Dostoevsky, Tolstoy & Eng Novel · Slavic Languages
I learned tremendously on the Russian perspective, associative reading when reading Russian literature, and major themes of Russian writers.
I learned about differences in Russian and British literature, correspondence between writers in both countries, and the backgrounds of the various authors we read. This course encouraged me to look not just for similar themes in the British/Russian books we read, but also to focus on the details of each book and relate them back to that author's greater body of work. I also learned a lot about Russian history and culture in particular.
I learned an incredible amount about Dostoevsky's and Tolstoy's beliefs and writing styles, how they converge and diverge. I became much more knowledgable on Russian culture and Orthodox Christian religion, and I learned a lot about the human condition—human systems of knowledge, Lacanian theories of maternality, questions about who we include as our neighbor, etc.
I learned about the literary Russian perspective versus the English one. Read major literary works from both Russian and English writers.
I read a lot of great books and how to analyze them.
I learned about what shaped literature from different regions of the globe and how cultural values affected the stories that were told during different time periods.
This was my first exposure to Russian literature and I loved it! I learned the different styles of writing concerning both subjectivity and grammar between Russian and English literature.
I learned how to track the intricacies within a novel, comprehend its basic structure and central motifs. I learned what it means to compare two literary cultures while also taking each text on its own terms. I feel more aware of the ways in which authors respond to one another, and the various subtleties of literary influence, and I'm coming away from the course with a stronger sense of the essential ethical, religious, and political issues that Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky contended with in their great works.
I would only take this class if you truly love reading and have a passion for literature.
The reading workload is extremely heavy, I'm not sure it is really possible for anyone to do all the readings, especially when it's 50 pages of reading per day for the big books