Russian

Despite their enormous contributions at many historical points, women writers still struggle for full acceptance in the Russian literary canon, witness special sections even today in most Russian bookstores for “Feminine Literature”. This course will examine the work of a range of better and lesser known Russian women writers from the late 18th to the early 21st centuries, in poetry, prose, drama and memoir. Writers to be studied include Catherine the Great, the “Russian Amazon”, Nadezhda Durova a cross-dressing cavalry maiden during the Napoleonic campaign, the giants of the Silver Age Anna Akhmatova and Marina Tsvetaeva, ostensible socialist-realists like Vera Panova, Natalia Baranskaia and I. Grekova, dissident figures such as Evgeniia Ginzburg and Natalia Gorbanevskaia, and older and younger contemporary writers such as Ludmila Petrushevskaia, Tatiana Tolstaia, and Marina Palei. Works and authors will be studied in historical and cultural context, and connections to other arts, in particular visual arts, film and popular music will also be explored. The course and all readings are in English. Open to students who have completed at least 30 ch of university courses or by permission of the instructor. Students with credit for RSST 4003 Russian Women Writers may not take this course for credit.