WesMaps - Wesleyan University Catalog 2009-2010       Summer Session       Winter Session       Home       Archive       Search
CS92PROD
Gogol and His Legacy: Witches, Con Men, and Runaway Noses
RUSS 277
Spring 2010
Section: 01  
Crosslisting: REES 277

This course will include close reading and analysis of the works of Nikolai Gogol (1809-1952), who created a phantasmagorical world of devils and witches coexisting with the gritty details of life in St. Petersburg and the Russian provinces. We will also read works by later writers who either explicitly or implicitly placed themselves in the Gogolian tradition: Fyodor Dostoevsky, Fyodor Sologub, Andrei Bely, Mikhail Bulgakov, and Vladimir Nabokov. Gogol's satirical observations delighted socially-conscious contemporary critics, while his linguistic experimentation and subversion of the rules of logic inspired modernist writers of the 20th century. We will consider Gogol's response to Romantic aesthetics, his interest in the demonic, the influence of his formal and linguistic experimentation on later writers, and the history of his reception by Russian and Western writers and critics.

Essential Capabilities: Intercultural Literacy, Interpretation
Both class discussion and papers will be focused on the interpretation of literary works. The course requires that students become familiar with the historical and cultural background of Russia from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA RUSS
Course Format: Lecture / DiscussionGrading Mode: Student Option
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (REES-MN)(REES-Lang/Lit/C)
Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available

Last Updated on MAR-28-2024
Contact wesmaps@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions. Please include a url, course title, faculty name or other page reference in your email ? Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459