World Literature: Queer Russia

Topics such as Russian author(s) (e.g. Dostoevsky, Tolstoy), genre (e.g. the Russian novel), literary school (e.g. Russian Formalism), or period (19th or 20th century literature). May be repeated for credit with different content. Topics vary by offering; periodic offering at intervals that may exceed four years.

Open to degree and PACE students;

New technologies, the capitalist market, political unrest, gender and sexual experimentation, unpredicted literary innovation, philosophical and spiritual curiosity, commercial culture, two revolutions, a world war, one civil war, and the inauguration of the Soviet regime are only some of the defining features of the turn of the twentieth century in Russia. Typically, this period is interpreted as the end of an era or the start of a new world. While this understanding is simplistically true, it overlooks the imperative connectivity of people and politics across time and space. The novels written between 1880-1930s prove just that. These novels, taken together, not only represent and contextualize Russian politics, culture, and modernity at the turn of the century, but they also speak to the larger role and nature of the Russian novel. This course will familiarize us with novels and novellas written through the turn of the century and introduce us to gender studies and queer theory.