WesMaps - Wesleyan University Catalog 2014-2015       Summer Session       Winter Session       Home       Archive       Search
CS92PROD
Russia's Storyteller Playwrights
RUSS 258
Spring 2015 not offered
Crosslisting: REES 258, THEA 258, COL 288, RULE 258

Many of the classics of Russian theater were written not by pure playwrights, but by authors like Gogol, Chekhov, and Bulgakov, who dedicated themselves primarily to narrative genres of story and novel. This trend continues today: Writers like Petrushevskaya are experimenting, both with plays and novels, as they work to create a new, post-Soviet Russian literature. Russian literature has been enriched by its playwright/story-teller tradition. When Gogol moved from writing short stories to writing plays in mid-career, he brought new principles of narrative form into the theater with him while at the same time embracing old conventions of dramatic comedy. When he exited the theater to write DEAD SOULS, he took with him principles of comedy that would shape his novel. A similar synergy can be seen in Chekhov, Bulgakov, and others. While reading play/story pairs by some of Russia's leading writers, this course will clarify essential formal differences between narratives and plays that operate in all literatures; and it will explore how Russian literature has blended dramatic and narrative forms in innovative ways.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA REES
Course Format: SeminarGrading Mode: Student Option
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: None

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