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Office Hours: Tuesdays 2:00-4:00 and after class

Please make an appointment

Scott Hall 235

732-932-7604 (e-mail is best)

gpirog@rci.rutgers.edu

http://seell.rutgers.edu

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This course will focus on the ways Russian painters, filmmakers and writers conceived and represented the Russian landscape. Central to our study will be the various ways that the representation of Nature reflects ideological, cultural, philosophical values. Whenever possible, comparison with non-Russian works will be introduced.

Readings: In addition to works that will be provided on the web, the following texts have been ordered at the University Bookstore:

Joseph Brodsky, Watermark; Venedikt Erofeev, Moscow To the End of the Line [Москва-Петушки]; Victor Pelevin, The Life of Insects, [Жизнь насекомых ]; Andrei Platonov, The Foundation Pit [Котлован]; Valentin Rasputin, Farewell to Matyora [Прощание с Матерой]; Ivan Turgenev A Sportsman’s Sketches [Записки охитника ]; Leo Tolstoy, Childhood...; Andrej Bely, Peterburg.

One good on line site for Russian texts is http://lib.ru. This has many writers and the Pelevin text we will be studying is there complete. Websites for art works we will be referring to are:

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/liberal_arts/foreign/russian/art/index.html

http://www.websher.net

Images: A good part of this course will be concerned with the way Russian (and other) artists have represented urban and rural landscapes. You will be responsible for studying these images either on line or at the Art Library.

e-reserve: I will put some of the required material on e-reserve at Alexander Library. To access e-reserve from home, you may have to make certain "proxy settings" on your computer. This information is available online at: http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/lib_servs/remote.shtml. You can always ask for assistance at the reserve desk.

Tentative Course Calendar (as of 8/11/2003)

Items in maroon are linked to texts or images

September 4 Images: Ideal Landscape	Introduction Recommended Reading
September 11 Images: The Pastoral , The Garden 18th Century Gardens http://www.abcgallery.com/Z/zubov/zubov6.html	Nature as Ethical Norm Rousseau: La Nouvelle Heloise, Part IV, Letters X-XI Karamzin: Poor Liza (Russian text)
September 13 Images: The Pastoral	Radishchev: Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow , "Edrovo" (Russian text) Pushkin: The Village (Russian text) Turgenev: "Meeting" in A Sportsman's Sketches (Russian text) Search for the Russian word Свидание
September 18	Gogol: Dead Souls, Chapter VI, "Pliushchin" (Russian text)
September 21 Images: The Realist Landscape	Goncharov: Oblomov, "Oblomov's Dream" (Russian Text) Recommended reading Links to images from class: http://www.hydojnik.ru/Ivanov/ http://www.hydojnik.ru/Savrasov/ http://www.hydojnik.ru/Polenov/ http://www.hydojnik.ru/Shishkin/ http://www.hydojnik.ru/Repin/ http://www.surikov.org.ru/images/index_clip_image004.jpg
September 25  Images: Isaak Levitan	Tolstoy, "Childhood" in Childhood, Boyhood, Youth (Russian text) Recommended reading http://www.hydojnik.ru/Levitan/
September 27                 Images: Isaak Levitan	Turgenev, "Bezhin Meadow" (Russian text) and "Forest and Steppe" (Russian text look for Лес и степь) in A Sportsman's Sketches Recommended Reading
October 2 Images: The Romantic Landscape	Romanticism: The Gothic/The Sublime Karamzin: The Island of Borgholm (It's after "Poor Liza") (Russian text)
October 4    In The Cherry Orchard, we will be concentrating only on the "play within the play." Images: Fin de Siecle Transformations of Nature Other sites: Vrubel Somov Dobuzhinsky Somov's Pastoral Russe at Christies	The Symbolist Transformation of Nature Chekhov: Seagull (Russian Text) Kuzmin: Mount Fuji Blok: "The Unknown Woman" See also: http://www.albany.edu/faculty/hbaran/modernism/gallery.htm#borisov-musatov and http://www.russianavantgard.com/master_pages/Master%2003%20-%20World%20of%20Art.html A Useful survey
October 9	Meet at the Zimmerli Museum lobby at 2:50.
October 11 First paper due	Fantasmagoric St. Petersburg: The Myth Pushkin: The Bronze Horseman (Russian text) An image of St. Petersburg in 1704 Images of the flood of 1724
October 16
October 18	Gogol: "Nevsky Prospect" (Russian Text)
October 23	Images of bridges in St. Petersburg
October 25   Portrait of Andrei Bely by Leon Bakst	Bely: Petersburg Recommended Reading
October 30	Bely: Petersburg (Russian text)
November 1	Bely: Petersburg Recommended Reading (Sections: "Dreams." and "Dudkin")
November 6	Take a look at the images in this article on Dobuzhinsky.
November 8	Brodsky: Watermark
November 13 Second paper due Images: Revolutionary Utopia Images: Avant Garde	The Landscape of Revolutionary Utopia and Anti-Utopia Eisenstein: The General Line (film) Please be on time for class Platonov, The Foundation Pit (Russian text)
November 15	Platonov, The Foundation Pit Recommended Reading
November 20	Farewell to Matyora (film) Please be on time for class
November 22 NO CLASS	THANKSGIVING
November 27	Ecological Disaster Rasputin: Farewell to Matyora (Russian text)
November 29
December 4	Rasputin: Farewell to Matyora (Russian text)
December 6	The Body as Landscape Viktor Pelevin: The Life of Insects (Russian text) W. H. Auden: "New Year's Greeting"
December 11           Last class	Venedikt Erofeev: Moscow to the End of the Line (Russian text)
December 15           Final paper due	Fall Exams Begin There is no final exam in this class
December 22-January 22	Winter Recess

(Russian text links are in parentheses)

English language texts are PDF files. There may be typos due to the innacuracy of scanning.

Course Requirements and Grades: See Grade Guidelines