Wed 9/5
Introductions, general organization of the class & our web page; geography

For Mon: Study the maps below and familiarize yourselves with the course syllabus--do it electronically from your own computer or use on-campus labs!

Read if you want, now or later (sources used in my introductory lectures):

• Trenin, Dm and A. V. Malashenko, Russia's Restless Frontier, Washington DC, Carnegie Endowment, 2004
• Jaimoukha, Amjad, The Chechens. A Handbook, NY, Routledge, 2005
• Sakwa, Richard, Chechnya. From Past to Future, London, Anthem Press, 2006
• Brower Daniel and Edward J. Lazzerini, eds., Imperial Borderlands and Peoples, 1700-1917, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1997.

Note: The three recent books listed above are focussed on Chechnya, but contain lots of good general information about the Russia-Caucasus relationship in general from the beginnings to the 21st century.

• Huttenbach, Henry R., "The Origins of Russian Imperialism," in Hunczak, Taras, ed., Russian Imperialism. From Ivan the Great to the Revolution,New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers UP, 1974.
• Raeff, M., "The Empire," Chapter 2 of Imperial Russia 1682-1825. The Coming of Age of Modern Russia. NY, Knopf, 1971.
• Broxup, Marie Bennigsen, "Introduction. Russia and the North Caucasus," in Broxup, Marie Bennigsen, ed.,The North Caucasus Barrier. The Russian Advance Towards the Muslim World, NY, St. Martin's Press, 1992, pp.1-17
• Kazemzadeh, Firuz, "Russian Penetration of the Caucasus," in Hunczak, Taras, ed., Russian Imperialism From Ivan the Great to the Revolution. New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University Press, 1974, pp. 238-63
• Gammer, Moshe, "Russian Strategies in the Conquest of Chechnia and Daghestan, 1825-59," in Broxup, M. B., ed.,The North Caucasus Barrier. The Russian Advance Towards the Muslim World, NY: St. Martin's Press, 1992, pp. 45-61
• Joffe, George, "Nationalities and Borders in Transcaucasia and Northern Caucasus," in Wright, Goldenberg, & Schofield, eds., Transcaucasian Boundaries, NY: St. Martin's Press, 1995, pp. 15-33.

Fri 9/7
Lecture: Historical & geographical observations on Russian Expansion to the South: Imperialism & the Caucasus

For Mon: Read if you want:

• Stremooukhov, Dimitry, "Moscow the Third Rome: Sources and Doctrine," in Cherniavsky, Michael, ed., The Structure of Russian History, NY, Random House, 1970, pp. 108-25
• "The Tale of the White Cowl," in Zenkovskii, Serge, Medieval Russia's Epics, Chronicles, and Tales,NY, Dutton, 1974, pp. 323-32.
• Rollins, P. J., "Emperor, Russian, use of the title," in Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History, ed., J. L. Wieczynski, 10, pp. 200-01.

Read/OR for Wed:

• OR 1(PaulSwartz): N. S. Trubetzkoy, "The Legacy of Genghis Khan: A Perspective on Russian History Not from the West but from the East," in A. Liberman, ed., The Legacy of Genghis Khan and Other Essays on Russia's Identity, Ann Arbor, Michigan Slavic Publications, 1991. DK33.T79 1991; E-RES, RES
• Alexander Blok, "The Scythians"
• Russian text: "Skify"

• Wolff, Larry, Inventing Eastern Europe. The Map of Civilization on the Mind of the Enlightenment, Stanford, Stanford UP, 1994
• Trenin, Dmitri, The End of Eurasianism, Moscow, Carnegie Moscow Center, 2001, Ch IV: "The Southern Tier" is particularly pertinent to our focus, as as the final chapters

Wed 9/12
Russian approaches to empire: The East. Trubetzkoy's Eurasianism

OR 1: Trubetzkoy

Read for Fri:

• OR 2 (Siarhei Biareishuk): Edward Said, "From Orientalism," in Williams, P., and L. Chrisman, eds. Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory. A Reader. NY, Columbia UP, 1994, pp. 132-149. JV51.C73 1994; E-RES, RES

