No novel can be reduced to a set of political beliefs, and yet we often feel that novels speak to our political theories and practices. What makes a novel “political”? How does our understanding of political power change when we imagine detailed and dramatic confrontations between individuals and the state, individuals and empire, or individuals and global ideologies? How does narrative form reinforce or undermine ideology? What archetypal dramas—protest against authority, the loss of political innocence, the battle between tolerance and conviction—have shaped the political novel in its various traditions from the nineteenth century to the present? For spring 2018, our readings will include works by Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Conrad, Olbracht, Koestler, Kundera, Gordimer, Satrapi, Bolaño, and Hamid.

This course explores Vladimir Nabokov’s novels, focusing primarily on his Russian works in English translation (Despair, Invitation to a Beheading, The Gift) but concluding with his English language masterpiece Lolita. We will consider, among much else, themes of cross-cultural literature, self-translation, and emigration, and the course will pay particular attention to Nabokov’s interest in cinema and film aesthetics. 

This course surveys a broad selection of Soviet films and film realisms (Socialist Realism, Neorealism, Magical Realism, Surrealism) from the 1930s to 1980s. It combines considerations of film form and cinematic technique with the discussion of the ever-difficult concept of realism in art. Students will develop a familiarity with the history of Soviet cinema as well as "visual literacy" – critical vocabulary and analytical tools that will enable them to respond to visual material critically and creatively. The screenings for this course will include the musical comedies of Grigori Alexandrov, historical epics of Sergei Eisenstein, surrealist dreamscapes of Andrei Tarkovsky and Tengiz Abuladze as well as the absurdist collages of Soviet reality of Kira Muratova, among many others.

This course explores how Chekhov revolutionized the short story while simultaneously laying the foundations for modern drama. Reading his four major plays and a wide selection from his prose, we trace the arc of his career, looking closely at his aesthetic innovations, moral psychology, and philosophical perspective. Finally, we probe the relationship between the prose and drama by working together to dramatize his stories. Students will write, produce, and/or act in a final collective performance, thus retracing for ourselves Chekhov’s steps in moving between art forms and inventing a new kind of psychological theater. All readings are in English translation.