Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Institution
- Publication Year
- Publication
-
- Russian Language Journal (4)
- Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications (3)
- College Honors Program (2)
- Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature (2)
- Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects (1)
-
- Honors Papers (1)
- Institute for the Humanities Theses (1)
- Journal of Undergraduate Research (1)
- Madison Historical Review (1)
- Political Science Department Faculty Works (1)
- Publications and Research (1)
- Russian Faculty Works (1)
- Senior Projects Spring 2016 (1)
- Senior Projects Spring 2023 (1)
- Student Works (1)
- Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection (1)
- Publication Type
Articles 1 - 23 of 23
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Raising The Iron Curtain: Healing Collective Oppression Through Literature, Alisa Chirkova-Holland
Raising The Iron Curtain: Healing Collective Oppression Through Literature, Alisa Chirkova-Holland
Student Works
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by former gulag prisoner Alexander Solzhenitsyn, is a short novel that entails an ordinary day for a prisoner, Shukhov, in a Siberian gulag. Although the work is a typical skaz, a traditional Russian narrative form, the novel was well-received by Russians at the time of publishing in 1962. This paper will explore the reason for such acclamation, understanding how Solzhenitsyn’s innovations to the skaz allowed readers to connect with their past. The paper also mentions theories such as Traumatic Realism to comprehend how such a bleak novel positively impacted post-Stalinist readers. …
Death By Delusion: Representations Of Mental Illness In Gogol, Dostoevsky, And Nabokov, Bryan Reed
Death By Delusion: Representations Of Mental Illness In Gogol, Dostoevsky, And Nabokov, Bryan Reed
Senior Projects Spring 2023
This paper is dedicated to an analysis of representation of mental illness in 19th-20th century works of Russian writers: Fyodor Dostoevsky (The Double), Nikolai Gogol (“Nevsky Prospect”, “The Overcoat”, and “The Diary of a Madman”), and Vladimir Nabokov (Despair). My analysis is primarily focused on the approaches these authors employ to represent mental illness. When I began my research, I also set out to trace the evolution of portrayals of mental illness in Russian literature, from one of its founders, Alexander Pushkin, to Nabokov as an émigré writer living in Germany during the 1930s and representing the literary tradition in …
Writing Dystopia: Zamyatin’S Writing Philosophy, Genre, And The Protagonist Of We, Kelly A. Gallagher
Writing Dystopia: Zamyatin’S Writing Philosophy, Genre, And The Protagonist Of We, Kelly A. Gallagher
College Honors Program
This thesis examines how Russian author Yevgeny Zamyatin (1884-1937) came to write one of the first literary dystopias. I argue that he designed dystopia in his novel We as a place that threatens the creation of what he considered “true literature,” in order to show why his conception of true literature is essential to the survival of the human spirit. The first chapter synthesizes Zamyatin’s critical essays and biographical details to reveal his writing philosophy, which I characterize as his belief that “creative revolution” sustains literature’s movement forward into the future. The second chapter explores why Zamyatin’s philosophy may have …
Doppelgängers And Doubles In Literature: A Comparison Of Fyodor Dostoevsky’S Crime And Punishment And Vladimir Nabokov’S Lolita, Meghan E. Cooper
Doppelgängers And Doubles In Literature: A Comparison Of Fyodor Dostoevsky’S Crime And Punishment And Vladimir Nabokov’S Lolita, Meghan E. Cooper
College Honors Program
This thesis is dedicated to the concept of the double character in literature and how such characters were utilized by authors Fyodor Dostoevsky in Crime and Punishment (1866) and Vladimir Nabokov in Lolita (1955). First, this thesis discusses the theoretical aspects of the double—a villainous character who mirrors another character in some way, whether in appearance or in their actions— and the religious, psychological, philosophical, and societal roots of the concept of a double in literature. Then it explores how double characters in Dostoevsky and Nabokov’s works serve a crucial role in their novels by mirroring the worst traits of …
Belief In The Unbelievable: Yakov Druskin And Chinari Metaphysics, Patrick D. Powers
Belief In The Unbelievable: Yakov Druskin And Chinari Metaphysics, Patrick D. Powers
