Course Requirements
Grading
Reading List
On Reserve or Reference in McCabe
Syllabus

This course rebalances the received canon of Russian literature by concentrating on the writing of female authors and their role in the entire literary process of their times. Starting shortly after modern Russian literature arose in the 18th century, we will read memoirs, autobiography, poetry, prose and literary criticism. Using the readings, we will explore tools of literary analysis and the intersections of academic discourse, particularly feminist theory and criticism, with the pleasures and ethics of reading.

(A note about spelling: Russian uses the Cyrillic alphabet ("backwards R's" and so on), so names must be transliterated. The variation in spelling may be confusing. I use "Library of Congress" transliteration here because, as its name suggests, it gives you access to library materials for further research. Don't hesitate to ask if something doesn’t make sense.)

• About one page of informal comments or questions on each day's reading, to hand in at the end of that day's class (I'll return them). Use the notes to record ideas for class discussion, to ask for information on specific topics, to experiment with possible paper topics or prose to use in other writing assignments, or to raise questions you don’t want to ask in class. I'll use them to keep track of everyone's mood and understanding, as a place to respond more extensively than might be possible in class, and perhaps as a source of provocative exam questions. The grade will be satisfactory or unsatisfactory (mainly depending on whether you hand them in).
• You will each be responsible for moderating one class discussion, of your choice, during the semester.
• Four written projects:
  • 1) A five-page double-spaced paper about one work we've read; if you wish, I can provide a list of sample topics. Due February 15.
  • 2) A bibliography of secondary sources on the Russian woman writer of your choice (aim for 4-5 pages). Due March 1.
  • 3) A ten-page paper comparing an author we've read to a woman writer we didn't read (Russian or not). Due April 12.
  • 4) A final "creative" assignment that may be one of the following, or some other appropriate option:
  • a 2-3 page book review of a work we didn't read;
  • a brief translation (poetry, prose) from Russian;
  • a thoughtful 2-3 page letter to one of the authors we read;
  • a 2-3 page polemic with one of our authors or with a critic cited in our readings;
  • a 2-3 page essay on a topic of your choice.
  • Discuss this one with me before starting work. Due April 26.
• The final examination will be a take-home (3 hours) due at the end of the exam period. Instructions will be included with the exams, handed out at the last meeting of the class.

Your grade for the course includes attendance and participation in discussion (20%), your written comments or questions (10%), written assignments (10%, 10%, 20% and 10%, respectively), and the final exam (20%).

To buy (in Swarthmore College Bookstore):

Anna Akhmatova, The Word that Causes Death’s Defeat
Lidiia Chukovskaia, Sofia Petrovna
Nadezhda Durova, The Cavalry Maiden
I. Grekova, The Ship of Widows
Nadezhda Khvoshchinskaia, The Boarding-School Girl
Evdokiia Nagrodskaia, The Wrath of Dionysus
Karolina Pavlova, A Double Life
Liudmilla Petrushevskaia, Time: Night
Marina Tsvetaeva, Ratcatcher
Evgeniia Tur, Antonina
Svetlana Vasilenko, Shamara and Other Writings

On reserve in McCabe:

Adele Barker, Consuming Russia
Adele Barker and Jehanne Gheith, A History of Women’s Writing in Russia
Bisha, Holden, Gheith et al., Russian Women, 1698-1917: Experience and Expression, an Anthology of Sources
Diana Burgin, Sophia Parnok: The Life and Work of Russia’s Sappho
Pamela Chester and Sibelan Forrester, Engendering Slavic Literatures
Toby Clyman and Judith Vowles, Russia Through Women’s Eyes
Ekaterina Dashkova, The Memoirs of Princess Dashkova
Laura Engelstein, The Keys to Happiness: Sex and the Search for Modernity in Fin-de-Siècle Russia
Helena Goscilo, Russian and Polish Women’s Fiction
Helena Goscilo and Beth Holmgren, Russia * Women * Culture
Diana Greene, Reinventing Romantic Poetry
Diana Greene and Toby Clyman, Women Writers in Russian Literature
Barbara Heldt, Terrible Perfection
Catriona Kelly, An Anthology of Russian Women’s Writing
Catriona Kelly, A History of Russian Women’s Writing, 1820-1992
Temira Pachmuss, Women Writers in Russian Modernism
Wendy Rosslyn, Anna Bunina (1774-1829) and the Origins of Women’s Poetry in Russia
Marina Tsvetaeva, Selected Poems
Anastasia Verbitskaia, The Keys to Happiness
Iuliia Voznesenskaia, The Women’s Decameron

Important reference works:

Marina Ledkovsky, Charlotte Rosenthal and Mary Zirin, eds., Dictionary of Russian Women Writers (PG2997 .D53 1994) -- brief entries on hundreds of writers, with bibliographies of works in Russian, translations, and criticism.

