Russian Imagination 2014 100.340 Wednesdays 1:30-45 Jeffrey Brooks, Gilman 392 Updated
1/7/14
Wk 1 1/29: introduction: the components of a great tradition: Tsar, Church, and Society
Read Before the first Class: Hosking to page 60, E-Reserves: Chandler, Magic Tales,
to page 80; Riasanovsky, 248-97; Worobec, 125-221.
Part I: Freedom and Order in the Russian Imagination
Wk2 2/5 Power
Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, vii-xix, 1-278; E-Reserves: Chandler, Magic
Tales, 81-90, 419-35; Richard Pipes, Russia under the Old Regime (Penguin, 1995, 2nd
edition) (chapter 9: “the Church as Servant of the State,” 221-48; Reference Section: The
Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History article on Orthodoxy. George P.
Fedotov, The Russian Religious Mind (I) “Kievan Christianity” (Volume 3 of the
collected works of George P. Fedotov), (Nordland, 1975), 94-110.
Wk 3 2/12 Freedom
C and P, 281--436: Chandler, Russian Short Stories, xi-xiv, 36-79; E –Reserves: Brooks,
When Russia, xviii-58; Polunov, 110-38; In von Geldern and Louise McReynolds, 13541.” Oh Those Iaroslavites.”
Wk 4 2/19 Humor and Play
Dostoevsky, C and P, 436-551; Portable Chekhov, 1-103. E-Reserves: Tolstoy, War and
Peace, vii-38, 758-777; Afanasev, Russian Fairy Tales, Emelya 46-49, Ivanushka, 62-66;
Dostoevsky, “Crocodile” (e-free). Journal 1 QUIZ 1
Week 5 2/26: Social Rebellion and Cultural Rebellion
Portable Chekhov; 118-125; 141-80, 412-33, 412-33, 461-513; 596-631; E-Reserves:
Chekhov, “Happiness” and “Horse Stealers”; Jackson, 1-96; Berlin, “Russian Populism.”
E-free online: Gorky “Twenty-six and one.”
Part II The Nation and the Human community
Week 6 3/5: Artists and Illustrators seize the moment: The Wanderers and Popular Print
Media Chandler, Russian Short Stories, 98-105, Jackson, 97-172; Tolstoy, (Ivan ilyich
and master and man), 247-302, 453-599. Journal 2
Week 7: 3/12 Writers Speak for All
Tolstoy, 547-668 (Hadji Murat); Portable Chekhov, 251-68 (Gusev); Chandler, Russian
Short Stories, 137-46 “In the Cart”). E-Reserves Dostoevsky, Diary of a Writer, Vol. 1,
121-45, 343-55 and vol. 2, 844-48, 901-18, 1271-1295; Polunov, 125-56. Journal 3
SPRING vacation march 18 -24; Chagall, My Life. 1-172; and watch the Firebird in e-reserves
Week 8: 3/26 Celebrity Culture and the Arts
E- Reserves: Leskov, “Steel Flea,” 108-37; Mayakovsky, “A Tragedy;” Revolutionary
Russia: the cultural transformation: Shatskikh, Black Square; Bowlt, Russian Art of the
Avant Garde (e-reserve) and Moscow and St. Petersburg (e-reserves); Wood, “Idea of
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Abstract Art” in Edwards and Wood eds; Clark, Farewell to an idea, chapter 5; Joseph,
Stravinsky’s Ballets Journal 4
Week 9 4/2 The Flight of the Firebird: Art takes Center Stage
Chandler, Russian short stories, E-Reserves: Afanasev, “Baba Yaga and the Brave
Youth” pp 76-79, “Baba Yaga (363-5), “Vasilisa the Beautiful” 439-47, “Koshchey the
Deathless” 485-94; “On Russian Fairy Tales” and Commentary, 631-651. E-Reserves:
Shatskikh, Vitebsk; Art of the Avant-Gardes,; Bohm-Duchen, Chagall; Chukovsky,
Crocodile (e-reserve)
PART III Revolution Changes Everything
Week 10 4/9 Chagall, Malevich, and the Avant-Garde under Soviet rule:
Pasternak, ix-xxvi, to 151; Hosking, 60-96; Chandler, Russian short stories,
148-59; E-Reserves: Yevtushenko, 11-12 (Sologub), 21-22 (Gippius), 21-22, Briusov
(28-30); Brooks, Thank You, 3-53; Chukovsky, Crocodile poems for little ones.