• Edward Said, Orientalism, NY, Vintage, 1979.
• Ahman, Aijaz, "Orientalism and After," in Williams, P., and L. Chrisman, eds., Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory. A Reader. NY, Columbia UP, 1994, pp. 162-71
• Porter, Dennis, "Orientalism and its Problems," in Williams, P., and L. Chrisman, eds., Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory. A Reader. NY, Columbia UP, 1994, pp. 150-161

Fri 9/14
Orientalism as discourse

OR 2: Said

Read for Mon:

• Lomonosov, Mikhail, "Ode to Her Majesty the Empress of Blessed Memory Anna Ioannovna on the Victory Over the Turks and on the Seizure of Khotin in the Year 1739" in Segel, Harold B., The Literature of Eighteenth-Century Russia. A History and Anthology, Vol. I, NY, Dutton, 1967, pp. 178-192. PG3213.S4 vol 1; E-RES, RES

• Layton, Susan, Russian Literature and Empire. Conquest of the Caucasus from Pushkin to Tolstoy, Cambridge, Cambridge UP, 1994. PG30-15.5.C3L39 1994; RES

Read for Wed:

• Derzhavin, Gavrila, "On Count V. A. Zubov's Return from Persia"
  
• Zhukovsky, V. A. "To Voeikov. Epistle"

• Harsha Ram, "Russian Poetry and the Imperial Sublime," in Greenleaf, M. and Stephen Moeller-Sally, eds., Russian Subjects. Empire, Nation, and the Culture of the Golden Age, pp.21-50.

Read for Fri:

• Pushkin, Alexander, "Caucasian Captive," in Six Poems from Pushkin, tr. Jacob Krup, NY, The Galleon Press, 1936 (the poem is usually referred to as "The Prisoner of the Caucasus"),
  E-RES,
  Read also (here) the "Dedication to N. N. Raevskii," which was left out by Krup and should precede the rest of the poem.

• Sandler, Stephanie, "Subjection in 'The Prisoner of the Caucasus'," in Distant Pleasures. Alexander Pushkin and the Writing of Exile. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1989, pp. 145-165
• Andrews, Joe, "The Prisoner of the Caucasus," in Narrative and Desire in Russian Literature, NY: St. Martin's Press, 1993, pp. 11-31)
• Austin, Paul M., "The Exotic Prisoner of Russian Romanticism," in Russian Literature XVI (1984):217-74--puts Lomonosov, Zhukovsky etc. into the context of Russian/Western literary representations of exotic & prisoner topoi--leading into Pushkin's "The Prisoner"--rich on the literary context; mentions Derzhavin, Zhukovsky, Pushkin, Bestuzhev, Lermontov--and a host of lesser figures--some Russian quotes untranslated, skim it, but don't get overburdened by the Russian or the numerous lesser figures mentioned)
• Hokanson, Katya, "Literary Imperialism, Narodnost' and Pushkin's Invention of the Caucasus," in The Russian Review, 53(July 1994):336-52

Read for Wed:

• Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, A. A. : "Ammalat-Bek: A Caucasian tale (excerpts)," tr. Lewis Bagby, in Rydel, Ch., ed., The Ardis Anthology of Russian Romanticism, Ann Arbor, Ardis, 1984, pp. 212-241. PG3213.A74 1984; E-RES, RES

• Bagby, Lewis, Alexander Bestuzhev-Marlinsky and Russian Byronism
• Leighton, Lauren, Alexander Bestuzhev-Marlinsky. Boston, Twayne, 1975.

Read if you want for comparison :

• Mikhail Lermontov, "Izmail Bey" in L"Ami, C. E. and Alexander Welikotny, Michael Lermontov. Biography and Translation, Winnipeg, U of Manitoba Press, 1967, pp. 231-89.

