RUSS 401(F) Senior Seminar: Russian Modernist Poetry
The late nineteenth century in Russia witnessed an unprecedented flowering in the arts that ushered in the so-called "Silver Age of Poetry." This course will focus on the exciting era of experimentation and innovation in Russian verse between 1900 and 1930, with a nod to both earlier and later poetic production. We will read lyrical and narrative works by poets associated with various important movements, including Symbolism (Aleksandr Blok, Andrei Belyi, Zinaida Gippius), Acmeism (Osip Mandelstam, Anna Akhmatova, Nikolai Gumilev), Futurism (Velimir Khlebnikov, Aleksei Kruchenykh, Vladimir Mayakovsky), and the OBERIU (Nikolai Zabolotsky, Daniil Kharms). We will also consider the poetry of other poets whose works resist easy classification, such as Marina Tsvetaeva and Boris Pasternak.
Format: seminar; students meet with the professor twice a week, plus one additional hour with the Russian TA. Requirements: active class participation, oral précis of one poem for each class, midterm project, and final 15-page paper.
Prerequisites: Russian 202 or permission of the instructor. Enrollment limit: 5 (expected: 5). Preference given to seniors majoring in Russian.
Hour: GOLDSTEIN