RUSS 215 - The Meaning of Life: Dispatches from Nineteenth-Century Russia

Second semester.  Life was grim in nineteenth-century Russia!   Faced with an oppressive political system, overwhelming evidence  of suffering, poverty, and appalling ignorance,  the  imperfectability of human nature and the messiness of personal  relationships, and, finally, the specter of death, Russian  writers had ample opportunity to ponder the meaning – and  meaningless – of existence.  Their attempts to grapple with the  “cursed questions” of life gave rise to an extraordinarily rich  existentialist tradition.  Drawing on classic works by Pushkin,  Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov and others, the course will  take a sane, upbeat, and irreverent approach to some timeless and  very serious issues.

Prerequisites & Notes
Mr. Newlin

Credits: 3