Dostoevsky: Narrative Performance and Literary Theory

In-depth engagement with a range of Dostoevsky's genres: early works (epistolary novella "Poor Folk" and experimental "Double"), major novels ("Crime and Punishment", "The Idiot"), less-read shorter works ("A Faint Heart," "Bobok," and "The Meek One"), and genre-bending "House of the Dead" and "Diary of a Writer". Course applies recent theory of autobiography, performance, repetition and narrative gaps, to Dostoevsky's transformations of genre, philosophical and dramatic discourse, and narrative performance. Slavic students read primary texts in Russian, other participants in translation. Course conducted in English. For graduate students; undergraduates with advanced linguistic and critical competence may enroll with consent of instructor.