RSn062 The Russian World: A Concise Cultural and Literary History

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2019
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
prof. PhDr. Ivo Pospíšil, DrSc. (lecturer)
prof. PhDr. Ivo Pospíšil, DrSc. (seminar tutor)
Guaranteed by
prof. PhDr. Ivo Pospíšil, DrSc.
Department of Slavonic Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: doc. PhDr. Jiří Gazda, CSc.
Supplier department: Department of Slavonic Studies – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Tue 16:00–17:40 D21
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
A semestral lecture and a seminar (1/1) cover the problems of specific features of Russian geopolitical, cultural and literary area in comparison with Central and Western Europe: it concerns the history of Eastern Slavs in general and the Russians in particular, the history of Russian culture and especially literature reflecting a specific evolutionary paradigm of Russian cultural space, history and peculiarities of its political system and the causes why Russian culture and art/literature occupied the world respected, key and inspiring position in the course of the 19th and 20th centuries and how it affected and still does affect the situation of Russia even after 1991 and clarifies its contemporary problems and international influence. Russian literature stands in the focus as a stimulating and multifunctional kind of art substituting various types of activities including sciences and philosophy and had an immense political influence. The seminar will be devoted to students’ individual reading (in the original or in English translations) and the analyses of several significant texts and discussions, as well as presentation of students’ own coursework.
Learning outcomes
At the end of the course the student will have knowledge of special development of the Russian area, will orient in the Russian history in the context of the whole East Slavonic area, in its culture and literature, in Russian philosophy, social thought and science, in the political system (diachronically and synchronically), revolutions and social reforms and in art, will be able to independently analyse relevant non-artistic and artistic texts and to write about Russian world independent scientific works.
Syllabus
  • Seminar Programme:
  • Reading literary texts (original and English translations)
  • Preparation of individual papers, presentations and discussions
  • Criticism and evaluation of individual papers
  • 1) The Mysteries of Russia Go Back to Its Past
  • 2) Eastern Slavs, the Russians, the Ukrainians, and the Byelorusians
  • 3) The Formation of the Russian World
  • 4) The Peculiarities of State, System of Government, and Cultural Phenomena
  • 5) The Beginnings of Russian Literature: the Problem of the Language
  • 6) The Clash between the Middle Ages and the Modern Era
  • 7) The Destiny of Russian Reforms in the 17th-21th centuries
  • 8) The Character of Russian Literature and Its Relation to European Development
  • 9) The Golden Age of Russian Literature
  • 10) The Silver Age – Russian Modernism
  • 11) Russian Philosophy and Its Literary Character
  • 12) The Triplicity of the 20th-Century Russian Literature
  • 13) The Question of Literary Currents as a Key to the Poetics of Literature: from Neoclassicism and Sentimentalism to Post-Postmodernism
  • 14) The Genre Structure of Russian Literature
  • 15) The Russian Revolution and the Russian Revolutions: the Problem of Literature and Arts
  • 16) The Soviet World and Its Culture
  • 17) Russia Abroad: Reception, Diaspora, Political Emigration and Literature
  • 18) Russian Literature in European and Slavonic Context
  • 19) The Role of the Russian World Today
Literature
    recommended literature
  • Svjatopol-Mirskij: D. P.: A History of Russian Literature from Its Beginnings to 1900. New York, Vintage Books 1958.
  • Livak, L.: The Jewish Persona in the European Imagination. Stanford University Press 2010.
  • Eastern Christianity and the Cold War (ed. by Lucian N. Leustean). Routledge, London – New York 2010.
  • Ram, H.: The Imperial Sublime: a Russian Poetics of Empire. University of Wisconsin Press 2003.
  • A History of Women’s Writing in Russia (eds by Adele Marie Barker and Jehanne M. Ghelth). Cambridge University Press, UK, - New York 2002.
  • Rabinowitch, A.: The Bolsheviks in Power: the First Year of Soviet Rule in Petrograd. Bloomington: Indiana University Press 2007.
  • Golburt, L.: The First Epoch: the Eighteenth Century and the Russian Cultural Imagination. The University of Wisconsin Press 2014.
  • Ulam, A. B.: The Bolsheviks: the Intellectual and Political History of the Triumph of Communism in Russia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press 1998.
  • Sokolsky, A. A.: A History of the Russian Language. University of South Florida 1966.
