Autumn 2001
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
MLT 264
Illness and Its Representation:
Madness, Disease and Death in Nineteenth and Twentieth
Century Russian Culture
E-Mail:
bidoshik@union.edu
Course
Description: In this course we will investigate illness
and its various representations in 19th and 20th century Russian culture. Specifically, we will focus on madness,
disease and death in the context of East European history and culture. We will
discuss various literary and historical madmen, problems of passion, desire,
pain and torment, issues of death and rebirth in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment,
deranged, unreliable narrators and other diseases plaguing contemporary Russian
society, including, but not limited to – alcoholism and drug addiction. The
course will be conducted as a combination of lectures and class discussion. An
occasional film will be shown.
Course
Requirements and Evaluation: Students will be expected to have completed
the reading for each class as outlined below and to actively contribute to
class discussion. Students are strongly
encouraged to attend classes regularly.
In addition, students will be responsible for the presentation of one
short story or film. You must sign up
for a presentation slot and have your topic approved no later than the end of
the third week of class. Students will
also write three one-page response papers, each of which will be due the third,
fifth and eighth week of class. The
final ten-page paper will be submitted first as a draft and then as a final
version. Detailed instructions on
writing assignments will be provided. The final grade for the course will be
determined based on the following:
Attendance
and Participation 40%
Three
Response Papers 15% (5% each)
Presentation 10%
Final
Paper (8 pgs) 35%
Required
Reading: (all books are available at
the bookstore; works marked with an asterisk are short stories that will be
provided to you)
*Pushkin,
“Queen of Spades”
*Gogol,
“Diary of a Madman”
*Turgenev,
“First Love”
*Leskov,
“Lady McBeth of the Mtsensk District”
Dostoevsky,
Crime and Punishment
*Tolstoy,
“The Death of Ivan Ilych” and “Three Deaths"
*Chekhov,
“The Black Monk”
Bely, Petersburg
*Solzhenitsyn,
"Matryona's House"
Nabokov,
Despair
Erofeev,
Moscow to the End of the Line
Petrushevskaia,
The Time: Night
Recommended
Reference Books
Brown,
Edward J., Russian Literature Since the Revolution
Mirsky,
D.S., A History of Russian Literature
Terras,
Victor, Ed. A Handbook of Russian
Literature
Terras,
Victor, A History of Russian Literature
Foucault,
Civilization and Madness
Illness and Its Representation:
Weekly Schedule
Week One The Stranger in
the City: The Madman as Other
Monday,
September 3 Introduction to Class/Class Policies
Wednesday,
September 5 Pushkin, “Queen of
Spades”
Friday,
September 7 Gogol,
“Diary of a Madman”
Week Two Love
and Passion: Pain and Torment in Russian Literature
Monday,
September 10 Turgenev, “First
Love”
Wednesday,
September 12 Film: Leskov, “Lady
McBeth of Mtsensk District”
Friday,
September 14 Dostoevsky, Crime
and Punishment (Part I, 1-74)
Week Three Salvation
Through Suffering
Monday,
September 17 Dostoevsky, Crime
and Punishment (Parts II and III, 75-236)
Wednesday,
September 19 Dostoevsky, Crime
and Punishment (Part IV, 237-303)
Friday, September 21 Dostoevsky, Crime and
Punishment (Part V, VI and Epilogues, 305-465)
Week Four Alternative
Realities
Monday,
September 24 Tolstoy, “Death
of Ivan Ilych” and “Three Deaths”
Wednesday,
September 26 Chekhov, “The Black
Monk”
Friday,
September 28 Film -
Rasputin and Russian Society: The Crazy Monk
Week Five St.
Petersburg as Symbol of Russia’s Cultural Schizophrenia
Monday,
October 1 Bely, Petersburg
(Prologue, Chapters 1-3, 1-96)
Wednesday,
October 3 Bely, Petersburg
(Chapter 4, 97-140)
Friday,
October 5 Bely, Petersburg
(Chapters 5-6, 141-216)
Monday,
October 8 Bely, Petersburg
(Chapters 7-8, Epilogue)
Wednesday,
October 10 Stalin’s Purges
& Film - Mikhalkov, Burnt by the Sun
Friday, October 12 Film – Burnt by the Sun (cont.)
Week Seven The
Psychological Problem of Two or More Realities
Monday,
October 15 Solzhenitsyn,
“Matryona’s House”
Wednesday,
October 17 Nabokov, Despair
(Chapters 1-5, 3-99)
Friday,
October 19 Nabokov, Despair
(Chapters 6-11, 101-212)
Week Eight Contemporary
Russian Society & Prostitution
Monday,
October 22 Film: Little
Vera
Wednesday,
October 24 Film: Little Vera
(cont.)
Friday,
October 26 Discussion
of Presentations
Monday,
October 29 Erofeev,
Moscow
to the End of the Line
Wednesday,
October 31 Discussion of Draft
of Final Paper
Friday,
November 2 Petrushevskaia,
The Time: Night (1-37)
Week Ten A
New Generation of Russians: The
Diseased Family
Monday,
November 5 Petrushevskaia, The
Time: Night (37-104)
Wednesday,
November 7 Petrushevskaia, The
Time: Night (104-155)
Friday,
November 9 Final
Comments/Final Paper Due