30660 - Russian Literature 2 (2nd cycle)

Learning outcomes

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

Course contents

Russian Women writers from the end of the 20th to the first two decades 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.

Provisional list of the women writers that will be studed: Svetlana Vasilenko, Ljudmila Ulickaja, Ol'ga Slavnikova, Guzel' Jachina, Marina Stepnova.

Lessons are open to GEMMA students, in case they do not know Russian, part of the lessons will be held in English. GEMMA students are required to contact the professor on choosing this course in order to agree the conditions of their attendance.

Readings/Bibliography

 Russian women poets that will be studied:

Svetlana Vasilenko, Ljudmila Ulickaja, Ol'ga Slavnikova, Guzel' Jachina, Marina Stepnova (provisional list).

The list of primary texts will be updated during the course.

S. Vasilenko, Duročka. Roman-žitie, “Novyj Mir”, 1998, 11, pp. 9-73.

S. Vasilenko, Shamara and other Stories, transl. by H. Goscilo, Northwestern University Press, 1999.

O. Slavnikova, Bessmertnyj. Povest’ o nastojaščem čeloveke, «Oktjabr’», (2001), 6, pp. 3-104.

O. Slavnikova, Bessmertnyj, M., “Vagrius”, 2004.

O. Slavnikova, The Man Who Couldn't Die: The Tale of an Authentic Human Being, transl. by Marian Schwartz, New York, Columbia University Press, 2018.

O. Slavnikova, 2017, Moskva, Vagrius, 2006.

O. Slavnikova, 2017, Engl. transl. by Marian Schwarz. New York and London: Overlook/Duckworth, 2010

O. Slavnkova, Legkaja golova, Moskva, Vagrius, 2010.

O. Slavnkova, Light headed, Engl. transl. A. Bromfield, Dedalus books, 2020.

L. Ulickaja, Medeja i ee deti, 1996.

L. Ulitskaya, Medea and her Children, Translated by Arch Tait, Schocken Books/Random House, New York, 2004.

L. Ulickaja, Kazus Kukockogo, 2001.

L. Ulitskaya, The Kukotsky Enigma, Engl. transl. Diane Nemec Ignashev, Northwestern University Press, 20016.

G. Jachina, Zulejcha otkryvaet glaza,Moskva, AST, 2015.

G. Yakhina, Zuleikha, Engl. transl. Hayden, Oneworld publications, 2019.

M. Stepnova, Bezboznyj pereulok, Moskva, AST, 2014.

Provisional list of the critical studies on the authors taught this year.

Storia della letteratura russa del Novecento, a cura di E. Etkind, G. Nivat, V. Strada, Torino, Einaudi, 1989.

Storia della civiltà letteraria russa, a cura di M. Colucci e R. Picchio, Torino, UTET, 1997 (2 voll.).

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

C. Kelly (ed.), An Anthology of Russian Women's Writing, 1777-1992, Oxford, Oxford UP, 1994.

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

Etkind, A. (2009). Stories of the Undead in the Land of the Unburied: Magical Historicism in Contemporary Russian Fiction, "Slavic Review", 68(3), 631-658.

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).

Kahn, Andrew, Lipovetsky, Mark, Reyfman, Irina, Sandler, Stephanie, A History of Russian Literature, Oxford University Press, 2018.

E. Dobrenko, M. Lipovetsky eds, Russian Literature since 1991, Cambridge University Press, 2015.

Lipovetsky, M., Etkind, A. (2010). The Salamander’s Return, "Russian Studies in Literature", 46(4), 6-48.

D. POSSAMAI, Al crocevia dei due millenni. Viaggio nella letteratura russa contemporanea, Esedra editrice, Padova, 2018.

Imposti G.E., Il romanzo di Svetlana Vasilenko Duročka.
Tra mito e agiografia, “Studi Slavistici”, xvii, 2020, 1: 155-179.

H. Goscilo, Editor’s Introduction: Zone, Ozone, Blood and Ascending
Hope, in: S. Vasilenko, Shamara and Other Stories, ed. by H. Goscilo, Evanston 2000, pp. xii-xxii.

