{"id":172,"date":"2018-08-29T13:28:13","date_gmt":"2018-08-29T17:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2447-fall-2018\/?page_id=172"},"modified":"2018-08-29T13:57:47","modified_gmt":"2018-08-29T17:57:47","slug":"syllabus","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2447-fall-2018\/syllabus\/","title":{"rendered":"Syllabus"},"content":{"rendered":"

FALL 2018 SCHEDULE OF READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS
\n
\nIntroduction: Nature\u2014Culture\u2014Russia<\/strong><\/p>\n

August 29 Introduction to the course<\/span>
\nEcocriticism, the Russian landscape, and associated riddles of Russian national identity
\nMikhail Lermontov, \u201cMy Native Land\u201d: Fyodor Tyutchev, \u201cHow Bare the Countryside\u2026\u201d; Alexander Blok, \u201cRussia (Even sleeping you astonish me\u2026)\u201d<\/p>\n

September 3 The 19th-century Romantic sublime<\/span>
\nAlexander Pushkin, \u201cThe Poet,\u201d \u201cEcho,\u201d \u201cAutumn\u201d
\nMikhail Lermontov, \u201cA Sail,\u201d \u201cClouds,\u201d \u201cThe Cliff,\u201d \u201cLone I Walk at Night\u201d
\nFyodor Tyutchev, \u201cSpring Storm,\u201d \u201cSilentium!,\u201d \u201cNight Wind,\u201d \u201cHow bare the countryside!…,\u201d \u201cIn early autumn sweetly wistful\u2026\u201d
\nPaintings by Isaak Levitan and Aleksei Savrasov<\/p>\n

September 5 The 20th-century nostalgic pastoral<\/span>
\nIvan Bunin, \u201cThe Scent of Apples\u201d
\nTatiana Tolstaya, \u201cOn the Golden Porch\u201d
\nBoris Pasternak, \u201cSister My Life,\u201d \u201cHey, you in the wind\u2026,\u201d \u201cThe Steppe,\u201d \u201cSummer\u201d
\nNikolai Zabolotsky, \u201cSnakes,\u201d \u201cMorning Song,\u201d \u201cAll that the soul contained\u2026,\u201d \u201cA Woodland Lake\u201d
\nPaintings by Isaak Brodsky<\/p>\n

The Primeval Russian Forest<\/strong><\/p>\n

September 10 The Russian forest in folklore, art, film, and poetry<\/span>
\nFairtytales: \u201cPrince Ivan and the Gray Wolf,\u201d \u201cVasilisa the Beautiful,\u201d \u201cIvanko the Bear\u2019s Son\u201d
\nFilm: Hedgehog in the Fog (directed by Yuri Norstein, 1975; 10 min.)
\nNikolai Zabolotsky, \u201cTrees,\u201d \u201cIn This Birch Wood,\u201d \u201cThe Forest Lodge\u201d
\nPaintings and illustrations by Ivan Shishkin, Ilya Repin, and Ivan Bilibin<\/p>\n

September 12 The Russian forest and its creatures in 19th- and 20th-century short fiction<\/span>
\nLeo Tolstoy, \u201cThe Bear Hunt\u201d
\nLidia Zinovieva-Annibal, \u201cWolves\u201d and \u201cThe Bear Cubs\u201d
\nIvan Bunin, \u201cWolves\u201d
\nAndrei Platonov, \u201cAmong Animals and Plants\u201d
\nVasily Shukshin, \u201cWolves\u201d<\/p>\n

September 17 Forest as metaphor, idea, and value<\/span>
\nBrief overview of the history of environmentalism in Russia (late Imperial and Soviet periods)
\nAnton Chekhov, Uncle Vanya
\nNikolai Zabolotsky, \u201cArt,\u201d \u201cSigns of Autumn\u201d
\nOptional film: Uncle Vanya (directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, 1970; 99 min.)<\/p>\n

