79-419 20th Century Russian Masterpieces

9 units, Carnegie Mellon University

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian Empire underwent a series of dramatic changes in quick succession industrial modernization, the unsuccessful 1905 rebellion, terrible losses in the First World War, finally culminating in the 1917 October Revolution. The literature and culture of the era were deeply impacted by these upheavals as artists and writers of the era attempted to capture and convey the world rapidly shifting around them. This course will acquaint students with canonical texts from 20thcentury Russian literature and will also examine the highly specific context in which they were produced. From the findesicle aesthetics of a crumbling Russian Empire to the avantgarde experimentalism of the Russian Revolution and Civil War era, to the establishment of Socialist Realism and the implementation of a Totalitarian regime under Stalin, the course invites students to think about both the realities of life and artistic production in a rapidly transforming country as well as the ways in which these works bring contemporary readers to the inner lives of Soviet citizens.

Prerequisites: none listed

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