Skazka, Povest', Rasskaz: Russian Literature in Short Fiction Forms

Catalog description

What comes to mind when you think about Russian Literature? Most likely, “War and Peace,” “Brothers Karamazov”, and other 600+ page-long books, and a healthy dose of intimidation at the thought of reading them. Fear not: this summer, we will take a different approach to get familiar with the culture and the literary works that shaped it. From magical kingdoms guarded by dragons, to 19th-century heartbroken romantics, to WWII exiles struggling with inter-generational trauma: we will sample the various offerings of Russian-language writers through fairy tails (skazka), short stories (povest’), and novellas (rasskaz). Our discussions will focus on both the internal organization and meaning of individual stories and the historical evolution of Russian prose and its changing political and cultural contexts. Among the writers we will read are: Alexander Pushkin, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Anna Engelhardt, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, and many others. Fabulist, realistic, impressionistic, romantic, satirical—and manageably short—these stories are guaranteed to find a place in your mind as well as on your bookshelf.