Week 11 4/16 the Bolsheviks’ Arsenal of the Arts
Chandler, Russian Short Stories, 188-234. Pasternak, 152-300; Hosking, 97-112; EReserves: Soviet Humor: Best of Krokodil (e-reserve). Christina Lodder, “Soviet
Constructivism,” in ed. Steve Edwards and Paul Wood, Wood, “The Idea of an Abstract
Art,” pp 359-94. Paper Due email 4/16 before class.
Week 12 4/23: The End of a Great Age: Humor and Play in the 1920s and 1930s
Babel, Zoshchenko, Zamiatin, and Kharms. Pasternak, 303-495; Chandler, Russian Short
Stories, 235-267
Week 13 4/30 Witness: How the intelligentsia won the battle of memory but maybe lost the war
QUIZ 2: Hosking, 112-30 Pasternak, 496-655; Chandler, Russian Short Stories, 268-317.
Recommended: 320-339, E-Reserves: In Yevtushenko: Akhmatova, (170-87);
Tsvetaeva (225-38); Mandelstam; (102-108); Grossman, Life and Fate, vii-42, 404-29.
Journal 5 to cover readings for week 12 and 13.
E-BOOKS CHECK TO CUT OUT SOME REPLACE CHEKHOV?? TOLSTOY??
Afanasev, Russian Fairy Tales, (NY, Random House, 1945, 73), “Emelya the Simpleton,” pp,
46-49, “Ivanushka the Little Fool” pp 62-66, “Baba Yaga and the Brave Youth” pp 7679, “Baba Yaga (363-5), “Vasilisa the Beautiful” 439-47, “Koshchey the Deathless” 48594; “On Russian Fairy Tales” and Commentary, 631-651.
Isaiah Berlin, Russian Thinkers, “Russian Populism,” 210-237.
Monica Bohm-Duchen, Chagall ( London: Phaidon, 1988), 93-157.
John E. Bowlt, Russian Art of the Avant Garde (revised and enlarged edition, 1988), xix-11, 4160, 79-111, 141-45. (June 14, 2002) (PR3326.B7 P4 1990).
John E. Bowlt, Moscow and St. Petersburg, 1900-1920 (Vendome Press, NY, 2008), 9-65.
Jeffrey Brooks, Thank You, Comrade Stalin (Princeton, 2000), 3-53.
Jeffrey Brooks, When Russia Learned to Read, When Russia, xviii-58
Robert Chandler, Ed. Russian Magic tales from Pushkin to Platonov, (Penguin, 2012) ix-80,
118-33. 419-33.
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Chekhov “Happiness” in Anton Chekhov, The Witch and Other Stories (New York: Ecco Press,
1985), 249-65, 295
Chekhov “Horse Stealers” in Anton Chekhov, The Horse-Stealers and Other Stories (New York:
Harper Collins, 1998). 1-26.dd
Chekhov “Happiness” in Anton Chekhov, The Witch and Other Stories (New York: Ecco Press,
1985), 249-65, 295
Chekhov “Horse Stealers” in Anton Chekhov, The Horse-Stealers and Other Stories (New York:
Harper Collins, 1998). 1-26.
T. J. Clark, Farewell to an Idea, Yale UP, 1999, pp 225-97 (chapter 5).
Chukovsky, Crocodile poems for little ones. I used an e-reserve copy last semester
Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, pevear and volokhonsky trans. Farrar, Straus and Giroux
(June 14, 2002) (PR3326.B7 P4 1990), 246-264;
Dostoevsky, A Writer’s Diary, (Northwestern University Press) Vol. 1, 121-45, 343-55, Vol. 2,
844-48, 901-18, 1271-1295 (80 pp)
Grossman, Life and Fate, vii-42, 404-29. Only this edition (New York Review Classics, 2006)
ISBN-10: 0061253804 Only this edition.
George P. Fedotov, The Russian Religious Mind (I) Kievan Christianity (Volume 3 of the
collected works of George P. Fedotov), (Nordland, 1975), 94-110.
