RUSS 251: HUSSARS, HOOKERS, HOLY FOOLS: 19TH-CENTURY RUSSIAN LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION
MWF 10:50-11:50 in H 212

SCHEDULE of Classes, FALL 2009
(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
Moodle Readings=Moodle: Readings folder
RES= hard copy reserve in the library

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

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

Wed 9/16
Discussion: Karamzin & "Poor Liza" & Hammarberg article

For Mon 9/21
Make sure you've finished "The Demon." Think about Written Project options!

Mon 9/21
Discussion: "The Demon"--conclusions

Fri 9/25
Lecture / discussion: The Byronic poem II: Pushkin: Eugene Onegin. Versification and translation.

Pictures of Imperial Petersburg

For Mon 9/28
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 10/2
Lecture / discussion: Romanticism: Prose: From novel in verse to prose novel: novelistic structure.

For Mon 10/5
CONTINUE READING:
*Lermontov, A Hero

Lermontov, "Taman"

Pushkin's Petersburg

DUE: Project #I.2

DUE: Project #2: Theme/Title

Gogol's Petersburg

For Mon 10/19
FINISH READING:
*Gogol, "The Nose"

Fri 10/23
Discussion: Gogol': "The Overcoat" & Formalist critics

For Mon 11/9
READ (everybody) ORAL REPORT # 6 (Hilary Lakin & Anna Leicht):
Dmitry I. Pisarev, "Bazarov," in Fathers and Sons, pp.185-206

READ (everybody) ORAL REPORT 6a (Jonathan Komisar): Richard Freeborn "Turgenev and Revolution" and Richard Stites, "Nihilism and Women," both in Fathers and Sons, pp. 244-59.

ORAL REPORT / Discussion # 4 (Hilary & Anna):
Dmitry I. Pisarev, "Bazarov"

ORAL REPORT / Discussion # 6a (Jonathan)): Richard Freeborn "Turgenev and Revolution" and Richard Stites, "Nihilism and Women," both in Fathers and Sons, pp. 244-59.

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

For Fri 11/13
READ:
* Dostoesky: Notes From Underground, Part II
* Nekrasov poem
START READING:
*Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

Fri 11/13
I'll be away at the national AAASS conference, but we'll figure out some creative in-class approach, perhaps with one of our senior Russian majors.
Discussion: Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground, Part II: the philosophy of Part I applied?

Wed 11/18

Discussion: Dostoevsky: Crime and Punishment 1-2.

For Mon 11/23
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 & HAND IN DISCUSSION POINTS:
We will sample some 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. The hope is 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.
All of our selectedions are in the Moodle Readings Folder as indicated below.

For the ensuing discussions, please bring in one discussion point for each writer--written out for me to collect at beginning of class and randomly select for our topic/s for each author. We have very limited time, alas, so we'll aim for efficiency!

For Mon 11/30
READ:
* Nadezhda Durova, biography and excerpts from The Cavalry Maide. Moodle Readings: "Women 1"
* Maria Zhukova, biography and excerpt from "My Acquaintances from Kursk" Moodle Readings: "Women 2"
* Nadezhda Khvoshchinskaia, biography and "After the Flood," Moodle Readings: "Women 3"
START READING: 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 (Handbook, pp.476-80 RES)
* Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
Ideally you should have finished the novel by now--otherwise the plot might be revealed before you know how it ends. . . An in-depth analysis of the novel is impossible in a survey class and we will focus on a few aspects of it. Think about the following as you read:
**Gender questions (Tolstoy's ideas about women, women in 19th-century Russia, representations of women in literature
** Social hierarchies
**Moral hierarchies
** Dual plot structure and parallel characters
**The metonymic principle
**Animal symbolism
** Railroad symbolism

For Mon 12/7
READ:
*Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

For Fri 12/11
FINISH READING:
*Tolstoy, Anna Karenina