A449 1991 videotape) will be available in the Media Services (4th floor Humanities) for viewing during their opening hours
*"Eugene Onegin" 1958 Soviet Bol'shoi teatr operatic (Tchaikovsky) version, directed by Roman Tikhomirov with V. Medvedev playing Eugene, A Shengelaia playing Tat'iana (songs sung by Galina Vishnevskaia), I Ozerov playing Lensky and S Nemoliaeva playing Ol'ga. 106 min., color. Mac media Services ML50.C435C537 1984. You can view it in the Media Services.

Fri 9/30Discussion:
A Hero of Our Time, continued

For Mon 10/3
CONTINUE READING:
*Lermontov, A Hero

Lermontov, "Taman"

Check our a Grateful Dead piece that one of my former students alerted me to--it is uncannily similar to Pushkin!

Pushkin's Petersburg

DUE: Project #I.2

DUE: Project #II: Theme/Title

For Wed 10/12
READ:
* Natural School (Handbook, pp.293-95 RES)
* Gogol (Handbook, pp.174-77 RES)
* Gogol, "The Nose," in Gogol' The Nose and Other Tales of Good and Evil...MR

Gogol's Petersburg

For Sun 10/16
* Gogol': "The Overcoat" (Proffer anthology)

Sun 10/16, 2-4 pm (replaces Wednesday's class)
Dinner at Gitta's house: 1814 Lincoln Ave (green house at the corner of Lincoln and Fairview)

Clips from Shostakovich's opera "The Nose" as performed last year at the Met in NY
Discussion: Gogol': "The Overcoat"

For Mon 10/17
READ:

Finish "The Overcoat"

Fri 10/21
I will be giving a paper in Bath England at a SPA CONFERENCE

Bibliographical instruction in the library with Johan Oberg. Meet at the library Lower ROOM 206, at our usual class time. This session is tailor-made for Russian literature and will tell you about the tools of the trade. Attendance required.

For Mon 11/7
READ (everybody) ORAL REPORT # 6 (Rachel):
Jane T. Costlow, "'Oh-là-là' and 'No-no-no' Odintsova as Woman Alone in Fathers and Children," 304-18

READ (everybody) ORAL REPORT # 7 (Emily): Pam Morris, "Fathers and Sons and 'The Woman Question',"
Richard Stites, "Nihilism and Women," both in Fathers and Children, pp. 280-89.

ORAL REPORT / Discussion # 6 (Rachel):
Costlow, "'Oh-là-là..." Fathers and Children 304-18

ORAL REPORT / Discussion # 7 (Emily): Pam Morris, "F & S and the 'Woman Question',"and Richard Stites, "Nihilism and Women," both in Fathers and Sons, pp. 280-89

Wed 11/9
Lecture / discussion: Dostoevsky, background. The Philosophy in Part I of Notes from Underground (and Chernyshevsky & Utilitarian, determinist philosophies)

For Fri 11/11
READ:
* Dostoesky: Notes From Underground, Part II
* Nekrasov poem
START READING:
*Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

Fri 11/11
Discussion: Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground, Part II: the philosophy of Part I applied?

Wed 11/16

Discussion: Dostoevsky: Crime and Punishment 1-2.

For Mon 11/21
READ:
* Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, Parts 5, 6 + Epilogue

Discussion Themes:
The genre of the whole & the three plots?
Gothic novel
Poor clerk natural school story
Adventure novel/detective story
Raskolnikov's motivations for the crime and 60s ideas
Raskolnikov's doubles and dreams

READ if you want:
Some samples of 19th-century women writers who due to gender prejudices of the era have not gained the canonical status of the other writers in this course. We will not have time to discuss them in class, but I hope that these samples will inspire you to read more of them!
All the texts are from Russian Women Writers, ed. Christine Tomei, Vol. I, New York, Garland Publishing.

MR:
Nadezhda Durova andMariia Zhukova and Nadezhda Khvoshchinskaia and Evegniia Tur and Lidiia Zinov'eva-Annibal

For Mon 11/28
READ:
*Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

Evening screening (if time allows!)--time/place to be discussed:
Crime and Punishment. French (Pierre Chenal) version, 1935, black & white, 110 min.
This is one of the masterpieces of Pierre Chenal, (1935, black & white, 110 minutes) with Pierre Blanchard as Raskolnikov and Harry Baur as the detective, Porfiry--both superb performances. French with English subtitles Mac: PG 3326.P74714 1989 videotape

with clips from:

Lev Kulidzhanov, Crime and Punishment, Russian version (1970, 224 mins black & white, starting at 6pm) the print is bad: no sound, illegible subtitles skinny rectangle on square screen. . . Still this is the version I'd recommend as the closest to Dostoevsky's original and with great acting by Georgi Taratorkin as Raskolnikov and (esp.!) Innokenty Smoktunovsky as Porfiry. Russian with (illegible) English subtitles. Mac: PG3326.P747 1989 videotape, pt. 1-2

Josef von Sternberg, Crime and Punishment (Columbia Pictures, 1935, 88 min). This version takes us far afield from Dostoevsky, from Rodion Romanovich to Roderick, from Svidrigailov to "Grilov," from the axe to a poker as the murder weapon, etc. etc.--amusing in its own way, but NOT Dostoevsky. Memorable mostly for Peter Lorre's vivid over-acted terrific Raskolnikov (both in his coolest and his maddest aspects) and Edward Arnold as the memorable detective. This one is in English. Mac: PG3326.P74713 1993

The recent Bravo/Gala Film version, directed by Julian Jarrold, produced by David Snodin, starring: John Simm, Iam McDiarmid, Shaun Dingwall, etc. etc.(4 hours taped with commercials, alas)

READ:
* Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

For Mon 12/5
READ:
*Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

For Fri 12/9
READ:
*Chekhov: The Seagull, MR

For Mon 12/12
FINISH READING:
*Chekhov: The Seagull

Mon12/12
Discussion: Chekhov, The Seagull