Charles M. Joseph, Stravinsky’s Ballets (Yale, 2011), 1-47.
Christina Lodder, “Soviet Constructivism,” in ed. Steve Edwards and Paul Wood, Wood, “The
Idea of an Abstract Art,” pp 359-94.
Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History article on Orthodoxy.
Mayakovsky, Plays, Trans. Guy Daniels (Northwestern University Press, 1-38.
Richard Pipes, Russia under the Old Regime (Penguin, 1995, 2nd edition) (chapter 9: “theChurch
as Servant of the State,” 221-48.
Polunov, Russia in the Nineteenth Century: Autocracy, Reform, and Social Change, 1814-1914
M.E. Sharpe (October 1, 2005) ISBN-13: 978-0765606723, Polunov, 110-38; 208-49.
(1905-and end
Nicholas V. Riasanovsky, A Parting of the Ways, Chapter 5, pp. 248-291.
Aleksandra Shatskikh, Vitebsk. The Life of Art, Yale University Press, 2007, 1-29,
Aleksandra Shatskikh, Black Square: Malevich and the Origins of Suprematism, Yale (2012) ,
1-53, 251-74 ( chapter 1, “The Birth of the Black Square” and chapter 5 “The End of
Painting.”)
Soviet Humor: The Best of Krokodil [Paperback] Andrews Mcmeel Pub (May 1989), chaps 1-2
Tolstoy, War and Peace, Trans. Pevear and Volokhonsky, Vintage; Reprint edition (2008) vii38, 758-777. ADD IN MORAL VOICE???
James von Geldern and Louise McReynolds, ed., Entertaining Tsarist Russia,Kuz’ma, Oh Those
Yaroslavites, What a Fine Folk,” in James von Geldern and Louise pp.135-141.
Yevtushenko, Twentieth Century Russian Poetry (1994), Sologub (11-12, Gippius (21-22), Blok
(50, 69-83), Mandelstam (102-108), Akhmatova, (170-87), Tsvetaeva (225-38).
Wood, “The Idea of an Abstract Art,” in Art of the Avant-Gardes, ed. Steve Edwards and Paul
Wood, pp 229-72
Christine D. Worobec, Peasant Russia, Northern Illinois University Press, 1995), chap 6,
“Patriarchy,” 175-21.
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DVDs: TO STREAM. Stravinsky and the Ballets Russes: The Firebird/Le Sacre du Printemps
ormat: ACSubtitles:
English, French . Marinsky Theater
Anton Chekhov Collection (Platonov/The Wood Demon/The Proposal/The Wedding/The
Seagull/An Artist's Story/Uncle Vanya [1970 and 1991 versions]/Three Sisters/The Cherry
Orchard [1962 and 1981 versions]) (2008). Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC,
Subtitled. Studio: BBC Home Entertainment 2008. Recommended: Seagull and Cherry Orchard
FREE ONLINE READING MATERIAL:
Dostoevsky, “Crocodile” at http://www.online-literature.com/dostoevsky/3367/
Gorky “Twenty-six and one” at http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/14480/pg14480.html
TO PURCHASE ONLY THESE EDITIONS
Chandler, ed., Russian Short Stories from Pushkin to Buida, Penguin 978-0-14-044846-7
Chekhov, Portable Chekhov, Penguin Books; ISBN-13: 978-0-14-0150353
Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment (Everyman's Library) [Hardcover, Pevear and
Volokhonsky trans, Everyman's Library ( ISBN-10: 0679420290 / ISBN-13: 9780679420293
David L. Jackson, The Wanderers and Critical Realism in Nineteenth Century Russian Painting
(Critical Perspectives in Art History) [Paperback] Manchester University Press; Reprint
edition (December 15, 2011) 232 pages/ ISBN-10: 071906435X / ISBN-13: 9780719064357
Tolstoy, Great short works of Leo Tolstoy Harper Perennial Modern Classics (March 2, ISBN10:
ISBN-13: 978-00605869732004)
Pasternak, Dr. Zhivago, Vintage; Reprint edition (October 4, 2011), ISBN-10: 0307390950
ISBN-13: 978-0307390950 Trans. Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky
Hosking, Russian History a Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2012) ISBN 978-0-19-958098-9
Chagall, My Life, Peter Owen Publishers; Reprint edition ISBN-10: 0720613566/ ISBN-13:
978-0720613568
Web sources: Besides these resources, we also have the newspaper and secondary source
databases.
