Speak, Memory: The Russian Memoir
RUSS 220
Fall 2016 not offered
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| Crosslisting:
REES 220, RULE 220 |
| Certificates: Writing |
Memoirs offer a chance for the individual to make sense of his or her relationship to larger historical forces and allow writers of fiction and poetry to reflect on the tensions between biography and the creative process. We will read prison memoirs by Fyodor Dostoevsky and Eugenia Ginzburg; visions of childhood by Lev Tolstoy, Vladimir Nabokov, and poets Osip Mandelstam, Marina Tsvetaeva, and Joseph Brodsky; and works of autobiography by Viktor Shklovsky and Sergey Gandlevsky that create their own poetic world. The course will also consider the theoretical problems of autobiographical writing. Students will write a memoir of childhood (3-5 pages) to better understand the technical problems faced by Tolstoy in writing about his childhood. Students will also write a piece of memoiristic prose, or a parody or imitation of one of the writers in the course (minimum 10 pages), as one of their three papers. We will devote one class session to a writing workshop session on the creative project. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA RUSS |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (REES-MN)(REES-Lang/Lit/C) |
Major Readings:
Fyodor Dostoevsky, THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD
Lev Tolstoy, CHILDHOOD, BOYHOOD, YOUTH
Osip Mandelstam, THE NOISE OF TIME
Viktor Shklovsky, ZOO
Eugenia Ginzburg, JOURNEY INTO THE WHIRLWIND
Nadezhda Mandelstam, HOPE AGAINST HOPE
Marina Tsvetaeva, essays
Vladimir Nabokov, SPEAK, MEMORY
Joseph Brodsky, essays
Sergey Gandlevsky, TREPANATION OF THE SKULL
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Examinations and Assignments:
Two 5-page analytical papers, one 3-5 page memoir of childhood, one 10-page creative project |
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