Fathers and Children in Literature and Culture

Catalog description

This seminar explores the representations of generational conflict in both Western and Russian literature. We'll examine Russian culture's tendency to view social, political and religious conflicts in terms of a family model, thus merging psychology, politics, and religion. Focusing on formal and ideological aspects of these texts, we'll discuss the issue of genre, the use of rhetoric and ideology, and the connection between authors' politics and art. Russian application of a family model to such issues as political or religious radicalism will be considered from the perspective of Western studies of generational conflicts. Readings and discussions in English.