Wed 9/26
Library instruction: basic research tools, tailored to our class. Meet in the Bibliographical Instruction Room on the second floor of the Library. This is a required part of the course and will serve you well for all your future research

Read for Mon:

• Pushkin, Alexander: "The Fountain of Bakhchisaray" in Pushkin, Alexander, Collected Narrative and Lyrical Poetry, tr. Walter Arndt, Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1983, pp. 247-266. PG3347.A17 1983c; E-RES, RES
• OR 3 ( Sarah Sutter): Greenleaf, Monika, "The Foreign Fountain: Self as Other in the Oriental Poem," in Pushkin and Romantic Fashion. Fragment, Elegy, Orient, Irony. Stanford, Stanford UP, 1994, pp. 108-38. PG3358.R6G74 1994; E-RES, RES

• Malek Alloula, The Colonial Harem, Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press, 1986.
• Sandler, Stephanie, "Two Women: 'The Fountain of Bakhchisarai'," in her Distant Pleasures. Alexander Pushkin and the Writing of Exile, Stanford: Stanford UP, 1989, pp. 165-83
• Andrew, Joe, "Not Daring to Desire: Male/Female and Desire in Narrative in Pushkin's 'Bachcisaraiskij fontan'," Russian Literature XXIV (1988): 259-74
• Andrew, Joe, "The Fountain of Bakhchisaray," in his Narrative and Desire in Russian Literature, NY, St. Martin's Press, 1993, pp. 31-41

Mon 10/1
Byronic poem II: Pushkin, "The Fountain of Bakhchisarai." The Crimea. East and West, national identity, and colonized women captives

OR 3: Greenleaf

Bakhchisaray, the center of Crimean Tatars (photographed in 1997)

Read:
Lermontov and Oznobishin poems (Siarhei & Marisa present)

Readings/dates to be assigned to specific students who will present their poem/s to the rest of the class and open up discussion. Naturally all students will read all poems selected! This will take place over three classes and we will jointly decide who does what when. Check out the Caucasian setting below! The following poems are up for grabs:

• Lermontov: "The Debate."
• Lermontov, Mikhail: "Before I've made my northern entry. . ."
• Odoevskii, Aleksandr: "The marriage of Georgia to the Russian tsardom."
• Gnedich, N. I., "Caucasian Tale."
• Oznobishin, Dmitrii: "Mashuka and Kazbek."
• Iakubovich, Petr: The Urals and the Caucasus."
• Oznobishin, Dmitrii: "Kislovodsk."
• Polezhaev, Aleksandr: "The Renegade" (Excerpt from the narrative poem "The Harem").
• Ryleev, K. F., "Civic courage. Ode."
• Polezhaev, Aleksandr, "Circassian romance."

A number of poems by women writers have made some scholars regard them as "self-orientalizers"--also up for grabs.
The following "Self-orientalizers" are also on the WEB:

• Rostopchina, E., "Putting on an Albanian Costume."
• Rostopchina, E., "Elbrus and I"
• Lokhvitskaia, M., "Midday Enchantments."
• Shaginian, M., "Full Moon."
• Tsvetaeva, M., "Stenka Razin."

Geographical setting for the Caucasus poems:

Fri 10/5
Romantic imperialist geography : Georgian maidens, exotic harems, self-orientalizers.
Presentations/discussions
Siarhei: 2 Lermontov poems
Marisa: 2 Oznobishin poems

Mon 10/8
Romantic imperialist geography : Georgian maidens, exotic harems, self-orientalizers. Presentations/discussions
Paul: 1 Iakubovich and 1 Ryleev poem
Sarah: 2 Polezhaev poems

Read:
All the "self-orientalizer" poems

Thurs 10/11
Recommended:
International Round Table: "The Musical Imagination in the Epoch of Globalization" Session I: 4:30-6:15 in Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center Concert Hall

Read (for Mon 10/15):

• Gan, E. A.,
  "Recollection of Zheleznovodsk"

Sat 10/13
Recommended:
International Round Table, Session V 10-12 am.

Read for Wed:

• Elena A. Gan, "Dzhelaleddin," Polnoe sobranie sochinenii, St. Petersburg, N. F. Merts, 1905. Focus on religion as a barrier for marriage; tolerance, intolerance.

