Course Syllabus

Russian 361 / Russian 561
Russian Literary Modernism
1890-1934

A “Hybrid” Course

Fall Term, 2020 Tuesday, Thursday 2.30-4.00

1339 Mason Hall
and by Remote Participation

Instructor:

Michael Makin
(mlmakin@umich.edu)

Students who encounter problems accessing the course stream should send a text or WhatsApp message to 734-646-4821

Download Course Syllabus: 361-561-FT-2020-Syllabus.docx

This course offers a detailed introduction to the prose and verse of Russian Modernism, from its beginnings in the 1890s to its radical reshaping after its encounter with Soviet Power.  Key literary movements (Symbolism, Acmeism, Futurism, the new avant-garde of the 1920s) and major ideological and cultural phenomena (“Decadence”; “the new religious consciousness” of the Russian fin de siècle; archaist tendencies in literature, art, and culture; Soviet promotion of “proletarian” culture) are examined.  Among the major works of the period explored in detail are Sologub’s Petty Demon, Belyi’s Petersburg, Red Cavalry by Isaak Babel’, and Platonov’s The Foundation Pit. In addition to those authors, Chekhov, Bryusov, Gippius, Bunin, Kuprin, Kuzmin, Blok, Mandelstam, Akhmatova, Tsvetaeva, Pasternak, Esenin, Klyuev, Remizov, Zamyatin, Pil’nyak, Babel’, Kharms, Vaginov, and Platonov will be among the writers represented by shorter reading assignments.

The course examines one of the richest periods of Russian writing.  Among the major themes are: the repeated re-making of the literary world in response to major economic and political transformations; how authors of the period addressed the ever-pressing issue(s) of the writer in Russian society; the repeated re-construction of ideas of nation in the writing of the period; the development of a literary culture that was, simultaneously, the product of a self-conscious cultural elite and the producer of a self-conscious popular orientation; gender and sexuality in an age of radical change; the specific features of Russian Modernism that distinguish it from comparable cultural phenomena elsewhere; and the meaning of the problematic encounter between Modernism and Soviet power, which generated some of the most important works of Russian literature between the Bolshevik coup and the onset of High Stalinism.

It is assumed that most students will have, at best, passing familiarity with the history of Russian literature and will know very little about individual authors, so the course will introduce each text and author in a briefly-sketched cultural and historical context.  This course will aim to develop key skills of literary analysis by detailed exploration, in the perspectives provided by various critical and scholarly methodologies, of landmark texts.  Undergraduate students will be asked to write a series of analytical papers outside of class, to complete three major online writing assignments (of which at least two will include detailed textual analysis of exemplary passages), and to contribute to an online forum for the class – further details below.

Graduate students taking the course as Russian 561 are expected to attend special weekly meetings via Zoom and to develop an individual writing plan for the semester to suit their own scholarly needs and interests (for example, a series of short pieces or one long research paper).  They are expected to produce approximately 8,000 words of finished, academic prose over the semester.

This course will, after the first week, used a “flipped” format.  Course lectures will be recorded and made available via Canvas.  Students will be expected to have completed the core readings for each week and to have watched the relevant lectures before class meetings, which will consist primarily of discussions of the material and of the lectures.  Students may participate in class discussions either in the class room or remotely.  These discussions will, if technological problems are resolved, also be recorded so that students who cannot log in to live class discussions will be able to review them. 

Undergraduate written assignments for the course are: three papers (each of approximately 2,000 words in length), three online writing assignments (recommended length – approximately 1,500 words), and six responses to topics for discussion posted on the course web site; those forum responses, of 250-300 words, will be designed in part to prepare students for the more formal writing assignments. Papers should be clearly written, making ample use of course materials, and of the regular online discussions.  Students are required to submit drafts of the first two papers for advance discussion and to attend one-on-one consultations with their instructor.  There will also be response assignments inserted into the recorded lectures.

This course fulfills the Upper-level Writing Requirement.  Students are strongly encouraged to make the most of the resources provided by the Sweetland Center for Writing (http://www.lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/), which offers undergraduates many different opportunities to develop their skills as authors.  Writing is always the focus of this course, whether it is the writing of the masters of the era of Russian Modernism, or the writing of the undergraduate student in response to reading those classics of Russian belles lettres.  Producing clear, well-argued, and effective prose is one of the key goals set for students, and discussion of best practices in writing will be an important part of the course.  Majors and minors in Russian, REES, and Russian studies are expected to read at least a selection of the required reading in the original, and, of course, to quote Russian texts in Russian in their papers.  Online writing assignments will provide students with an opportunity to present cogently brief accounts of issues addressed in class and studied in assignments, while engaging in the detailed and careful analysis of extracts of assigned texts, and will be scheduled to prepare students for the composition of papers.  Each online writing assignment is worth 10% of the final grade; each paper is worth 20% of the final grade; contributions to online discussions and assignments included in recorded lectures are worth 10% of the final grade.  There is no final examination.

