EEER 31 The World as Word: 19th Century Russian Fiction
In his Philosophical Letters, Pyotr Chaadaev, a 19th century Russian intellectual, compared Russian history to the history of Western civilization. Chaadaev proclaimed that Russia had been cut off from the global community, belonged to no cultural system, and contributed nothing to the progress of the human spirit. Since then, Russian writers and thinkers have wrestled with Chaadaev’s categorical verdict. One response from the 20th century poet Osip Mandelstam pointed out that Chaadaev had overlooked one singular contribution: the Russian language. “Such a highly organized, such an organic language is not merely a door into history, it is history itself.” Taking Mandelstam’s point to its logical conclusion, it is Russia’s literature that becomes the Rosetta stone to the exceptional nature of the Russian experience. In this course, we will explore some of the texts that make up this Rosetta stone. While reading some of the most celebrated works from 19th century Russian fiction – texts by Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Turgenev, Goncharov, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Chekhov – we will attempt to account for the distinct character of Russian literature and its unique role in Russian history and culture.