Wed 10/17
Elena Gan: "Dzhelaleddin." Forbidden love: "oriental" passion across ethnic and religious barriers

Study for Midterm exam

Fri 10/19
MIDTERM EXAM

Read for Mon:

• Lermontov, M.: A Hero of Our Time, tr. V. & D. Nabokov, Ann Arbor, Ardis, 1988 ("Author's Introduction," "Bela," "Maksim Maksimych")
• OR 4 (Marisa Raether): Scotto, Peter, "Prisoners of the Caucasus: Ideologies of Imperialism in Lermontov's 'Bela'" in PMLA 107. 2 (March 1992): 246-60. E-RES

If you're interested we'll try to schedule a screening of a 1995 film by the Russian director Vladimir Khotinenko called "Musul'manin" ("The Muslim youth"). The tragic fate of a Russian soldier who was held captive in Afganistan, converted to Islam, and then returned home to his village in Russia to a great deal of prejudice and failure to understand his new religion among his family and fellow villagers. Problem: the film is in Russian with no subtitles--we'll discuss.

Another option with the same problem is another splendid recent Russian film "Voina" ["The War"]--we'll discuss

Mon 10/22
Dzelaleddin Conclusions.
The poet in imperial uniform: Lermontov. Hero of Our Time, Orientalism & machismo (discussion of "Author's intro," "Bela," and "Maksim Maksimych")

OR 4: Scotto report

Read for Wed:

• Lermontov, M.: A Hero of Our Time, tr. V. & D. Nabokov, Ann Arbor, Ardis, 1988 ("Taman," "Princess Mary")--and check out the setting

The setting for Lermontov's Hero of Our Time: "Taman"

Wed 10/24
Discussion of Lermontov continued: "Taman," "Princess Mary."

Read for Mon:

• Lermontov, M.: A Hero of Our Time, tr. V. & D. Nabokov, Ann Arbor, Ardis, 1988 ("Princess Mary," "The Fatalist," "Translator's Foreword")

Mon 10/29
Lermontov's Hero--conclusions (with clips from the 1966 film "Bela" directed by Stanislav Rostovskii--scenes from the wedding)

Read:

• Pushkin, A. S., "The Kalmyck Woman"
• Katenin: "The Caucasus Mountains"

Wed 10/31
Lecture: Debunking Romantic notions I. Pushkin's A Journey to Arzrum; Discussion of Pushkin and Katenin poems

Start reading for Mon 11/12:

• Tolstoy's The Cossacks-- while you are studying the shorter pieces(see below)

Fri 11/2
Lecture: Debunking romantic notions II. Tolstoy's life and especially his experiences in the Caucasus and the Crimea

Read for Mon:

• Tolstoy, L., "The Raid," in How Much Land Does a Man Need..., pp. 181-204

Mon 11/5
Tolstoy, continued: Discussion of "The Raid"

Read for Wed:

• Tolstoy, L., "The Woodfelling," in How Much Land Does a Man Need..., pp. 1-36

Wed 11/7
Tolstoy, continued: Discussion of "The Woodfelling"

Read for Fri:

• Tolstoy, L., The Cossacks

Read if you want:

• Raeff, M. : "In the Imperial Manner" in Catherine the Great. A Profile. NY, Hill & Wang, 1972.
• Kornblatt, Judith, The Cossack Hero in Russian Literature. A Study in Cultural Mythology, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992.

Start reading for Mon 11/26:

• Tolstoy, L., Hadji-Murat

Mon 11/12
Discussion of The Cossacks

(Keep reading Hadji Murat)

Wed 11/14
The Cossacks: Conclusions

(Keep reading Hadji Murat)

Fri 11/16
NO CLASS--I'M AT THE AAASS CONFERENCE.