  • Gibian, G.: Interval of Freedom: Soviet Literature During the Thaw, 1544-1957. University of Minnesota Press 1960.
  • Bakhtin, M.: Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics. University of Minnesota Press 1984.
  • Clements, B. E.: A History of Women in Russia: From Earliest Times to the Present. Bloomington: Indian University Press 2012.
  • Brown, W. E.: A History of Russian Literature of the Romantic Period. Ann Arbor 1986.
  • Patterson, D.: Exile: the Sense of Alienation in Modern Russian Letters. Kentucky University Press 1995.
  • Saunders, R.: Historical Dictionary of the Russian Federation. Scarecrowe Press 2010. Shubin, D.: A History of Russian Christianity, New York 2004.
  • A history of Russian literary theory and criticism : the soviet age and beyond. Edited by Jevgenij Dobrenko - Galin Tichanov. Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011, xvi, 406. ISBN 9780822944119. info
  • KAGANOVSKY, Lilya. How the Soviet man was unmade: cultural fantasy and male subjectivity under Stalin. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008. info
  • The legacy of ancient Rome in the Russian silver age. Edited by Anna Frajlich. New York, NY: Rodopi, 2007, 220 p. ISBN 9789042022515. info
  • The Cambridge history of Russia. Edited by Maureen Perrie. 1st pub. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006, xxii, 777. ISBN 0521812275. info
  • A history of Russian symbolism. Edited by Ronald E. Peterson. Philadelphia: J. Benjamins Pub. Co., 1993, xiii, 254. ISBN 9789027276902. info
  • The Cambridge history of Russian literature. Edited by Charles A. Moser. rev. ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, x, 709. ISBN 0521425670. info
  • VERNADSKIJ, Georgij Vladimirovič. A history of Russia. New York: New home library, 1944, xi, 517. info
    not specified
  • Andrej Gračov: Zkáza Sověrského svazu. Grada. Praha 2017.
  • Sheila Fitzpatricková: Ruská revoluce. CPress, Brno 2017.
  • CLARK, Katerina. Moskva, čtvrtý Řím : stalinismus, kosmopolitismus a vývoj sovětské kultury 1931-1941. Translated by Petruška Šustrová. Vydání první. Praha: Academia, 2016, 624 stran. ISBN 9788020025890. info
  • Dějiny Ruska 20. století. Edited by Andrej Borisovič Zubov, Translated by Libor Dvořák - Zuzana Soukupo. Vydání první. Praha: Argo, 2015, 769 s. ISBN 9788025709641. info
  • CLARK, Katerina. Sovětský román: dějiny jako rituál. Translated by Vít Schmarc. Vydání první. Praha: Academia, 2015, 411 stran. ISBN 9788020024039. info
  • POSPÍŠIL, Ivo. Stará literatura východních Slovanů a ruská literatura 18. století (Přehled a exkurzy z literatury 11.-17. století) (Old Literature of Eastern Slavs and 18th-Century Russian Literature (Outline and Probes from the 11-17th-Century Literature)). 1. vyd. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2014, 196 pp. ISBN 978-80-210-7281-7. Digitální knihovna FF MU info
  • SHALEV, Meir. Ruský román. Translated by Šárka Melanie Sedláčková. Vyd. 1. Praha: Garamond, 2012, 431 s. ISBN 9788074071348. info
  • ŠVANKMAJER, Milan. Dějiny Ruska. 6., dopl. vyd. Praha: NLN Nakladatelství lidové noviny, 2010, 601 s. ISBN 9788074220265. info
  • POSPÍŠIL, Ivo. Ruská literatura a východoslovanský kontext dnes: světové a geopolitické aspekty (Russian literature and the East-Slavonic contects today: the world and geopolitical aspects). In Klíčové problémy slovanských areálů. Brno: Univerzita třetího věku, Masarykova univerzita, 2009, p. 17-29. Klíčové problémy slovanských areálů. info
  • POSPÍŠIL, Ivo. Ruská literatura pro děti a mládež (Russian childerns and youths literature). In Slovník autorů literatury pro děti a mládež 1. Praha: LIBRI, 2007, p. 116-124. Zahraniční spisovatelé. ISBN 978-80-7277-314-5. info