September 19 Challenges of environmental activism in contemporary Russia<\/span>
\nKate Pride Brown, \u201cState Suppression of Baikal Activism\u201d
\nNote: This class will be guest-taught by Laura Henry, Associate Professor of Government & Legal Studies (and a specialist on the politics of environmentalism in post-Soviet Russia)<\/p>\n

The Russian Countryside and the Peasant Village<\/strong><\/p>\n

September 24 Social commentary in 19th-century depictions of nature and peasants<\/span>
\nAlexander Pushkin, \u201cWinter in the Country,\u201d \u201cWhen lost in thought\u2026\u201d
\nIvan Turgenev, \u201cBezhin Meadow,\u201d \u201cThe Singers,\u201d \u201cThe Rendezvous,\u201d \u201cForest and Steppe\u201d
\nPaintings by Aleksei Venetsianov<\/p>\n

September 26 The countryside and village life in times of change<\/span>
\nAlexander Engelgardt, excerpt from Letters from the Country
\nAlexander Blok, \u201cAutumn Day\u201d
\nSergei Esenin, selected poems (especially \u201cHey there, Russia, mother country\u2026,\u201d \u201cLand of mine in dire neglect\u2026,\u201d \u201cSong about a Dog,\u201d \u201cThe Hooligan,\u201d \u201cIt can\u2019t be dispelled\u2026,\u201d \u201cThe disquiet of vaporous moonshine\u2026\u201d)
\nNikolai Kliuev, selected poems (especially \u201cO fir, weaver of lace-in-thickets\u2026,\u201d \u201cDo not fear the falling of leaves\u2026,\u201d \u201cMy white linden has dropped its blossoms\u2026,\u201d \u201cSnow falls on the road\u2026\u201d)
\nAndrei Platonov, \u201cThe Motherland of Electricity\u201d<\/p>\n

October 1 The village in Soviet fiction and film under Stalin<\/span>
\nAndrei Platonov, \u201cThe Cow\u201d
\nFilm fragments: Bezhin Meadow (directed by Sergei Eisenstein, 1937; 26 min.)
\nFilm: Cossacks of the Kuban (directed by Ivan Pyr\u2019ev, 1949; 104 min.)<\/p>\n

October 3 The village in Soviet prose of the Thaw period<\/span>
\nAlexander Solzhenitsyn, \u201cMatryona\u2019s Homestead\u201d
\nVasily Shukshin, \u201cGogol and Raika,\u201d \u201cHarvesting\u201d<\/p>\n

The Domestic Exotic (on the Southern and Eastern Peripheries of Empire)<\/strong><\/p>\n

October 10 The Caucasian wilds in the Russian literary imagination<\/span>
\nAlexander Pushkin, \u201cSing not, my love\u2026,\u201d \u201cThe Hills of Georgia\u201d
\nMikhail Lermontov, \u201cFarewell to Russia,\u201d \u201cA Dream,\u201d \u201cTamara\u201d
\nIvan Bunin, \u201cCaucasus\u201d
\nLeo Tolstoy, The Cossacks, chapters I-XVI
\nPaintings by Arkhip Kuindzhi<\/p>\n

October 15 The Caucasian wilds in the Russian literary imagination, continued<\/span>
\nLeo Tolstoy, The Cossacks, chapters XVII-XLII<\/p>\n

October 17 Nature and culture in the Russian Arctic<\/span>
\nYuri Rytkheu, A Dream in Polar Fog, chapters 1-10<\/p>\n

October 22 Nature and culture in the Russian Arctic, continued<\/span>
\nYuri Rytkheu, A Dream in Polar Fog, chapters 11-20<\/p>\n

October 24 Nature and culture in the Russian Arctic, continued<\/span>
\nYuri Rytkheu, A Dream in Polar Fog, chapters 21-30<\/p>\n

October 29 Russian fantasies of the Asian steppe<\/span>
\nAlexander Blok, \u201cOn the Field of Kulikovo\u201d (parts I-V), \u201cRussia and I\u201d
\nFilm: Urga: Close to Eden (directed by Nikita Mikhalkov, 1991; 119 min.)<\/p>\n

