42686 - Russian Literature D - First Module

Learning outcomes

Contemporary Russian Women Writers at the beginning of the 21st century

Presenting the social and cultural changes that lead to the forming of a new generation of women writers in the Russian Federation

·       Introducing to the main tendences of feminine literature in the Russian Federation

·       Analizyng genres, themes, styles of the literary production of Women Writers in Russia

Comparing with the situation in other countries/cultures

Course contents

1.     An outline of the Feminist movement in Russia

2.     The political and cultural changes brought about by Gorbachev's perestroika and the collapse of the Soviet Empire

3.     The Devolpment of gender studies in the Russian Federation

4.     The Russian cultural and literary context of the past two decades

5.     Periodization: the various “generations” of Russian Women writers

6.     Poetry and Prose, main tendencies

7.     Khudozhestvennaja zhenskaia proza and massovaia literatura

8.     The older generation of women prose writers: N. Baranskaja, V. Tokareva, L. PetrushevskaiaT. Tolstaia, Ju. Voznesenskaia, M. Palei, L. Ulitskaia, etc.

9.     The younger women writers

10. “Chick lit”. Mass literature: the queen of Russian detective novel: A. Marinina. The reasons of her success

Readings/Bibliography

·          This is a general bibliography on which the course is based, to be integrated with the authors' own works. During the lessons will be recommended the texts for further reading 

·          Barker, A.M. and J. M. Gheith eds, A History of Women's Writing in Russia, Cambridge, CUP, 2002

·          Clyman, Toby W. & Greene, Diana eds, Women writers in Russian literature, Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 1994

·          Goscilo, Helena, ed., Fruits of her Plume. Essays on Contemporary Russian Woman's Culture, Armonk, New York, M.E. Sharpe, 1993.

·          Goscilo, Helena, Paradigm Lost? Contemporary Women's Fiction, in Women Writers in Russian Literature, ed. by Toby W. Clymon & Diana Greene, Greenwood Press, Westport-London, 1994, pp. 205-228.

·          Goscilo, Helena, Dehexing Sex: Russian Womanhood during anf after Glasnost, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1996.

·          Goscilo, Helena, Perestroika and post-Soviet prose: from dazzle to dispersal in Barker & Gheith eds 2002, pp. 297-312.

·          Heldt, Barbara, Terrible perfection: women and Russian literature, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, c1987.

·          Heldt, Barbara Gynoglasnost': writing the Feminine, in Mary Buckley (ed.), Perestroika and Soviet Women, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1992, pp. 160-175.

·          Imposti, Gabriella, La felicità familiare nell'opera di L. Petru£evskaja, in ed. H. Pessina Longo, La letteratura russa contemporanea. Autori, Opere e Tendenze, Bologna, CLUEB, 1998, pp. 83-92.

·          Imposti, Gabriella, Ljudmila Petru£evskaja generi e sottogeneri del folclore (urbano), in ed. A. Destro e A. Sportelli, Ai confini dei generi. Casi di ibridismo letterario, Bari, B.A.Grafis, 1999, pp. 225-233.

·          Imposti, Gabriella, Recenti riprese del mito robinsoniano nella letteratura russa contemporanea, ‘I nuovi Robinson' di L. Petrusevskaja, in Robinson. Dall'avventura al mito, (Atti del convegno Bologna 12-13 novembre 1999), a cura di M.C. Gnocchi e C. Imbroscio, Clueb, Bologna, 2000, pp. 223-238.

·          Imposti, Gabriella, La “soglia” nella narrativa di Ljudmila Petrusevskaja, in Tempo e spazio nella letteratura russa contemporanea (Atti del convegno Bologna 26-27 febbraio 1999), a cura di Haisa Pessina, Donatella Possamai, Gabriella Imposti, Bologna, CLUEB, 2001, pp. 49-58.

·          Imposti, Gabriella, Corpo, genere, soggettività nella narrativa di Ljudmila Petru£evskaja, in Cinque letterature oggi. Russa, polacca, serba, ceca, ungherese, a cura di A. Cosentino, Udine, Forum, 2002, pp. 61-70.

·          Imposti, Gabriella, Corpo ed eros: riflessioni sparse, in Amore ed eros nella letteratura russa del Novecento, (Atti del convegno Bologna, 27-28 febbraio 2002), a cura di Gabriella Imposti, Haisa Pessina, Donatella Possamai, Bologna, CLUEB, 2004, pp. 219-231.

·          Imposti, Gabriella, Lo sviluppo dei “gendernye issledovanija” in Russia nell'ultimo decennio (contributo al III Congresso degli Slavisti Italiani, Forlì 7-9 giugno 2002), “Studi slavistici” I, 2004, pp. 105-114.

·          Kelly, Catriona A History of Russian Women's Writing 1820-1992, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1994.

·          Kelly, Catriona (ed.), An Anthology of Russian Women's Writing 1820-1992, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1994.

·          Kustanovich, Kostantin, Erotic Glasnost: Sexuality in Recent Russian Literature, «World Literature Today», vol. 67, n. 1, 1993

·          Lejderman N.L. & Lipoveckij M.N., Sovremennaja russkaja literatura 1950-1990-e godyMoskva, Academia, 2003, (parte III, pp. 467-78, 610-626 e passim).

·          Mele š ko, T., Sovremennaja ote č estvennaja ž enskaja proza: problemy poetiki v gendernom aspekte (obrazy ženstvennosti v tvorčestve sovremennych rossijskich pisatel'nic) , consultabile sul sito: <www.a-z.ru/women_cd/html/br_gl_2.htm>

·          Magnanini, Emilia (a cura), Presenze femminili nella letteratura russa, Padova: CLEUP, 2000.

·          Montagnani, Luciana, Marina Palej “Kabirija s Obvodnogo kanala”, in Pessina Longo, Haisa (a cura) La letteratura russa contemporanea. Autori, opere, tendenze, Bologna, CLUEB, 1998, pp. 65-71.

·          Peterson, Nadya L., Subversive Imaginations. Fantastic Prose and the End of Soviet Literature, 1970s-1990s, Oxford, Westview Press, 1997 (ch. 10, “Alternative Literature II: Games Women Play”, pp. 157-190. Satcliff, B., Kritika o sovremennoj zenskoj proze, see the site <www.a-z.ru/women_cd/html/filologich_nauki_12.htm

·          Spendel, Joanna, Nuove tendenze nella narrativa femminile, in Pessina Longo, Haisa (a cura) La letteratura russa contemporanea. Autori, opere, tendenze, Bologna, CLUEB, 1998, pp. 49-55.

·          Tamborrino, Elisa, I raccontri degli anni Ottanta e Novanta di Viktoria Tokareva, in Pessina Longo, Haisa (a cura) La letteratura russa contemporanea. Autori, opere, tendenze, Bologna, CLUEB, 1998, pp. 93-102.

·          Tomei, Christine D., ED;, Russian Women Writers (Garland reference library of the humanities, Women writers of the World, vol. 3), New York-London, Garland, 1999.

 

Teaching methods

Lessons, reading and analysis of texts.

Assessment methods

Students will be required to write an essay (possibly in Russian) on a theme connected with the course to be discussed during the exam.

Office hours

See the website of Gabriella Elina Imposti