RUS2015   Reading the Revolution   (10 credits)

Description

Between the early 1880s and the mid 1930s, Russian society and culture went through changes of astonishing scale and variety. During this period of rapid population expansion, modernization and political upheaval, the literary world's established role of social commentator was transformed. As with other art forms, it consciously rejected old values and developed radically new forms as it sought new ones to fit its visions of the future. Through works by Blok, Akhmatova, Tsvetaeva, Mayakovsky, Gorky and Bulgakov (among others) we shall see how competing aesthetic and political factors shaped an excitingly diverse and original period of literature.

Reading List