Honors Papers
This project focuses on the philosophy of Yakov Druskin and its applicability as a lens through which to examine the metaphysical and religious elements of chinari literature. Formed in Leningrad at the dawn of the Soviet Union, the group of authors and philosophers known as the chinari has long been recognized as an important component of the Russian avant-garde. However, the role of religion and spirituality in their works remains under-examined, despite the fact that the group featured a prolific religious philosopher, Yakov Druskin. By exploring a selection of Druskin’s philosophical concepts and applying them to major chinari texts—Daniil Kharms’ …
Review: “The Nose”: A Stylistic And Critical Companion To Nikolai Gogol’S Story, Sara Jo Powell
Review: “The Nose”: A Stylistic And Critical Companion To Nikolai Gogol’S Story, Sara Jo Powell
Russian Language Journal
Ksana Blank’s companion to Gogol’s “The Nose” is an excellent new resource for students of Russian language and literature. The book consists of two sections: the first, a series of annotations to the story’s text, and the second, several short essays on a wide range of related topics. Finally, readers are provided with a carefully selected bibliography of secondary sources, which will be particularly valuable for those new to Gogol research and criticism.
Review: A Reader’S Companion To Mikhail Bulgakov’S “The Master And Margarita, Daniel Brooks
Review: A Reader’S Companion To Mikhail Bulgakov’S “The Master And Margarita, Daniel Brooks
Russian Language Journal
Although Mikhail Bulgakov’s classic The Master and Margarita has become an inevitable fixture of Russian literature survey courses, it can nevertheless present a challenge even for seasoned instructors. As the text repeatedly slips between locales, historical periods, and narrative voices, Bulgakov’s novel seems more and more like a world unto itself. In my experience, there always proves to be something in this world—rewritten Gospels, a moving romance, the gun-toting cat—that will draw undergraduates in. And yet, when a tight syllabus gives me but four classes to tackle the novel’s elaborate system of leitmotifs, allusions, and historical realia, I feel like …
The Embodied Language Of Sasha Sokolov's "A School For Fools", José Vergara
The Embodied Language Of Sasha Sokolov's "A School For Fools", José Vergara
Russian Faculty Works
The present article investigates the tension between speech/thought and writing present in Sasha Sokolov's first novel, Shkola dlia durakov (A School for Fools). It maintains that the critical tendency to view the hero's narrative as an unstructured, unnatural speech or thought act tends to exaggerate its deviancy and obscures its peculiar status as a frenzied transcription of his ideas. As the first half of the article demonstrates, Sokolov uses visual markers inherent to a written text alone, along with readerly habits, to craft his tale about thought materializing on the page in concrete form. Furthermore, Sokolov deploys related body imagery …
Review: Paper Victory;The Old Woman, James S. Levine, Anna S. Kudyma, Irina Walsh
Review: Paper Victory;The Old Woman, James S. Levine, Anna S. Kudyma, Irina Walsh
Russian Language Journal
These two Readers are a welcome addition to the available authentic texts for learners of Russian at the intermediate level of proficiency (CEFR, 2011). Both of these James S. Levine-edited Readers have much to offer, not only in terms of their linguistic accessibility, but also through the way they might improve students’ cultural literacy and analytical skills when it comes to Russian literature. One’s reading skills, review of Russian grammar and vocabulary also stand to benefit from these two valuable volumes.
Bridging Two Fields: Game Theory And Crime And Punishment, Sarah Matthews, Mark Purves
Bridging Two Fields: Game Theory And Crime And Punishment, Sarah Matthews, Mark Purves
Journal of Undergraduate Research
Many scholars have drawn on the tools of Game Theory to explore the Humanities as a whole, but have failed to make sense of the great contributions of Russian literature. In fact, the only two articles dealing with Russian literary works and Game Theory were made in 1968 and 1988. Therefore, the purpose of our project was to frame Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment through a reading of Game Theory. Approaching the novel in this light allowed us to better understand Raskolnikov’s behavior and the moral implications of his actions and the novel itself.
