Course Syllabus

Download Syllabus and Schedule of Classes: 361-WT-2016-Syllabus.docx

 

Russian 361 / Russian 561
Russian Modernism
1890-1934
Winter Term, 2016
10.00-11.30, T Th, 2135 NQ

 

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.  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.

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 seven responses to topics for discussion posted on the course web site; those forum responses, of 250-300 words, will be designed to prepare students for each of 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.

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 are worth 10% of the final grade.  There is no final examination.

Graduate students taking the course as Russian 561 are expected to attend special weekly meetings 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 write approximately 8,000 words of finished, academic prose over the semester.

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)

Boris Pasternak, The Adolescence of Zhenya Luvers (New York, 2007) E

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

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

SCHEDULE OF CLASSES:

JANUARY

Th 7     Introduction – Belles lettres and the Last Decades of Empire

Tu 12   Late Chekhov (Course web site)

Th 14   Russian Decadence and the Beginnings of Symbolism: Bryusov, Sologub (Dedalus Book of Russian Decadence, Russian Silver Age Poetry)

F   15 – First Forum Contribution Due

 

Tu 19   conc.

Th 21   Russian Decadence and the Beginnings of Symbolism: Gippius, Andreev, Merezhkovskii, Kondrat’ev (Dedalus Book of Russian Decadence, Russian Silver Age Poetry)

F   22 – Second Forum Contribution Due

 

Tu 26   conc.

Th 28   Aleksei Remizov, selected prose (course web site).

F   29 – Third Forum Contribution Due

First Online Writing Assignment Issued, due Monday

 

FEBRUARY

 

Tu 2     Fedor Sologub, The Petty Demon

Th 4     The Second Generation of Symbolists: Aleksandr Blok, selected verse (Dedalus Book of Russian Decadence; Russian Silver Age Poetry; Course web site)

F  5      First Draft of First Paper Due

 

Tu 9     Writing Workshop – First Paper Drafts Discussed
Obligatory Meetings with Instructor this week to discuss paper drafts

Th 11   The Second Generation of Symbolists: Andrei Belyi, Selected verse (Russian Silver Age Poetry; course web site), Petersburg

F  12    First Paper Due

 

Tu 16   Belyi, Petersburg, cont.

Th 18   Belyi, Petersburg, conc.

 

Tu 23   Mikhail Kuzmin, selected verse (Russian Silver Age Poetry; Course web site), Wings.

Th 25   Aleksandr Kuprin, Yama – the Pit (Course web site; available in electronic edition) Ivan Bunin, Dry Valley/Sukhodol (Course web site)

F  26    Fourth Forum Contribution Due

MID-TERM BREAK

 

MARCH

           

 

MARCH

           

Tu 8     cont.

Th 10  The year 1917 and Afterwards: Modernism Meets Soviet Power

F   11   Second Online Writing Assignment Issued, due Monday

 

Tu 15   Osip Mandel’stam, Selected verse “The Noise of Time”, (Russian Silver Age Poetry, Course web site).

Th 17   cont.

F 18     First Draft of Second Paper Due

 

Tu 22   Boris Pasternak, The Adolescence of Zhenya Lyuvers; selected verse (C-Tools)
Obligatory Meetings with Instructor this week to discuss paper drafts

Th 24   Sergei Esenin, Nikolai Klyuev, selected verse (Russian Silver Age Poetry; course web site)

F   25   Second Paper Due

 

Tu 29   Vladimir Mayakovskii, Marina Tsvetaeva, Anna Akhmatova, selected prose and verse (Russian Silver Age Poetry; course web site)

Th 31   Evgenii Zamyatin, Boris Pil’nyak, selected prose (Course web site)

 

APRIL

F 1       Fifth Forum Contribution Due

Tu 5     Isaak Babel’, Red Cavalry

Th 7     Konstantin Vaginov, Goat Song. (Course web site)

F   8     Sixth Forum Contribution Due

 

Tu 12   Andrei Platonov, The Foundation Pit.

Th 14   Daniil Kharms, selected prose (Course web site).  Some concluding observations

Third Online Writing Assignment Issued, Due Monday

 

W 27   THIRD PAPER DUE

Michael Makin
3016 MLB
Tel. 647-2142
E-mail: mlmakin@umich.edu
Office Hours:
Tu 3-4 Th 9-10