30040 - Russian Literature 1 (LM)

Learning outcomes

Acquiring deeper knowledge of modern and contemporary Russian literature. Developing  critical approaches to the literary text.

Course contents

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. Lessons will be held in Russian.

Lessons are open to GEMMA students, in case they do not know Russian, lessons will be held in English or Italian.

Readings/Bibliography

Provisional list of the literary works to be analyzed (it is advisable to read as many texts as possible /in any language and edition/ in order to be able to follow the lectures):

LEI. Racconti russi al femminile, a cura di Galina Denissova, Gabriella Imposti, Natalia Fateeva (Istituto di Lingua Russa V.V. Vinogradov, Accademia delle Scienze di Mosca), Pisa: PLUS, 2008.

Gabrieljan, N., Chozjain travy. Povest', Rasskazy, Moskva, Eskmo, 2001.

Gabrielyan, N., Master of the Grass (transl. into English by K. Cook), Moscow, Glas New Russian Writers, 2004.

Slavnikova, O., L'immortale, Torino, Einaudi, 2006.

Further critical and theoretical readings (to be prepared according to the Teacher's instructions)

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

Larisa Fomenko, Na tonkoj zybkoj grani dvuch mirov. Esse (Sul sottile, instabile confine tra due mondi. Saggio), in Id., Gosudarstvennaja dača (La dača statale), Gitel Publishing House, New York 2006

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, 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.

Imposti, Gabriella,“La grande muta si è messa a parlare”, saggio introduttivo in LEI. Racconti russi al femminile, a cura di Galina Denissova, Gabriella Imposti, Natalia Fateeva (Istituto di Lingua Russa V.V. Vinogradov, Accademia delle Scienze di Mosca), Pisa: PLUS, 2008, pp. 5-19.

Imposti, Gabriella, Una scrittrice-pittrice: Nina Gabrieljan in una prospettiva femminista, in Sentieri Interrotti/Holzwege, a cura di Donatella Gavrilovich e Gabriella Imposti, Roma, UniversItalia, 2012, 281-294.

Imposti, Gabriella, Le Nuove Amazzoni: l'affermarsi della letteratura al femminile nella Russia post-sovietica, in a cura di G. GOLINELLI, L'ambiguità dell'Amazzone in una prospettiva di genere. Decostruzione e riappropriazione di un mito, Bologna, I libri di Emil, 2009, pp. 137 - 154.

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.

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

Meleško, T., Sovremennaja ote č estvennaja ženskaja 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

Rovenskaja, T., "Radostnye i raznocvetnye" miry Niny Gabrieljan. V svjazi s vychodom v svet sbornika N. Gabrieljan "Chozjain travy", sul sito [http://www.owl.ru/avangard/radostnyeiraznozvetnye.html]

T. Rovenskaja, Archetip Doma v novoj ženskoj proze, ili Kommunal'noe žitie i kommunal'nye tela (L'archetipo della Casa nella nuova prosa femminile, ovvero vita in coabitazione e corpi in coabitazione), in Inoj vzgljad. Meždunarodnyj al'manach gendernych issledovanij (Uno sguardo altro. Almanacco internazionale di ricerche di genere), marzo, Minsk 2001

Satcliff, B., Kritika o sovremennoj zenskoj proze, consultabile sul sito <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.

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

Lectures, reading and analysis of texts, slides, film clips and viewing relevant internet sites, seminars and reports by the students.

Assessment methods

During the course students will be encouraged to participate with brief reports on topics related to the course. Their active participation will be considered integral part of their final test if they take the exam within the two following terms.

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

The test consists in an oral interview (held also in Russian) which has the aim of evaluating the students' knowledge of the contents of the programme and their critical and methodological abilities in discussing the topics and texts presented during the course. The student must demonstrate appropriate knowledge of  the contents and the bibliography of the course programme.

Those students who are able to demonstrate a wide and systematic understanding of the issues covered during the lessons, are able to use these critically and who master the field-specific language of the discipline will be given a mark of excellence.
Those students who demonstrate a mnemonic knowledge of the subject with a more superficial analytical ability and ability to synthesize, a correct command of the language but not always appropriate, will be given a ‘fair' mark.
A superficial knowledge and understanding of the material, a scarce analytical and expressive ability that is not always appropriate will be rewarded with a pass mark or just above a pass mark.
Students who demonstrate gaps in their knowledge of the subject matter, inappropriate language use, lack of familiarity with the literature in the programme bibliography will not be given a pass mark.Students will be required to to write an essay (possibly in Russian) on a topic connected with the course to be discussed during the exam. 

NB. GEMMA and Erasmus students are required to write an essay in English or Italian on a topic to be agreed with the Professor.

 

Teaching tools

Lectures, showing audio-visual materials, surfing the internet for relevant sites, analysis of literary texts. Presentations and papers of the students on topics suggested by the Professor.

Office hours

See the website of Gabriella Elina Imposti