19th-Century Russian Literature in English Translation

Catalog description

During the nineteenth century, Russia emerged as a powerhouse of World Literature. Russian novelists aspired to nothing less than to teach their readers how to live. Political, social, and historical constraints propelled them into figures of witness, prophecy, and moral instruction. Yet far from being limited to the vast, dark novels of legend, nineteenth-century Russian literature offers a great deal of variety, including much humor, lyricism, and fantasy. This course pays special attention to the intersection of literature and Russian imperial context: it examines how some authors glorified the Empire while others shed a critical light on Russian tyranny and imperialism. It surveys classic works by authors such as Aleksandr Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov, Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Turgenev, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Lev Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, and others.