WINTER 2020: ANNA KARENINA
Instructor: Professor Galya Diment
RUSS 340
sln: 22039
TTH 12:30-2:20
One of the greatest "romances" ever written, Anna Karenina is judged by many to be an unprecedented masterpiece of not only Russian but world literature. We will explore the historical times during which it appeared and read Tolstoy’s wife’s diary and, among other criticism, Vladimir Nabokov’s delightful take on the novel. The course will also examine the novel's moral and ideological assumptions about family, marriage, relationship, women’s role, and how these reflected the author's (and, his wife’s!) views as well as the culture and society around him.
Required readings (all at UBookstore):
Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (Norton critical edition)
Sofia Tolstoy, Diaries
Jane Burbank et al., Imperial Russia: New Histories for the Empire
Vladimir Nabokov, Lectures on Russian Literature
Donna Tussing Orwin, The Cambridge Companion to Tolstoy
William Shirer, Love and Hatred: The Troubled Marriage of Leo and Sonya Tolstoy
Grading is based on class participation, midterm and take home final
Alternative joint course numbers:
ENGL 300A/CHID 495B/HONORS 241B/C LIT 396A