27467 - Russian Culture and Literature LM

Learning outcomes

Students are given the tools (information, methods and strategies) to analyze cultures and literatures in Russian in depth and are enabled to apply them on semiotically different texts; they are enabled to increase their cultural and literary knowledge and competence so that they can apply them to a large number of different texts.

Course contents

The course consists of two parts:

1.The first one focuses on V. Šklovsij's novel Zoo ili pis'ma ne o ljubvi. In 1922Viktor Š klovskij, the father of Russian formalism, is forced to flee to Berlin where the following year he publishes Zoo or letters not about love. In 1923 the author goes back to Russia, where the original work goes through five Russian editions. Many letters in the following editions are omitted, some of them for political reasons. The novel offers a good opportunity to analyse how Soviet censorship worked. At the same time Zoo is an interesting example of formalist novel, and is also an unusual novel about love and emigration.

2. The second part focuses on the institution of marriage in Tolstoy's novel Anna  Karenina.

Readings/Bibliography

ŠKLOVSKIJ V. , Zoo ili pis'ma ne o ljubvi, [1923] in Id., Ešč ëničego ne končilos', Moskva: Propaganda, 2002, pp. 267-333;

ŠKLOVSKIJ V., Iskusstvo kak priem.

GALUŠKIN A., Prigovorennyj smotret', in ŠKLOVSKIJ V., Ešč ëničego ne končilos', Moskva: Propaganda, 2002, pp. 5-14.

RAEFF M., La cultura russa e l'emigrazione, in Storia della lett russa. Il Novecento. La rivoluz e gli anni Venti, Torino: Einaudi 1990, vol. 3**, pp. 63-99.

Hanzen-Leve Oge A., Russkij formalizm: metodologičeskaja rekonstrukcija razvitija na osnove principa ostranenija, Moskva: Jazyki russkoj kultury, 2001, pp. 528-562.

·          Tolstoj L., Anna Karenina.

·          Ponomareva V., Chorošilova L., Mir russkoj ženščiny: sem'ja, professija, domašnyj uklad, Moskva: Novyj Chronograf, 2009.

·          Ponomarëva V., Chorošilova L., Mir russkoj ženščiny:Vospitanie, obrazovanie, sud'ba XVIII – načalo XX veka, M., Russkoe slovo, 2009

·          Mironov B., Social'naja istorija Rossii perioda imperii (XVIII-načalo XX v.) v dvuch tomach, Sankt Peterburg: Bulanin, 1999.

·          Zalambani M., Institut braka v romane “Anna Karenina”, “NLO”, 2011, n. 112.

 

Указанные авторы рассматриваются в любом учебнике по истории русской литературе на русском языке.

 

Teaching methods

Methodological instruments necessary to analyse literary and historical texts and essays of the last two decades of Socialist realism will be offered, and through a critical methodology the analysed texts will be placed in the specific cultural context of the time.

Assessment methods

The exam will consist of an oral test focused on the texts cited in the bibliography and on the notes of the lessons.

Teaching tools

Photocopies and material available on the e-learning site.

Office hours

See the website of Maria Zalambani