Poetry Matters: Russian Poetry of 18-21 Centuries

Catalog description

This is a content-based Russian language course that offers a general introduction to the study of Russian poetic tradition. We will survey key genres and trends of the almost three centuries of modern Russian poetry, focusing on several larger thematic questions: What ethical challenges loom large in poetic practice? How does poetry address experiences of trauma and harm? How do poems “do” things they do? Taking our cue from Daniil Kharms’s famous dictum, “A poem should be written in such a way that if you throw it at a window, the window will break,” we will consider poetic utterances in a variety of contexts and situations both private and public. Particular attention will be directed to the genre of elegy understood as a narrative of absence and loss. We will closely follow the transformations of the Russian elegiac tradition from 19th Romantic elegy to avant-garde experiments, blockade and prison poetry. The course will also introduce students to scansion and the study of prosody in verse. Course will be taught in Russian. Readings in Russian and English.