Read:

• Tolstoy, L., A Prisoner of the Caucasus in How Much Land Does a Man need... , 205-225

Mon 11/19
Discussion: Caucasian Prisoner once more: Tolstoy's A Prisoner of the Caucasus

FILM SCREENING AT MY HOUSE? TO BE DISCUSSED
The 1996 Russian (Sergei Bodrov ) film Kavkazskii plennik (The Captive of the Caucasus, called in English "The Captive of the Mountains") in a way mixes Tolstoy with Makanin.. PG3365.K385 2000

Wed 11/21
Film/written comparative Captives: summary.
Lecture: Tolstoy and Muridism. The Russians versus Shamil.

OR 5: Jersild

Read:

• Tolstoy, L. Hadji-Murat

Mon 11/26
Discussion of Hadji-Murat

Start reading for Mon 12/3:

• Pristavkin, Anatoly, The Inseparable Twins (256 pages!) Out of print; several copies will be handed out to be shared among you--my application for copyright approval is pending

Orientalist architecture & he Vorontsov Palace in Alupka, discussed in Hadji-Murat (Photographed in 1997)

Read for Fri 11/30:
Boris Akunin's take on Hadji-Murat: Vostok i zapad, in his collection Skazki dlia idiotov, St. Petersburg, Neva, pp. 47-61 (In Russian; very small pages and big text). Handout.

Fri 11/30
Discussion of B. Akunin

Read for Mon 12/3:

• OR 6 (Marisa & Paul): Avtorkhanov, Abdurahman, "The Chechens and the Ingush During the Soviet Period and its Antecedents," in Broxup, Marie, ed., The North Caucasus Barrier. The Russian Advance Toward the Muslim World. New York, St. Martin's Press, 1992. DK511.C2N67 1992; E-RES, RES
  

• Pristavkin, Anatoly, The Inseparable Twins

Mon 12/3
Lecture/discussion of Soviet nationalities and Chechen deportation.
Begin discussing: Pristavkin, Anatoly, The Inseparable Twins

OR 6: Avtorkhanov

Read if you want (for background on Chechnia during Soviet times):

• Lieven, Anatol, Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power, Yale University Press, 1999.
• Dunlop, John B., Russia Confronts Chechnya: Roots of a Separatist Conflict. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1998
  
• Slezkine, Yuri, "The USSR as a Communal Apartment, or How a Socialist State Promoted Ethnic Particularism," in Eley, Geoff and Ronald Grigor Suny, Becoming National. A Reader, NY, Oxford U Press, 1996, pp.203-38.
  

Wed 12/5
Pristavkin, Anatoly, The Inseparable Twins

Start reading:

• Makanin, Vladimir: "A Captive of the Caucasus," Novyi Mir 4 (April 1995): 3-19, my tr.

Read if you want (for background on current situation in Chechnia):

• Trenin, Dm and A. V. Malashenko, Russia's Restless Frontier, Washington DC, Carnegie Endowment, 2004
• Jaimoukha, Amjad, The Chechens. A Handbook, NY, Routledge, 2005
• Sakwa, Richard, Chechnya. From Past to Future, London, Anthem Press, 2006
• Brower Daniel and Edward J. Lazzerini, eds., Imperial Borderlands and Peoples, 1700-1917, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1997.
• Politkovskaia, Anna, A Dirty War: A Russian reporter in Chechnya, London, Harvill, 2001
• Nivat, Anne, Chienne de Guerre: A Woman Reporter Behind the Lines, NY, Public Affairs, 2001

Fri 12/7

Finish discussion of Pristavkin, Anatoly, The Inseparable Twins

Read for Mon:

• Makanin, Vladimir: "A Captive of the Caucasus," Novyi Mir 4 (April 1995): 3-19, my tr.

Read if you want:

• Bitov, Andrei, The Captive of the Caucasus, New York, Farrar, Strauss Giroux, 1994

Mon 12/10
Caucasian mountaineers & "maidens" with a 90s imperial twist: Makanin: "A Captive of the Caucasus"

Fri 12/14
Makanin: "A Captive of the Caucasus"

Tues 12/18, at 10:30-12:30 in our usual room. Final exam: The exam covers only material we've gone over since the midterm exam. The format will be similar to that of the midterm.