Diagnosing The Will To Suffer: Lovesickness In The Medical And Literary Traditions, Jane Shmidt
Diagnosing The Will To Suffer: Lovesickness In The Medical And Literary Traditions, Jane Shmidt
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Throughout Western medical history, unconsummated, unreturned, or otherwise failed love was believed to generate a disorder of the mind and body that manifested in physiological and psychological symptoms. This study traces the medical and literary history of lovesickness from antiquity through the 19th century, emphasizing significant moments in the development of the medical discourse on love. The project is part of the recent academic focus on the intersection between the humanities and the medical sciences, and it situates literary texts in concurrent medical and philosophical debates on afflictions of the psyche. By contextualizing the fictional works within the scientific …
Classical Literature And The Retroaction Of Socialist Ideology—The Sovietization Of A Medieval Georgian Epic Poem And Its Mysterious Author, Diego Benning Wang
Classical Literature And The Retroaction Of Socialist Ideology—The Sovietization Of A Medieval Georgian Epic Poem And Its Mysterious Author, Diego Benning Wang
Madison Historical Review
Shota Rustaveli, presumed author of the medieval Georgian epic poem vepkhistqaosani (The Knight in the Panther's Skin), was one of the most celebrated cultural and historical figures in Soviet Georgia. However, not much is known about Rustaveli apart from his work. In this essay, I argue that a series of policies under the Soviet government transformed Rustaveli into a national symbol of Georgia, but the celebration of Rustaveli and his poem scarcely deviated from the ideological guidelines of the Soviet state. In discussing the impact and legacy of the Soviet promotion of Rustaveli, I purport to highlight the "national in …
"Between Sunset And River": Nabokov's Bridge To The Otherworld, Jesse R. Weiss
"Between Sunset And River": Nabokov's Bridge To The Otherworld, Jesse R. Weiss
Senior Projects Spring 2016
Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.
A Reader's Beheading: Nabokov's Invitation And Authorial Utopia, Aaron Botwick
A Reader's Beheading: Nabokov's Invitation And Authorial Utopia, Aaron Botwick
Publications and Research
“A Reader’s Beheading: Nabokov’s Invitation and Authorial Utopia” argues that Invitation to a Beheading polemically outlines Nabokov’s position on the relationship between reader and writer: in other words, that writing and reading are difficult, elite pursuits whose meanings should necessarily be available only to those willing to face and surmount the magician’s challenges. Narratively, it operates as a kind of roman à clef in which Cincinnatus C. follows a trajectory towards artistic freedom (or authorial utopia) where he is liberated from the constraints of poor readers—among them literalists and Freudians—while Nabokov, ever the unaccommodating creator, frustrates that progression with the …
Review: Late And Post- Soviet Russian Literature: A Reader. Book 1: Perestroika And The Post-Soviet Period, Olga Mesropova
Review: Late And Post- Soviet Russian Literature: A Reader. Book 1: Perestroika And The Post-Soviet Period, Olga Mesropova
Russian Language Journal
Late and Post-Soviet Russian Literature: A Reader is a rich and informative classroom-oriented resource for students, scholars, and teachers alike. With the ambitious goal of capturing “the multiple voices and meanings that have emerged in the last several decades of cultural change in Russia” (Lipovetsky and Wakamiya 2014, 11), this engaging panorama of Russia’s literary milieu offers a diverse sample of literary texts, scholarly essays, and interviews published since perestroika.
