Petersburg was the flashpoint of revolution in early twentieth-century Russia. Virtually from the time Peter the Great wrenched the city from the northern swamp three hundred years ago, Petersburg has served as a cultural shorthand for many of the tensions in Russian society. In this seminar, we will identify how Russian writers and artists have engaged with the city during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We will start with excerpts from Bely's Petersburg and with the city's foundation myth, establishing a set of questions about the city's role in Russian culture that will guide our inquiry throughout the semester. We will consider Petersburg as a cultural and artistic foil to Moscow, and will spend time studying the architectural and semiotic contrasts between the two cities. The first half of the semester will focus on literature; the second half will focus on music, film, and other arts according to student interest. Primary materials will include works by Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Blok, Bely, Mandelshtam, Brodsky, Eisenstein, Pudovkin, Mamin, Shostakovich. Students will also monitor the current Russian press for articles relevant to the course topic. Primary course readings will be in Russian, with some background readings in English. Classes will be conducted entirely in Russian. Requirements: active class participation, frequent short written assignments, in-class presentations, and a final research project. Prerequisites: Russian 202 or the permission of the instructor.

Hour: WELSH