Tolstoy
RUSS 252
Fall 2011
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
REES 252, COL 262, RULE 252 |
During the19th century when Tolstoy wrote his novels and stories, literature was viewed in Russia as the intelligentsia's primary medium for debating its big questions (such as how to resolve the inequalities that had been institutionalized under serfdom, or how to choose between new and old values as Russia experienced modernization). Writers like Tolstoy and Dostoevsky willingly assumed the responsibility to address a broad range of political, historical, and philosophical-religious questions in their fiction, and they wrote novels with radical formulations as well as solutions to these questions. However, they also viewed literature, particularly the novel, as a medium with rich potential for innovative formal experimentation, and so they resisted the call for conventional ideological novels. Each of Tolstoy's best works is an innovative formal experiment that creates an unprecedented, new type of novel. Who in Russia could have expected a novel like WAR AND PEACE in the 1860s, ANNA KARENINA in the 1870s, THE KREUTZER SONATA in the 1880s, RESURRECTION in the 1890s, or HADZHI MURAD on the eve of Russia's 1905 Revolution? This course will study how Tolstoy's writings both responded to and transcended their times by creating new novelistic forms and new truths within those forms. |
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Essential Capabilities:
Intercultural Literacy, Interpretation
This course raises the question: How can we in our culture, our period, understand stories written in other cultures, other periods. It answers this question in two ways: 1) by using our theoretical and literary readings to identify meaningful structures intrinsic to all stories; and 2) by providing insights into modern Russian social/cultural history that will enable students to understand our literary readings in their original context.
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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) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Tolstoy: THE RAID, CHILDHOOD, WOOD CUTTING, SEBASTOPOL STORIES, XOLSTOMER, POLIKUSHKA, WAR AND PEACE, ANNA KARENINA, CONFESSION, KREUTZER SONATA, THE DEATH OF IVAN ILYCH, MASTER AND MAN, HADZHI MURAD
Maude, THE LIFE OF TOLSTOY
Christian, TOLSTOY'S DIARIES, THE LETTERS OF TOLSTOY
Eikhenbaum, YOUNG TOLSTOY, TOLSTOY IN THE SIXTIES
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Examinations and Assignments:
Short papers, mid-term, and final exam. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
Extensive reading, participation in discussion groups. |
| Instructor(s): White,Duffield Times: .M.W... 01:10PM-02:30PM; Location: FISK114; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 30 | | SR major: 3 | JR major: 6 | | |
| Seats Available: 20 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 3 | JR non-major: 6 | SO: 6 | FR: 6 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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