Russian Literature Commons^™

Между Тенью И Рассветом; Between Darkness And The Dawn: A Photographic Understanding Of Memory And Society In Eastern Latvia And The Baltic States, Bryce Maloney, Sean Rego

Summer Research Program

In the small nation of Latvia, the eastern city of Daugavpils has been left behind. Three hours from the bustling European capitals of Riga, Vilnius and Minsk, it was historically the trade hub between Russia and Western Europe, once giving it a fascinating ethnographic makeup as well as an important regional position. It remains the largest majority Russian-speaking city in the European Union and NATO, but suffers from its geographical and economic isolation on top of a declining and aging population. Daugavpils’s people– now economically and socially neglected– ardently feel abandoned in modern-day Latvia, with each setback feeding their disillusionment …

Echoes Of Eternity: The (Meta)Physics Of Time And Space In Eugene Vodolazkin's Laurus, Samuel Jayasi

World Languages, Literatures and Cultures Honors Theses

This study will consider ways in which Eugene Vodolazkin demonstrates his aesthetic and cultural understanding of what he calls “Christian reenchantment” in his novel Laurus. While “national medievalism” and “Christian reenchantment” share concerns about postmodernism, Vodolazkin’s novel investigates not so much issues of Russian national identity, but the consciousness of the age itself. Leaving aside any possibility of representing some kind of new utopia to counter the problems of postmodernism as too historically traumatic, Vodolazkin recreates the “medieval mindset” as a way to introduce “Christian reenchantment” of the (fictional) world. In the novel, the return to the medieval way …

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

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 …

Tolstoy And Spirituality (Library Resources), Holy Cross Libraries

Library Resources for Campus Events

A bibliography of resources available through the Holy Cross Libraries which provide additional information related to “Tolstoy and Spirituality,” a conference held at the College of the Holy Cross April 21-22, 2017.

in this conference, an international slate of authors and scholars of Tolstoy's writings analyze his works of fiction and non-fiction to assess the viability and fruitfulness of his approach to Christianity.