Christine Tomei, ed., Russian Women Writers (2 volumes) -- in Reference [PG3203 .W64 R868 1999]. Substantial entries on about 70 writers, each with a bio-critical essay, a translation of representative work, and a bibliography.

Diane Nemec-Ignashev, Women and Writing in Russia and the USSR: A Bibliography of English-Language Sources (PG2997 .N45 1992)

Claire Buck, ed., The Bloomsbury Guide to Women's Literature (PN471 .B57 1992 in Reference) -- brief entries, including some Russian writers; good for info. on women or works cited from other traditions.

Katharina M. Wilson, ed., The Encyclopedia of Continental Women Writers (PN481 .E5 1991 in Reference) -- brief entries, some Russian writers; includes only women from Continental Europe (not Britain.).

Victor Terras, ed., Handbook of Russian Literature (in Reference, PG 2940 .H29 1985)
Neil Cornwell, ed., Reference Guide to Russian Literature (in Reference, PG2940 .R44 1998)

Possible sources for the comparison paper:

Always a Woman: Stories by Soviet Women Writers, comp. Nina Kupriyanova
Joe Andrew, trans. and ed., Russian Women's Shorter Fiction: An Anthology 1835-1860
Nina Berberova, The Italics Are Mine
Lidiia Chukovskaia, Going Under
Evgenia Ginzburg, Journey Into the Whirlwind
Helena Goscilo, ed., Balancing Acts: Contemporary Stories by Russian Women
Helena Goscilo, Lives in Transit: A Collection of Recent Russian Women's Writing
Thomas H. Hoisington, ed. and trans., Out Visiting and Back Home: Russian Stories on Aging
Vera Inber, Leningrad Diary
Nadezhda Mandelshtam, Hope Against Hope
Sigrid McLaughlin, ed. and trans., The Image of Women in Contemporary Soviet Fiction: Selected Short Stories from the USSR
Olga Shapir, "The Settlement," trans. Catriona Kelly, in Anthology of Russian Women's Writing (on reserve for this course), pp. 118-152.
Short Stories by Soviet Writers
Elena Shvarts, "Paradise": Selected Poems, trans. Michael Molnar
Soviet Women's Writing: Fifteen Short Stories
Nadezhda Teffi, All About Love
Tatiana Tolstaya, Sleepwalker in a Fog
Marina Tsvetaeva, A Captive Spirit: Selected Prose
Simeon Vilensky, ed., Till My Tale Is Told: Women's Memoirs of the Gulag
Lidiia Zinov'eva-Annibal, The Tragic Menagerie

Weeks 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14

Week 1:

January 18 -- Introduction to the topic
(Read as soon as you can: Robin Bisha et al., eds, Russian Women, 1698-1917: pp. xxiii-xxix; Introduction, pp. 1-20.)

January 20 -- Catherine the Great; Ekaterina Dashkova
(On reserve: The Memoirs of Princess Dashkova: Jehanne Gheith, Introduction, pp. 1-26; pp. 31-89.)

Week 2:

January 25 -- Ekaterina Urusova, Anna Bunina
(On reserve: Catriona Kelly, A History of Russian Women’s Writing: Introduction, pp. 1-16;
Catriona Kelly, ed., An Anthology of Russian Women Writers: E. Urusova, pp. 1-2; Anna Bunina, pp. 3-11;
Gitta Hammarberg, “Gender Ambivalence and Genre Anomalies in late 18th - Early 19th-Century Russian Literature,” handout)

January 27 -- Nadezhda Durova
(Nadezhda Durova, The Cavalry Maiden: Mary Zirin, Introduction, pp. ix-xxxvii; pp. 1-18.)

Week 3:

February 1 -- Nadezhda Durova
(The Cavalry Maiden, pp. 19-182. Or to the end, if you wish.)