Many materials for the course will be found on the course web site.  The following books will also be required (“E” indicates that an electronic edition is available; books listed in order read in the course):

Dedalus Book of Russian Decadence, ed. Kirsten Lodge (London, 2012) E

Russian Silver Age Poetry: Texts and Contexts, ed. Sibelan E.S. Forrester and Martha M.F. Kelly (Academic Studies Press, 2015) E

Fyodor Sologub, The Petty Demon (New York, 2006) E

Andrei Belyi, Petersburg (London, New York, 2012) E

Mikhail Kuzmin, Wings (London, 2007)

Isaak Babel’, Red Cavalry (New York, 2006) E

Andrei Platonov, The Foundation Pit (New York, 2009).

 

SCHEDULE OF CLASSES:

SEPTEMBER

 

Introductory Module

 

T 1       Introduction to course.  How this hybrid class will work.  Overcoming technical difficulties

Th  3    What are we studying?  What are the conceptual issues raised by the material we will examine?

 

[From now on, lectures will be recorded and will be available to view ahead of classes.  Students should watch the lecture recordings, complete the assigned readings, and complete the response assignments included in recorded lectures, prior to the relevant discussions.  Students should be ready to discuss the reading and viewing assignments in class meetings]

 

Chekhov Module

 

T 8       Late Chekhov (Course web site)

Th 10   Conc.

F   11   First Forum Contribution Due

 

Decadence Module

T 15     Russian Decadence and the Beginnings of Symbolism: Bryusov, Sologub, Gippius, Andreev, Merezhkovskii, Kondrat’ev (Dedalus Book of Russian Decadence, Russian Silver Age Poetry, Canvas)

Th 17   cont.

F   18   Second Forum Contribution Due

 

T 22     cont.

Th 24   conc.

F   25   Third Forum Contribution Due

First Online Writing Assignment Issued, due Monday

 

T 29     Fedor Sologub, The Petty Demon

 

OCTOBER

 

Th 1     Conc.

 

M 5      First Draft of First Paper Due

T 6       Aleksei Remizov, selected prose (course web site).

Obligatory Zoom Meetings to Discuss Paper Drafts this Week

 

Symbolism Module

 

Th 8     The Second Generation of Symbolists: Aleksandr Blok, selected verse (Dedalus Book of Russian Decadence; Russian Silver Age Poetry; Canvas)
Belyi, Selected verse, Petersburg

 

T 13     Cont.

Th 15   Cont.

F 16     First Paper Due

 

T 20     Cont.

 Th 22    Conc.

 

Kuzmin Module

 

T 27     Kuzmin, Selected Poetry, Wings

Th 29   Conc.

F 30     Fourth Forum Contribution

 

NOVEMBER

Kuprin and BuninModule

 

T 3       Ivan Bunin, Dry Valley/Sukhodol (Canvas)Aleksandr Kuprin, Yama – the Pit (Canvas)

Th 5     conc.

F   6     Fifth Forum Contribution Due

Second Online Writing Assignment Issued, due Monday

 

Modernism Meets Soviet Power Module

 

T 10     Osip Mandel’stam, Selected verse, “The Noise of Time”, (Russian Silver Age Poetry, Canvas).

Th 12   Boris Pasternak, Sergei Esenin, Nikolai Klyuev; selected works (Russian Silver Age Poetry, Canvas).

F   13   First Draft of Second Paper Due

 

T 17     Vladimir Mayakovskii, Marina Tsvetaeva, Anna Akhmatova, selected prose and verse (Russian Silver Age Poetry; Canvas).

Obligatory Zoom Meetings to Discuss Paper Drafts this Week

Th 19   conc.

Second Paper Due

 

Thanksgiving Break

 

Only Remote Learning from Now until the End of Classes

DECEMBER

T 1       Evgenii Zamyatin, Boris Pil’nyak (Canvas).

Th 3     Andrei Platonov, The Foundation Pit.

F   4     Sixth Forum Contribution Due

 

T 8       Konstantin Vaginov, Goat Song. (Canvas); Daniil Kharms, selected prose (Canvas).  Some concluding observations

Third Online Writing Assignment Issued, Due Friday

 

M 14   THIRD PAPER DUE

Michael Makin
3016 MLB
Tel. 647-2142
E-mail: mlmakin@umich.edu
Virtual Office Hours:
M 11-12
F 12-1
or by appointment
(Sign up through the Advising Link on the Slavic Dept web site)