LIT 30 — 19th-Century Russian Literature: The Short Classics
Quarter: Winter
Instructor(s): Anne Hruska
Date(s): Jan 14—Mar 18
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Tuesdays
Class Meeting Time: 7:00—8:50 pm (PT)
Tuition: $550
Refund Deadline: Jan 16
Unit(s): 2
Status: Registration opens Dec 2, 8:30 am (PT)
What does life mean in the face of death? What is the power of the word—and what are its limitations? How can one live a moral life in a world filled with falsity and injustice? Russian literature does not dodge the hard questions. At the core of the Russian literary tradition is a willingness to wrestle with the vital questions at the heart of human existence. For example, in Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich, a man discovers the truth about his “most ordinary” and “most terrible” life only as it comes to an end. The hero of Dostoevsky’s The Gambler continues to search for paths to true freedom and self-determination in a world that seems to deny him these possibilities. In Gogol’s story “The Nose,” which plays with ideas of meaning and identity, a man wakes up to find that his nose has left his face and is living independently as a government official. By turns funny, shocking, bleak, and transcendent, the works in this course ask us to consider the meaning of truth and beauty and the purpose of literary art. Besides those three, authors whose work we will examine include Pushkin, Lermontov, Turgenev, and Chekhov.
ANNE HRUSKA
Senior English Instructor, Stanford Online High School
Anne Hruska taught for five years in Stanford’s Introduction to the Humanities program and has also taught at UC Berkeley, the University of Missouri, and the Pedagogical Institute in Saratov, Russia. She received a PhD from UC Berkeley, and her academic specialty is Russian literature.
Textbooks for this course:
(Required) Alexander Pushkin, Robert Chandler (tr), Elizabeth Chandler (tr) , The Captain's Daughter (ISBN 978-1590177242)
(Required) Mikhail Lermontov, Paul Foote(tr) , A Hero of Our Time (ISBN 978-0140447958)
(Required) Nikolai Gogol, Richard Pevear (tr), Larissa Volokhonsky(tr) , The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol (ISBN 978-0375706158 )
(Required) Fyodor Dostoevsky, Alan Myers(tr) , A Gentle Creature and Other Stories (ISBN 978-0199555086)
(Required) Ivan Turgenev, Michael R. Katz(tr) , Fathers and Children (ISBN 978-0393927979)
(Required) Leo Tolstoy, Richard Pevear(tr), Larissa Volokhonsky(tr) , Hadji Murat (ISBN 978-0307951342)
(Required) Anton Chekho,, Richard Pevear(tr), Larissa Volokhonsky(tr) , Anton Chekhov The Complete Short Novels (ISBN 978-1400032921)
(Required) Mikhail Lermontov, Paul Foote(tr) , A Hero of Our Time (ISBN 978-0140447958)
(Required) Nikolai Gogol, Richard Pevear (tr), Larissa Volokhonsky(tr) , The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol (ISBN 978-0375706158 )
(Required) Fyodor Dostoevsky, Alan Myers(tr) , A Gentle Creature and Other Stories (ISBN 978-0199555086)
(Required) Ivan Turgenev, Michael R. Katz(tr) , Fathers and Children (ISBN 978-0393927979)
(Required) Leo Tolstoy, Richard Pevear(tr), Larissa Volokhonsky(tr) , Hadji Murat (ISBN 978-0307951342)
(Required) Anton Chekho,, Richard Pevear(tr), Larissa Volokhonsky(tr) , Anton Chekhov The Complete Short Novels (ISBN 978-1400032921)