20th cent. Lit course "Women in Russian Lit"

Laura Osterman laura.osterman at COLORADO.EDU
Tue May 29 17:47:39 UTC 2007


In addition to what others have recommended: 

 

For the poets, working in translation is always a problem. I use Akhmatova's
"Requiem" and Tsvetaeva's "My Mother and Music," both of which work well in
translation (of course with explanations in class of what does not come
across in the translation).

 

Natalia Baranskaya's "A Week Like Any Other" works well for the Brezhnev
period. Students appreciate the text's immediacy and the way it hints at
what many American students consider a feminist perspective.

 

I also spotlight prostitution in the glasnost period, using Galina
Scherbakova's "The Three Loves of Masha Peredreeva" and the film Intergirl.
Earlier in the semester we have read Kollontai's "Sisters" so that becomes a
theme linking NEP and glasnost. In connection with prostitution we discuss
women's agency, the link between sexuality and identity, and the
marketplace/capitalism.

 

For a historical perspective Barbara Engel's book Women in Russia works well
read alongside the literature. 

 

Good luck!

--Laura

 

Laura Olson Osterman

Associate Professor of Russian

Dept. of Germanic and Slavic

Univ. of Colorado

276 UCB, McKenna 129

Boulder, CO 80309-0276

 

(303) 492-7729

dept. (303) 492-7404

fax (303) 492-5376

 

-----Original Message-----

From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
[mailto:SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Olga Meerson

Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2007 10:28 AM

To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU

Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] 20th cent. Lit course "Women in Russian Lit"

 

Woman's points of view in a male author: Detstvo Liuvers, 

Women writers of prose: Evgeniia Ginzburg's and Nadezhda Mandel'stam's
memoirs. More later.

o.m.

 

----- Original Message -----

From: trubikhina at AOL.COM

Date: Tuesday, May 29, 2007 8:16 am

Subject: [SEELANGS] 20th cent. Lit course "Women in Russian Lit"

 

> Dear colleagues,

> 

> I am wondering if you could offer me some pragmatic and helpful 

> suggestions. This summer I am working to develop an undergraduate 

> course called "Women in Russian Literature." The specifics of our 

> situation is that this is the only way at present time that we can 

> quickly get a course in 20th-century Russian Literature that we 

> sorely need through curriculum committees (it already exists on 

> the books) and also enroll it (by cross-listing with Women Studies 

> and English). 

> Therefore, we have a double goal: there should be a women studies 

> component to it BUT PRIMARILY it should be a course in 20th-

> century Russian Literature.  Women can be both authors (I am 

> certainly planning to include Tsvetaeva, Akhmatova, and Gippius) 

> and characters/subject/conceptual focus, which makes it easier to 

> include the most important 20th-century male authors. 

> 

> I was wondering if you could help me by offering suggestions 

> a) about the specific texts/authors to use (other than the three 

> women authors mentioned above) that would be both the highlights 

> of 20th-century R.Lit. and/or have important women 

> characters/protagonists (OR concept of femininity at the work's 

> center, like, e.g., Blok's Russia=eternal femininity concept).

> b) a theoretical perspective that a course aimed at fulfilling 

> such a dual purpose could use.

> 

> I will be grateful for and looking forward to all suggestions, on 

> or off the list,

> 

> Julia

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> -------------------

> Julia Trubikhina

> 

> Assistant Professor of Russian

> Russian Program Coordinator

> Department of Modern Languages and Literatures

> Montclair State University

> Dickson Hall, Room 138

> Montclair, NJ 07043

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> ________________________________________________________________________

> AOL now offers free email to everyone.  Find out more about what's 

> free from AOL at AOL.com.

> 

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