Module RUSS3401: GOD & REBELLION: DOSTOEVSKY’S EXISTENTIAL PROSE

Department: Modern Language and Cultures (Russian)

RUSS3401: GOD & REBELLION: DOSTOEVSKY’S EXISTENTIAL PROSE

Prerequisites

• Russian Language 2A (RUSS2191) OR Russian Language 2B (RUSS2012) OR an equivalent qualification to the satisfaction of the Chairman/Chairwoman of the Board of Studies in MLAC or his/her representative.

Corequisites

• Modern Languages, Combined Honours and all Joint and 'with' programmes: Russian Language 4 (RUSS3031) OR Russian Language 4 following Year Abroad (RUSS3211). Others: see Chairman/Chairwoman of the Board of Studies in MLAC or his/her representative.

Excluded Combination of Modules

Aims

• To impart a thorough understanding of the novels and thought of F. M. Dostoevsky in their critical, intellectual and historical context.
• To examine certain aspects of Dostoevsky’s oeuvre and intellectual persona, specifically: his role as a founder of certain modern intellectual trends, such as existentialism and anti-utopianism; his impact as a creator of new literary forms; his stance as an artist who wore the mantle of a religious prophet.

Content

• Of all Russian writers, Dostoevsky most deeply influenced world literature and opened new horizons for spiritual search and artistic imagination. This course is an introduction to the best-known works of Dostoevsky and a systematic investigation of his main characters and leitmotifs. The writer is explored as a founder of modern intellectual trends such as existentialism and anti-utopianism, as a creator of new literary forms, and as an artist who wore the mantle of a religious prophet. Master interpretations of Dostoevsky’s works, belonging to outstanding Russian and Western thinkers, such as Nietzsche, Freud and Camus, will amplify our reading experience and outline the topics for discussion, which will include:
• Dostoevsky’s existentialism and critique of rationalism; the integration of the “idea” with personal experience; “love for life before its meaning”, the “absurdity of existence” and the “threshold situation” as a pathway to self-knowledge; the problem of personal guilt and responsibility.
• Dostoevsky’s religious spirit, his “creative Christianity” and the idea of a “free church” as a prologue to Russian religious philosophy.
• Atheistic ideas of Dostoevsky’s heroes; the exaltation of self-will and “everything is permitted”; their parallels with the ideas of Superman and Man-God, and “the struggle against God” in Nietzsche and other European thinkers.
• Dostoevsky’s penetration into the unconscious and the ambivalence of the human soul where cruelty and suffering, pride and humility, greed and generosity merge.
• Dostoevsky’s negation of all stable forms of life and his infatuation with crisis, decay, chaos, self-destruction and suicide as a prologue to the decadence in Russian and European literature of the late 19th – early 20th centuries.
• Dostoevsky’s polyphonic novel; the free interaction of characters; the creation of the “dialogic” universe.
• Dostoevsky’s fantastic realism; the mixing of “newspaper chronicles” and Gospels, of everyday facts and mythical/archetypal patterns.
• The creation of “perennial” types and universal symbols, such as the Underground Man, Raskolnikov, Sonya Marmeladova, the Idiot (“a positively beautiful soul”), the Karamazov family, and the Grand Inquisitor.
• A new ethics of love, of active suffering and compassion, of personal responsibility for everything, of faith which has been tested in the crucible of despair and doubt.

Learning Outcomes

• Students will acquire a thorough and sophisticated knowledge of the novels and thought of F. M. Dostoevsky in their literary-critical, intellectual and socio-historical context.
• They will especially explore his role as founder of certain key modern intellectual trends, his impact as a creator of new literary forms, and his stance as both artist and religious thinker.

• Students will acquire the ability to analyse and interpret a range of literary texts in the original Russian, and to identify and utilise appropriate primary and secondary sources in support of this.
• They will also acquire the skill to deal with the discursive specificity of different kinds of texts (literary, critical and philosophical), and to assess them in terms of their inter-related social, ideological and aesthetic functions.

• Students will further develop their ability to work independently within a prescribed framework, with considerable emphasis being placed on the rudiments of the research process.
• On completion of the course, students will be able to present a cogent and structured argument in both oral and written form.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• The lecture in week 1 of teaching will introduce students to the module as a whole.
• Otherwise, the teaching will take the form of a single weekly 2-hour seminar class.
• Each 2-hour seminar will begin with a 20-30 minute mini-lecture delivered by the lecturer and designed to introduce key concepts and provide essential background to the seminar discussion.
• The remainder of the seminar (up to 1.5 hours, with a short break in the middle) will provide a forum for joint class discussion and formative assignments (the presentation of results of independent study by students working individually or in pairs).
• Weeks 5 and 15 will serve as “reading weeks” to allow students to prepare adequately for the latter half of the respective term.
• The assessment gives equal weight to the two summative essays and the examination (which takes the form of a single essay, written under exam conditions).

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

In the seminars students will be expected to produce brief reports as relatively informal oral presentations of around 10 minutes, based on specially set seminar questions and reading materials. These oral reports might also be accompanied by written handouts and/or PowerPoint presentations. Presentation questions will be allocated to different students on a weekly basis. While these will be compulsory assignments, they will not be formally assessed or awarded marks, although oral feedback and comments will be provided regularly in the course of the seminar discussion.regularly in the course of the seminar discussion.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University