February 3 -- Karolina Pavlova
(Kelly, An Anthology: poetry, pp. 22-29; “At the Tea Table,” pp. 30-70;
Helena Goscilo and Beth Holmgren, eds., Russia * Women * Culture: Lina Bernstein, “Women on the Verge of a New Language,” pp. 209-224.)

Week 4:

February 8 -- Evdokiia Rostopchina
(Bisha et al., Russian Women, 1698-1917: pp. 97-99, 214;
Helena Goscilo, trans and ed., Russian and Polish Women’s Fiction: “Rank and Money, ” pp. 44-84.)

February 10 -- Karolina Pavlova, A Double Life

Week 5:

February 15 -- Elena Gan, Sofia Soboleva
(Bisha et al., Russian Women 1698-1917: Vissarion Belinskii, “Review of A Victim,” pp. 28-32; Elena Gan, pp. 209-213;
Kelly, An Anthology: Soboleva, “Pros and Cons,” pp. 71-113.)

February 17 -- Evgeniia Tur, Antonina

Week 6:

February 22 -- Nadezhda Khvoshchinskaia, The Boarding-School Girl

February 24 -- Tatiana Shchepkina-Kupernik
(Bisha et al, Russian Women, 1698-1917: “The First Ball,” pp. 324-335;
Helena Goscilo and Beth Holmgren, eds, Russia * Women * Culture: Beth Holmgren, “Gendering the Icon: Marketing Women Writers in Fin-de-Siècle Russia,” pp. 321-346.

Week 7:

March 1 -- Nadezhda Tèffi
(Kelly, An Anthology: “The Woman Question,” pp. 174-192; “Walled up,” pp. 193-201;
Temira Pachmuss, ed., Women Writers in Russian Modernism: pp. 261-313.)

>March 3 -- Zinaida Gippius, Poliksena Solov’ëva
(Temira Pachmuss, ed., Women Writers in Russian Modernism: Hippius, pp. 16-84; Solovyova, pp. 175-190.)

NOTE: this class session (March 3) will have to be rescheduled, ideally for an earlier date. Pizza and a longer session on March 1?

Week 8:

March 15 -- Evdokiia Nagrodskaia, The Wrath of Dionysus

March 17 -- Anastasiia Verbitskaia, The Keys to Happiness
(Anastasya Verbitskaya, Keys to Happiness: A Novel, trans. Helena Goscilo and Beth Holmgren: Introduction, pp. xi-xxix; browse the text of the novel till you find something sexy, shocking, or otherwise interesting.)

Week 9:

March 22 -- Anna Akhmatova, early lyric poems
(Exercise in comparing translations)

March 24 -- Sofiia Parnok, Marina Tsvetaeva (Diana Burgin, Sophia Parnok: pp. xxiii-xxvi, 1-11, 103-134 [browse elsewhere in the book for poems if you like];
Marina Tsvetaeva, Selected Poems, trans. Elaine Feinstein: pp. 10-33)

NOTE: this class session (March 24) will have to be rescheduled.

Week 10:

March 29 -- Marina Tsvetaeva, Ratcatcher

March 31 -- Anna Akhmatova, “Requiem”
(The Word that Causes Death’s Defeat: Preface, pp. vii-xii; pp. 135-147.)

Week 11:

April 5 -- Lidiia Chukovskaia, Sofia Petrovna

April 7 ­ Anna Akhmatova, “Poem Without a Hero”
(pp. 92-131; The Word that Causes Death’s Defeat, pp. 148-178.)

Week 12:

April 12 -- I. Grekova, The Ship of Widows

April 14 -- Voznesenskaia, A Women’s Decameron
(“The First Day,” pp. 1-36; browse the rest of the book for other fun stories if you would like)

Week 13:

April 19 -- Liudmila Petrushevskaia, Time: Night

April 21 -- Tatiana Tolstaya
(Tatiana Tolstaya, On the Golden Porch: “Okkervil River” (pp. 17-29), “Sweet Shura” (pp. 30-40), “Hunting the Woolly Mammoth” (pp. 51-62), “Fire and Dust” (pp. 100-115), “Date with a Bird” (pp. 116-130), ”Sonya” (pp. 144-154))

Week 14:

April 26 -- Svetlana Vasilenko, Shamara and Other Writings

April 28 -- special assignment: go on the web and find someone young and interesting in translation. Bring URL and printout to class and report on the writer.

Final exam: 3-hour take-home exam, open-book and open notes.

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