Russophone Women Literature

Catalog description

This course explores woman-authored literature written in Russian from the 19th to the 21st centuries, while reflecting on concepts like "women's literature" and "feminism" in the Russian-speaking sphere. Class readings range from novels to short stories, from poetry to drama, encompassing fictional and autobiographical works. Readings by Karolina Pavlova, Teffi, Anna Akhmatova, Evgeniya Ginzburg, Natalia Tolstaya, Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, Alisa Ganieva and Guzel Yakhina.Without losing sight of socio-historical contexts, we will ponder questions of gender, authorship, censorship, plot, style and language, among others: How does the literary output of women writers evolve over two hundred years? In what ways have patriarchy and gender stereotypes affected Russophone literature? Do gender and genre intersect? How do the contributions of the diverse minorities of the Russian Empire, Soviet Union and current CIS shape a body of literature that chooses Russian as its language of expression?