REST 354 - Terror, Dissent, Russians, Jews: Literature and Life in 20th-Century Russia (SO)

The individual and the state in times of upheaval; dreams of utopia and their aftermath. Not all writers are Jewish, but all of them look at Jews in some way, Jews being for better or worse a kind of Russian obsession. In addition to looking at Russians in the Russian Revolution, the course examines Jews in the Russian Revolution, both as victims and participants. In the context of a novel about World War II whose subject is Soviet heroism and cowardice, students see Jewish soldiers, Jewish victims, and Jews reacting to postwar anti-Semitism. Writers include Chekhov, Mayakovsky, Babel, Il’f and Petrov, Bulgakov, Grossman, Kundera, and Nabokov. All works are read in translation, but students with three years of Russian or the approval of the instructor are welcome to sign up for a FLAC section. (SO)

Credits: 1.00
Crosslisted: JWST 354
Corequisite: None
Prerequisites: None
Major/Minor Restrictions: None
Class Restriction: None
Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
Liberal Arts CORE: None

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