  • Aby se literatura stala inspirací : ruská literatura očima Miloslava Jehličky. Edited by Stanislav Rubáš - Jiří Honzík - Ladislav Zadražil - Miloslav Jeh. Vyd. 1. Praha: Univerzita Karlova v Praze, nakladatelství Karolinum, 2006, 85 s. ISBN 8024612984. info
  • POSPÍŠIL, Ivo. Ruská literatura a literární věda jako vize a sebereflexe (Russian Literature and Literary Criticism as Vision and Self-Reflection). 1st ed. Nitra: Univerzita Konštantína Filozofa, 2006, 250 pp. Bulgakov a dnešok. ISBN 80-8050-977-8. info
  • POSPÍŠIL, Ivo. Ruský román znovu navštívený : historie, uzlové body vývoje, teorie a mezinárodní souvislosti : od počátků k výhledu do současnosti. V Brně: Nadace Universitas, 2005, 209 s. ISBN 8072044230. info
  • FIGES, Orlando. Natašin tanec : kulturní dějiny Ruska. Translated by Daria Dvořáková. Vyd. 1. Praha: BETA-Dobrovský & Ševčík, 2004, 571 s. ISBN 8073061627. info
  • ZAHRÁDKA, Miroslav. Ruská literatura XX. století : (literární proudy a osobnosti). 1. vyd. V Olomouci: Periplum, 2003, 236 s. ISBN 8086624080. info
  • FIGES, Orlando. Lidská tragédie : ruská revoluce 1891-1924. Translated by Daria Dvořáková. Vyd. 1. Praha: BETA-Dobrovský & Ševčík, 2000, 837 s. ISBN 807291006X. info
  • POSPÍŠIL, Ivo. Ruská literatura a my. In Slavica Litteraria. Praha, 2000, p. 122-124. Slavica Litteraria, X 4. ISBN 5-8600-224-4. info
  • POSPÍŠIL, Ivo. Ruská literatura (The Russian Literature). In Světové literatury 20. století v kostce. Praha: LIBRI, 1999, p. 167-189. ISBN 80-85983-80-X. info
  • POSPÍŠIL, Ivo. Ruský román : nástin utváření žánru do konce 19. století. Vyd. 1. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 1998, 136 s. ISBN 8021017708. info
  • ZADRAŽILOVÁ, Miluše. Ruská literatura přelomu 19. a 20. století. 1. vyd. Praha: Karolinum, 1995, 244 s. ISBN 8071840092. info
  • POSPÍŠIL, Ivo. Současná ruská literatura. In Současná ruská literatura. Brno: Akademické nakladatelství CERM, 1995. ISBN 80-85867-73-7. info
  • POSPÍŠIL, Ivo. Václav Černý a ruská literatura. Slavia : časopis pro slovanskou filologii. Praha: Euroslavica, 1994, vol. 3, No 1, p. 331-337. ISSN 0037-6736. info
  • ZAHRÁDKA, Miroslav. Dogmata a živý literární proces : (jak vznikala úzká norma socialistického realismu a jak s ní ruská literatura bojovala). Olomouc: M. Zahrádka, 1992, 80 s. info
  • VÁCLAVEK, Bedřich. Ruská revoluce a literatura. Praha: Lidové nakladatelství, 1980. info
  • PANKRATOVA, Anna Michajlovna. První ruská revoluce v letech 1905-1907. Translated by Josef Kresta - Jaroslav Rychlý. 1. aut. vyd. Praha: Rovnost, 1952, 207 s. URL info
  • VILINSKIJ, Valerij Sergejevič. Ruská revoluce : 1825-1936. Přerov: nákladem Knihkupectví společenských podniků, 1936, 226 stran. info
  • HUDEC, Josef. Ruská revoluce. (březen, duben a květen 1917). V Praze: [s.n., 1920, 154 s. info
  • BIDLO, Jaroslav. Dějiny Ruska v devatenáctém století. V Praze: Nákladem J. Otty, 1908, 208 s. URL info
  • BIDLO, Jaroslav. Dějiny Ruska v devatenáctém století. V Praze: Nákladem J. Otty, 1907, xvi, 175. URL info
Teaching methods
1) To work out a coursework and to present its main theses
2) Discussion
3) A test concerning the content of the lecture
Assessment methods
colloquium (oral discussion-based exam)
Language of instruction
Russian
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is taught annually.
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2020, Autumn 2021, Autumn 2022, Autumn 2023, Autumn 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2019, recent)
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