Slavic Languages and Literatures 46
Twentieth-Century Russian Literature (3 units, LG)
Professor Olga Matich
TuTh 12:30-2:00, 121 Wheeler Hall, CCN: 79845The beginning of the twentieth century was marked by artistic and cultural experiment in all of Europe. In Russia it coincided with major social and political changes brought about by the Revolution in 1917 and its aftermath. Literature played a central role in the process of transfiguring Russian society, providing models for the utopian future. In the first half of the course, we will examine the artistic and social experimentation inspired by Russian utopian ideology and its intent to construct a "new man" and "new woman." We will also examine the later abandonment of the utopian dream and read key texts criticizing Soviet totalitarian society. The readings will include selections from the experimental teens, revolutionary twenties, Stalinist thirties, dissident sixties and seventies, and post-Soviet eighties. This course can be used to satisfy the Arts and Literature breadth requirement in Letters and Science.
Olga Matich is a Professor of Russian literature and culture in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. Her teaching and research cover both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In 1996 she published a book on Soviet culture that she co-edited, called Laboratory of Dreams: The Russian Avant-Garde and Culture Experiment. She has just completed a book entitled Creating Love's Body: Experimental Life in the Russian Fin De Siecle.
