SLL 302: Modern Russian Literature

SLL 302: Modern Russian Literature

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Fall 2011 TTh 11-12:20 SOS B41

Professor Seifrid

SLL 302

Modern Russian Literature

Schedule of Readings and Topics for Discussion

Please note: occasionally it may be necessary to make changes in this schedule

August 23Introduction to the course

1881 – Fedor Dostoevsky dies

1882 – Lev Tolstoy publishes his Confession, product of his recent emotional and artistic crisis in which he renounces his earlier belletristic writings

25Anton Chekhov, "Chameleon," "Oysters," “Agatha,” “Vanka,” “Sleepy,” "Anna on the Neck," in Anton Chekhov's Short Stories

30Chekhov, "The House with the Mansard," "The Man in a Case," "Gooseberries"

September 1Chekhov, "The Bishop," "The Lady with the Dog"

6Chekhov, "The Darling"; Ivan Bunin, "Light Breathing," 58-65 in The Portable Twentieth-Century Russian Reader

1904 – Chekhov dies, of tuberculosis, in Germany

1905 – industrial unrest and workers’ protests lead to a “revolution” which forces Tsar Nicholas II to approve the formation of a legislative body (the Duma) and rule as a constitutional monarch

1907 – Maksim Gorky’s political novel Mother, considered one of the forerunners of socialist realism, published

1910 – Tolstoy dies

8Isaac Babel, "The Story of My Dovecot," "Guy de Maupassant" in Collected Stories

13Babel, stories from Red Cavalry: "Crossing the Zbruch," "The Catholic Church in Novograd," "Pan Apolek," "Gedali," "My First Goose," "The Way to Brody"; in Collected Stories

20Evgeni Zamyatin, "The Cave," 90-104 in The Portable Twentieth-Century Russian Reader

22Fyodor Gladkov, Cement, 1-89

27Gladkov, Cement, 90-216

29Gladkov, Cement, 217-311

October 4Yuri Olesha, Envy, in Portable Twentieth-Century Russian Reader, 246-309

6Olesha, Envy, 309-78

1924 – Vladimir Il’ich Lenin dies

1928 – Iosif (Joseph) Stalin consolidates his rule of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

1928-1932 (sic) – the first of Stalin’s “Five-Year” Plans of rapid industrialization; forced collectivization of agriculture

1937 – the height of the Purges: arbitrary arrests, imprisonment, exile to labor camps, executions; victims in the millions

18Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita, chs.1-6

20Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita, chs.7-18

25Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita, chs. 19-21

27Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita, chs.22-26

November 1Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita, chs. 27-32, Epilogue

3Alexander Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

1941-1945 – the Soviet Union suffers horrific losses (20 million) in World War II, but emerges victorious and extends its influence in eastern Europe

1953 – Stalin dies

1956 – Nikita Khrushchev delivers “secret speech” to Party congress in which he denounces Stalin’s crimes and “cult of personality”

1956-1963 – the “Thaw,” a period of relative liberalization in cultural life

17Tatyana Tolstaya, “Okkervil River,” “On the Golden Porch,” “Sonya,” in White Walls. Collected Stories.

22Tolstaya, “Sleepwalker in a Fog,”in White Walls. Collected Stories.

{Thanksgiving break}

29Viktor Pelevin, Omon Ra

December 1Pelevin, Omon Ra, cont’d.

*second essay due

Reference materials

There is, of course, the internet and Wikipedia and all that. But the information it provides can be very uneven, and at times is simply incorrect. It is also almost always superficial. The following works are recommended as more substantial and reliable sources on such topics as the historical and political background of modern Russian literature, key literary movements, and brief biographies of writers:

Edward J. Brown, Russian Literature Since the Revolution, revised and enlarged ed. (Harvard UP, 1982) Leavey and Doheny PG3022.B7 1982

Deming Brown, Soviet Russian Literature Since Stalin (Cambridge UP, 1978) Doheny PG3022.B68

------. The Last Years of Soviet Russian Literature: Prose Fiction 1975-1991 (Cambridge up, 1993) Doheny PG3098.4.B76 1993

N.N. Shneidman, Soviet Literature in the 1980s: A Decade of Transition (U Toronto Press, 1989) Leavey and Doheny PG3098.4.S485 1989

------. Russian Literature, 1988-1994: The End of an Era (U Toronto Press, 1995) Doheny PG3098.4.S47 1995

------. Russian Literature, 1995-2002: On the Threshold of the New Millenium (U Toronto Press, 2004) Doheny PG3098.4.S473 2004

Victor Terras, Handbook of Russian Literature (Yale UP, 1985) Leavey and Doheny PG2940.H29 1985

Wolfgang Kasack, Dictionary of Russian Literature Since 1917 (Columbia UP, 1988) Leavey and Doheny Reference Z2500.K3513 1988

For historical background an excellent resource is:

Nicholas Riasanovsky and Mark Steinberg, A History of Russia. 8th edition. (Oxford University Press 2011) Doheny DK 40 R5 2011

Contact information:

My office is in Taper Hall 255 and my phone number is 213-740-2735.

email: (you can also contact me via the Blackboard website for the course)

Office hours: T 10-11 and 1:30-2:30; Th 10-11; and by appointment

Requirements for the course

Attendance at all meetings of this course is mandatory. For each class I expect you to have read the assigned material and to be prepared to discuss it. I strongly recommend that you take notes on the readings and commit key statements, ideas, images, and so forth to memory.

Readings: all works listed above on this syllabus are required and have been ordered through the USC bookstore.

Written work: two essays, the first due on Tuesday, October 11; the second due on Thursday, December 1. NB! Late papers will be marked down one letter grade for every day they are late—counting weekends—and may be returned without extensive comments.

Examination: one final exam, on Tuesday, December 13, 8-10 a.m.

Grade distribution: participation in class discussions, preparedness: 15%; paper no.1, 25%, paper no.2, 35%; final exam, 25%.

Do not even think of plagiarizing other sources in your papers. This includes materials obtained from the internet. If you are at all uncertain as to what constitutes plagiarism, please see USC’s Guide for Avoiding Plagiarism ( or consult the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (e.g., Section 1.8 in the Fifth Edition); or come talk to me. Penalties for academic integrity violations—which are serious—are outlined on the website for Student Judicial Affairs (

Please also note: Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure that the letter is delivered to me as early in the semester as possible. DSP is located in STU 301 and is open 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The phone number for DSP is (213) 740-0776.