Course Syllabus

Russian 361 / Russian 561
Russian Literary Modernism
1890-1934

Winter Term, 2026 Tuesday, Thursday 4.00-5.30
1265 NQ
Instructor:

Michael Makin
(mlmakin@umich.edu)

 

This 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.

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 Silver Dove, 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.

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.

This course is taught mostly in “flipped” format, with forty-five-minute lectures recorded ahead of class meetings.  Students should come to class having watched those lectures and having read the assigned materials for the week.  Forty-five minutes of each class meeting will then be devoted to discussing the lecture and the assigned materials (so that watching each lecture and participating in the in-class discussions will be the equivalent of a standard ninety-minute class meeting); the remaining forty-five minutes of the class period will then be devoted to discussions of materials assigned to students taking the course at the graduate level (561), although 361 students are, of course, very welcome to remain and participate.

The course aims to develop analytical skills suitable for interrogating a diverse body of cultural materials, and to help students to produce a body of polished writing addressing a wide range of topics relevant to the course.

The course will be taught in English, with all readings available in English, although Russianists are encouraged to read as much as possible in Russian.  Students in the 361 (undergraduate) section will be required to write two short papers and a longer, final paper (final grades determined as follows: each short paper – 20%; class participation – 25%; final paper – 35%).  Students in the 561 section will be required to give two presentations on work in progress and submit a final project of approximately 8,000 words in length.

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, The Silver Dove (Chicago, 2001) E

Mikhail Kuzmin, Wings (London, 2007)

Aleksei Remizov, Sisters of the Cross (New York, 2017) E

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

 

 

SCHEDULE OF CLASSES:

JANUARY

 

Introductory Module

 

Th 8     Introduction to course.  What are we studying?  What are the conceptual issues raised by the material we will examine?

 

T 13     conc.

 

Chekhov Module

 

Th 15   Introduction.

T 20     Three Chekhov Stories (Canvas)

 

 

Decadence Module

 

Th 22   Russian Decadence and the Beginnings of Symbolism: Bryusov, Gippius, Andreev, Merezhkovskii, Kondrat’ev (Dedalus Book of Russian Decadence, Russian Silver Age Poetry, Canvas) cont.

T 27     cont.

 

Th 29   cont.

 

FEBRUARY

 

T 3       conc.

 

Sologub and Remizov Module

 

Th 5     Fedor Sologub, Short stories, poetry; The Petty Demon Aleksei Remizov, selected prose (course web site), Sisters of the Cross.

 

T 10     cont.

Th 12   cont.

 

T 17     conc.

 

Symbolism Module

 

Th 19   The Second Generation of Symbolists: Aleksandr Blok, selected verse (Dedalus Book of Russian Decadence; Russian Silver Age Poetry; Canvas)
Belyi, Selected verse, Silver Dove.

 

T 24     cont.

Th 26 cont.

 

F 27     FIRST PAPER DUE (361)

 

MID-TERM BREAK

 

MARCH

 

T 10     cont.

Th 12   conc.

 

Visual Arts Interlude

 

T 17     Russian Modernism and the Visual Arts

 

Kuzmin Module

 

Th 19   Kuzmin, Selected Poetry, Wings

 

T 24     Kuzmin conc.

 

Bunin Module

 

Th 26   Ivan Bunin, Dry Valley/Sukhodol (Canvas)

 

Modernism Meets Soviet Power Module

 

T 31     Osip Mandel’stam, Selected verse, “The Noise of Time”, (Russian Silver Age Poetry, Canvas).

APRIL

 

Th 2     Boris Pasternak, Sergei Esenin, Nikolai Klyuev; selected works (Russian Silver Age Poetry, Canvas).

 

T 7       Vladimir Mayakovskii, Marina Tsvetaeva, Anna Akhmatova, selected prose and verse (Russian Silver Age Poetry; Canvas).

Th 9     Evgenii Zamyatin, Boris Pil’nyak (Canvas).

F 10     SECOND PAPER DUE (361)

 

Music Interlude

T 14     Russian Modernism and Music

 

Th 16   Andrei Platonov, The Foundation Pit.

 

T 21     Konstantin Vaginov, Goat Song. (Canvas); Daniil Kharms, selected prose (Canvas).  Some concluding observations

 

Th 23   FINAL PAPER DUE

 

Michael Makin
3016 MLB
Tel. 647-2142
E-mail: mlmakin@umich.edu
Office: 3016 MLB

Office Hours: Tues 10-11, Thurs 11-12, in person or online;
or by appointment at other times.
Sign up through the advising link on the Slavic Dept web site:

https://lsa.umich.edu/slavic/undergraduate-students/advising.html

Email: mlmakin@umich.edu

 

Download Syllabus here:  361-561-WT-2026-Syllabus.docx