Calamities of Ice and Water<\/strong><\/p>\n

October 31 Winter in pre-Revolutionary fiction and poetry<\/span>
\nAlexander Pushkin, \u201cThe Snowstorm\u201d
\nLeo Tolstoy, \u201cMaster and Man\u201d
\nVladimir Korolenko, \u201cThe Cold\u201d
\nAlexander Blok, \u201cCaught by the Blizzard,\u201d \u201cO what is the setting sun\u2019s radiance\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

November 5 Winter in Soviet-era fiction, memoir, and poetry<\/span>
\nEvgeny Zamyatin, \u201cThe Cave\u201d
\nNikolai Zabolotsky, \u201cWinter\u2019s Start\u201d
\nLydia Ginzburg, excerpt from Blockade Diary<\/p>\n

November 7 Storms and cold in the Gulag and its aftermath<\/span>
\nVarlaam Shalamov, \u201cA Pushover Job,\u201d \u201cA Child\u2019s Drawings,\u201d \u201cLend-Lease\u201d
\nNikolai Zabolotsky, \u201cNight Garden,\u201d \u201cThunderstorm,\u201d \u201cThe North\u201d<\/p>\n

November 12 Apocalyptic floods and social critique<\/span>
\nAlexander Pushkin, The Bronze Horseman
\nEvgeny Zamyatin, \u201cThe Flood\u201d<\/p>\n

November 14 Legendary Russian waters<\/span>
\nFilm: Rusalka (The Mermaid) (directed by Alexander Petrov, 1996; 10 min.)
\nVladimir Korolenko, \u201cSvetloyar\u201d
\nValentin Rasputin, \u201cBaikal\u201d
\nPaintings by Ivan Aivazovsky<\/p>\n

Soviet Aspirations and Environmental Disasters<\/strong><\/p>\n

November 19 The Soviet project: old world and new world<\/span>
\nVladimir Mayakovsky, selected poems (especially \u201cCould You?\u201d \u201cMe,\u201d \u201cLove,\u201d \u201cVladimir Mayakovsky Rented a Dacha One Summer\u201d)
\nNikolai Zabolotsky, \u201cThe Mad Wolf,\u201d \u201cI do not look for harmony\u2026\u201d
\nFilm: Magnitogorsk: Forging the New Man (directed by Pieter Jan Smit, 1996; 60 min.)<\/p>\n

November 26 Harnessing the waters with slave labor<\/span>
\nMaxim Gorky, et al., excerpts from Belomor: An Account of the Construction of the New Canal between the White Sea and the Baltic Sea
\nVisit to Bowdoin Museum of Art to view The Belomor Canal, issue #12 of USSR in Construction<\/p>\n

November 28 The Chernobyl disaster<\/span>
\nSvetlana Alexievich, Voices from Chernobyl, parts 1-2<\/p>\n

December 3 The Chernobyl disaster, continued<\/span>
\nSvetlana Alexievich, Voices from Chernobyl, part 3
\nFilm: The Babushkas of Chernobyl (directed by Holly Morris, 2015; 70 min.)<\/p>\n

December 5 Post-Soviet decay and corruption, and course conclusion<\/span>
\nViktor Pelevin, \u201cVera Pavlovna\u2019s Ninth Dream\u201d
\nFilm: Leviathan (directed by Andrei Zviagintsev, 2014; 142 min.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FALL 2018 SCHEDULE OF READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS Introduction: Nature\u2014Culture\u2014Russia August 29 Introduction to the course Ecocriticism, the Russian landscape, and associated riddles of Russian national identity Mikhail Lermontov, \u201cMy Native Land\u201d: Fyodor Tyutchev, \u201cHow Bare the Countryside\u2026\u201d; Alexander Blok, \u201cRussia (Even sleeping you astonish me\u2026)\u201d September 3 The 19th-century Romantic sublime Alexander Pushkin, \u201cThe Poet,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-172","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2447-fall-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2447-fall-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2447-fall-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2447-fall-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2447-fall-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2447-fall-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2447-fall-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}