History of Russia: Primary Documents –
http://eudocs.lib.byu.edu/index.php/History_of_Russia:_Primary_Documents
Alexander Palace Russian History Website – http://www.alexanderpalace.org/
Russia History Timeline – http://www.pbs.org/weta/faceofrussia/timeline-index.html
Russian Archives Online – http://russianarchives.com/
REESWeb – http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/reesweb/
Hermitage Digital Collections – http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/fcgibin/db2www/browse.mac/category?selLang=English
Russian Propaganda Postcards: Russo-Japanese War (MIT) –
http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/yellow_promise_yellow_peril/yp_visnav04.html
Russian Graphic Art and Revolution of 1905 (Yale) –
http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/digitallibrary/russiangraphic.html
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Database of Soviet and Post-Soviet Russian Films – http://russiancinema.ru/
Works by Dostoevsky, Fyodor, 1821-1881 from Project Gutenberg –
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/d#a314
Online Books by Fyodor Dostoevsky from UPenn’s Digital Library Project–
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/search?author=Dostoyevsky%2c+
A Narrative History of Russia in the Age of Alexander II, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky by Walter
Moss – http://people.emich.edu/wmoss/publications/
Russian Satirical Journals, USC – http://dotsx2.usc.edu:3006/rsj/home
Dostoevsky Tales by Mikhail Rojter – http://www.russianart.dk/exhibition.asp?e=346
Tablet – http://www.tabletmag.com/arts-and-culture/books/52494/eskin-ongrossman/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=eskin-on-grossman
Resources on Russian Art –
http://www.lsa.umich.edu/slavic/dept/WebBasedLanguage/Russian/Culture/ResourcesonRussian
Art.htm
Sketches by Dostoevsky - http://www.ytayta.com/artists/dostoyevsky_fyodor
Dostoevsky’s works from the Nalanda Digital Library –
http://www.nalanda.nitc.ac.in/resources/english/etext-project/dostoevsky/Dostoyvsky.html#titles
The Brothers Karamazov from Dartmouth College –
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~karamazo/index.html
Russian Links/ Resources on the Web –
http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/classics/russian/russianlinks/
Russian Visual Arts – http://hri.shef.ac.uk/rva/index.html
Eastern European and Slavic Studies Collection, UW Madison –
http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/EastEurope/Browse.html
Internet History Sourcebook, Fordham University –
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook39.html
Icons and Images of Cultures: Plate Books from the Russian Empire, Early Soviet Russia, and
Eastern Europe, 1730-1935 –
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/dgexplore.cfm?col_id=194
Tolstoy and Dostoevsky Resources – http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/classics/russian/td/
the portal www.tolstoy-nasledie.rsl.ru with all of Tolstoy's texts is functioning again: In Russian
NABOKOV ON LITERATURE AND LIFE: BBC
INTERVIEW: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/01/18/vladimir-nabokov-james-mossmaninterview/
ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADES
No final and no midterm. There will be 2 quizzes, 5 journal entrees comprised of 500 words of
analysis of the assigned readings for the week (except in the case of Journal 5), and one short
paper of 2500 words on an assigned topic. Each will count for one third of the grade. All journals
are due at noon on Thursday. All assignments should be sent to me at: email
brooksjef@gmail.com
Approved forms of notation must be used in journal entrees and papers. Entrees must have page
numbers and should be in single spaced in times roman 12 point type. Pages should be
numbered. Late papers or journals will lose a plus or minus per day. Papers not in the proper
format will not be accepted. All citations should follow one of the approved forms given online
through our library in
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http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org.proxy1.library.jhu.edu/16/ch14/ch14_toc.html
ALSO ON RESERVE: You may also consult for questions of grammar: The Gregg Reference
Manual: A Manual of Style, Grammar, Usage, and Formatting (Tribute Edition by William A.
Sabin (2010), which should be on reserve or in reference.
Monday, March 18 - Sunday, March 24, Spring vacation
Friday, May 3 Last day of classes
Saturday, May 4 - Tuesday, May 7 Reading period
Wednesday, May 8 - Thursday, May 16 Final examination period
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