Marcus C. Levitt And Tatyana Novikov, Eds. Times Of Trouble: Violence In Russian Literature And Culture, Walter F. Kolonosky
Marcus C. Levitt And Tatyana Novikov, Eds. Times Of Trouble: Violence In Russian Literature And Culture, Walter F. Kolonosky
Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature
While violence is a given in Russian literature and culture, its presence does not suggest that Russian civilization is characterized by a bloody monochromatic hue…
Hero Of A Dark Century, Daniel J. Mahoney
Hero Of A Dark Century, Daniel J. Mahoney
Political Science Department Faculty Works
No abstract provided.
We (1924), Yvonne Howell
We (1924), Yvonne Howell
Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications
One of the first and most important works of modern dystopian literature, this novel by Russian writer Evgeny Zamayatin was written in 1919-1920 and published in English in 1924. The original Russian version was not authorized for publication in the Soviet Union until 1988, when Gorbachev's policy of culture openness (glasnost) allowed readers access to twentieth-century Russian literature inimical to the communist project.
Zamayatin, Evgeny Ivanovich (1884-1937), Yvonne Howell
Zamayatin, Evgeny Ivanovich (1884-1937), Yvonne Howell
Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications
Zamayatin, Evgeny Ivanovich (1884-1967), Russian engineer, fiction writer, critic-essayist, and editor. Zamayatin was born in the provincial town of Lebedyan in central Russia. He joined the Bolshevik Party in opposition to the tsar's regime while still a student of naval engineering in the imperial capital of St. Petersburg. He was imprisoned and exiled from St. Petersburg, an experience that provided material for his first short novels and stories.
A Calendar Of Wisdom. Daily Thoughts To Nourish The Soul. Written And Selected From The World's Sacred Texts (Book Review), Yvonne Howell
A Calendar Of Wisdom. Daily Thoughts To Nourish The Soul. Written And Selected From The World's Sacred Texts (Book Review), Yvonne Howell
Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications
Tolstoy spent over fifteen years collecting "the wisdom of the centuries in one book" (6). He began compiling this wisdom in written form, as quotes from the world's sacred texts and from famous (as well as obscure) artists, in 1902-1903. The first version of the resulting book was published in 1904. It was reprinted three times during his lifetime, variously titled Thoughts of Wise Men, A Circle of Reading, or The Way of Life. It is the early version of the book that made it into the 1957 Soviet edition of Tolstoy's collected works as Krug chteniia: …
The Great Day: A Fantasy Play In Five Acts, Six Scenes By Vladimir Kirshon, Christopher Lee Philips
The Great Day: A Fantasy Play In Five Acts, Six Scenes By Vladimir Kirshon, Christopher Lee Philips
Institute for the Humanities Theses
Vladimir Kirshon was a proletarian playwright of the Soviet Union who died in the Great Purge. The thesis presents an English version of the author's last play, The Great Day, which is preceded by an introduction which places Kirshon and his plays in their proper historical context. The introduction details Kirshon's political and artistic background and his politico-literary position as a playwright. The introduction and analysis of the play produce an understanding of Vladimir Kirshon as a Soviet proletarian playwright and an understanding of the spirit in which The Great Day was written.
Bakhtin And Buber: Problems Of Dialogic Imagination, Nina Perlina
Bakhtin And Buber: Problems Of Dialogic Imagination, Nina Perlina
Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature
Recent publications of biographical materials on Mikhail Bakhtin demonstrate that he was familiar with the writings of Martin Buber. The philosophical and aesthetic verbal expression of Buber's ideas within the time-spatial universe of Bakhtin's own awareness allows us to discuss this obvious biographical evidence in a wider cultural context. The central opposition of Buber's and Bakhtin's systems is the dialogic dichotomous pair: "Ich und Du" (I and Thou), or "myself and another." Bakhtin's dialogic imagination is rooted in the binaries of the subject-object relations which he initially formulated as "responsibility" and "addressivity," that is to say, as individual awareness and …
Gogol: An Overview, David Paul Allen
Gogol: An Overview, David Paul Allen
Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection
No abstract provided.