RUSS 367: DOSTOEVSKY AND GOGOL

CRITICS: ORAL PRESENTATIONS

 

 

Each of you will make an oral presentations on a critical article on Gogol or Dostoevsky. The possible articles are listed below, but there might still be changes as students add & drop. I've selected some classics and some of the best recent criticism and some appropriate dates in our schedule. I have distributed them using the alphabetical class list--feel free to switch topics with class mates (you negotiate!), but let me know so I can update our schedule. The texts are placed in a Readings folder in Moodle. The rest of the class should also read all the materials we've selected for presentation and bring copies to class.
HOW? Presenters:
  • Read the article & think about it
  • highlight the important points made
  • Prepare a ca. 10 minute oral presentation to the class where you: mention the most important points as clearly and concisely as you can and
  • add your own critical commentary (strenghts/weaknesses) and
  • use the board, visual aids, costume, musical accompaniment, PowerPoint, or whatever else you might think up to provoke discussion, facilitate thinking and understanding
  • lead the class discussion and respond to questions posed and points made by the class.

 

Class:

  • reads the article ahead of time
  • listens
  • takes notes
  • asks questions and participates in discussion
  • writes down and hands in 3 major points grasped from each presentation
WHO?

WHAT?

WHEN?
(tentative dates)

#1
Gitta

 Putney, Christopher, "Gogol's Theology of Privation and the Devil in 'Ivan Fedorovic Spon'ka and His Auntie'," in Gogol: Exploring Absence, ed. Sven Spieker, Bloomington, IN: Slavica, 1999, pp.73-84 Jan 30

#2
Mackenzie Ellis

 Gasparov, Boris, "Alienation and Negation: Gogol's View of Ukraine," in Gogol: Exploring Absence, ed. Sven Spieker, Bloomington, IN: Slavica, 1999, pp.113-23 February 10
#3
Amelia Fedo



 Tschizewskij, Dmitrij, "The Composition of Gogol's 'Overcoat'," in Gogol's 'Overcoat': An Anthology of Critical Essays, ed. Elizabeth Trahan, Ann Arbor, Ardis, 1982, pp. 37-60 February 15

#4
David Kent

Eikhenbaum, Boris, "How Gogol's 'Overcoat' is Made," in Gogol's 'Overcoat': An Anthology of Critical Essays, ed. Elizabeth Trahan, Ann Arbor, Ardis, 1982, pp. 21-36 February 15


 

 Holquist, Michael, "The Tyranny of Difference: Gogol and the Sacred," in Gogol: Exploring Absence, ed. Sven Spieker, Bloomington, IN: Slavica, 1999, pp.125-37 Suggested reading for 2/22
#5
Hilary Lakin



Epshtein, Mikhail N., "The Irony of Style: The Demonic Element in Gogol's Concept of Russia," in Gogol: Exploring Absence, ed. Sven Spieker, Bloomington, IN: Slavica, 1999, pp.55-71 February 27

 

 

 Leatherbarrow, W. J., "Dostoevskii and Literature: Works in the 1840s" in Leatherbarrow, W. L., ed. The Cambridge Companion to Dostoevsky, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp. 47-65; Suggested reading for 3/7


Belknap, Robert, "Dostoevskii and Psychology," in Leatherbarrow, W. L., ed. The Cambridge Companion to Dostoevsky, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp. 131-47 Suggested reading for 3/9

#6
Charles Nesler


 Bakhtin, M.M., "[Discourse in Dostoevsky]" in Dostoevsky, Fyodor, Notes From Underground, tr. Michael Katz, New York, W. W. Norton & Company, 1989, pp. 146-56 March 26




Weisberg, Richard H. "The Formalistic Model: Notes from Underground. Against 'Existentialism': Part I of the Tale, " Dostoevsky, Fyodor, Notes From Underground, tr. Michael Katz, New York, W. W. Norton & Company, 1989, pp. 190-202

Suggested reading for 3/28





Christa, Boris, "Dostoevskii and Money," in Leatherbarrow, W. L., ed. The Cambridge Companion to Dostoevsky, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp.93-110 Suggested reading for 4/2
#7Collin Crane


 Johnson, Brian R., "Castration and the Sexuality of epilepsy in Dostoevsky's The Idiot," paper by Macalester Russian alumnus, now Visiting Asst. Prof. at Swarthmore College

April 13

 



Jones, Malcom V., "Dostoevskii and Religion," in Leatherbarrow, W. L., ed. The Cambridge Companion to Dostoevsky, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp.148-74 Suggested reading for 4/30

Last updated: 1/30-12
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