REES 24420 Russian Short Fiction: Experiments in Form
Russian literature is known for the sweeping epics that Henry James once dubbed the "loose baggy monsters." However, in addition to the famed 'doorstop novels,' the Russian literary canon also has a long tradition of innovative short fiction-of short stories and novellas that experiment with forms of storytelling and narration. This course focuses on such works, as well as the narrative strategies and formal devices that allow these short stories and novellas to be both effective and economical. Throughout the quarter, we will read short fiction from a variety of Russian authors and examine the texts that establish the tradition of Russian short fiction as well as those that push its boundaries. We will attend to the formal characteristics of these texts, analyze their approach to storytelling, and ultimately question what these texts reveal about our appetite for narrative. Authors sampled include: Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Platonov, Nabokov, Tolstaya, and many others! No prior knowledge of Russian language or literature is required.