S. Kobets, Paradigma svjatosti v romane Svetlany Vasilenko “Duročka”,in: E.N. Romadanovskaja (ed.), Lichačevskij Sbornik, Tomsk 2007, <http://www.slavdom.com/index.php?id=108>

M.Lipovetsky, A Strange Case of a Regional Cultural Revolution: Sverdlovsk in the Perestroika Years, "Philological Class", 2019. – № 2 (56). – P. 8–16. DOI 10.26170/FK19-02-01.

Imposti, G. E., L'Immortale di Ol'ga Slavnikova: esperienze corporee del tempo attraverso gli oggetti, «RUSSICA ROMANA», 2023, XXX, pp. 175-185.

Imposti, G. E., The Mistress of the Mountain, “2017” by Olga Slavnikova, in: Women’s Voices Between Russia and Poland. Myths, Nature, and the Creation of a New Identity, Lecce, Pensa Multimedia, 2024, pp. 281-311.

D.Possamai, Distopia ed ecocritica: “2017” di Ol’ga Slavnikova, in: La Russia e l’Occidente Visioni, riflessioni e codici ispirati a Vittorio Strada, a cura di Francesco Berti, Adriano Dell’Asta, Olga Strada, Venezia, Ricerche-Marsilio, pp. 192-203.

B. Sutcliffe, Mother, daughter, history: embodying the past in Liudmila Ulitskaia's Sonechka and The case of Kukotsky, "The Slavic and East European Journal", Vol. 53, No. 4 (WINTER 2009), pp. 606-622.

B. Sutcliffe, Liudmila Ulitskaia's Literature of Tolerance, "The Russian Review", Vol. 68, No. 3 (Jul., 2009), pp. 495-509.

Gloria Politi (2020), “Variazioni del mito in Medea di Ljudmila Ulickaja”, in La riscrittura al femminile del mito nel panorama letterario slavo dal Novecento ai giorni nostri, Lingue e Linguaggi,
Numero Monografico a cura di G. Politi, N. 37, pp. 23-43.
http://siba-ese.unisalento.it/index.php/linguelinguaggi/issue/view/1759.

Kefeli, A. (2011). The tale of Joseph and Zulaykha on the Volga Frontier: the Struggle for Gender, Religious and National Identity in Imperial and Postrevolutionary Russia, "Slavic Review", 70(2), 373-398.

Noordenbos, B. (2016). Post-Soviet Literature and the Search for a Russian Identity. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Imposti G.E., “Miti ai margini: Tra la mitologia dello Scrigno di Malachite in 2017 di Ol’ga Slavnikova e gli spiriti di Zulejcha apre gli occhi di Guzel’ Jachina”, KWARTALNIK NEOFILOLOGICZNY, LXXIII, 2/2025, DOI: 10.24425/kn.2025

Teaching methods

Lectures, reading and analysis of texts, slides, film clips and viewing relevant internet sites, reports by the students. Group presentations, discussion and seminars in class. Written paper on a topic to be agreed with the professor before the oral exam.
Useful teaching materials will be uploaded online on Virtuale.

Assessment methods

During the course students will be encouraged to participate with group reports and presentations on topics related to the course. Their active participation will be considered integral part (1/3) of their final test if they take the exam within the two following terms.

Students will be required to write an essay (it can be in English, Italian or Russian) on a topic connected with the course to be discussed during the exam. The topic must be agreed with the Professor and the essay must be sent 10 days before the exam. Max dimensions: 3500 words or 20000 characters (spaces and notes included, bibliography not included).

The test consists in an oral interview (held also in Russian or English) 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 presentation and the essay will also be discussed during the oral interview. 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 and to be sent at least 10 days before the exam.

NB: Students with SLD or temporary or permanent disabilities. It is suggested that they get in touch as soon as possible with the relevant University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en) and with the lecturer in order to seek together the most effective strategies for following the lessons and/or preparing for the examination.

 

 

Teaching tools

Lectures, showing audio-visual materials, surfing the internet for relevant sites, analysis of literary texts. Students' group and individual presentations in class, final written  papers on topics suggested by the Professor.

Office hours

See the website of Gabriella Elina Imposti