| Course Title: The Strange World of Nikolai Gogol |
| Start Date: 09/06/2023 End Date: 12/19/2023 |
| Term: Fall Semester 2023 |
| Description: "Gogol was a strange creature, but genius is always strange." - Vladimir Nabokov. Nikolai Gogol was one of Russia's greatest and most enigmatic writers. Revered by Dostoevsky, he created a literary universe that has lost none of its original power despite the passage of time. This course will trace the development of Gogol's genius from his early Ukrainian stories, through his tales of St. Petersburg, to his comic masterpiece Dead Souls. Special attention will be paid to Gogol's deployment of the comic, fantastic and grotesque to render the reality of tsarist Russia. |
| Distribution(s): I - Humanities |
| Academic Level Of Course: Undergraduate | Credits:4.00 |
| Faculty | Phone | Email address |
| Daniel Brooks | dbrooks@mtholyoke.edu |
| Meeting Dates | Method | Meeting days | Meeting times | Building name | Room | Frequency |
| 09/06/2023 - 12/19/2023 | Seminar | Tuesday and Thursday | 01:45PM - 03:00PM | CLAP - Clapp Laboratory | 225 | Weekly |
| Requisite Courses | ||
| None |
| Comments |
| Additional Comments |
| Taught in English. |
| Course Tags |
| Cross-listed Sections |
| None |
| Course Availability | ||||
| Section status: Open | Capacity: 28 | Enrollment: 25 | Available: 3 | Waitlist: 0 |
BOOK INFORMATION
| Book List | Required | Publisher Full Price |
| Title: The Diary of a Madman, the Government Inspector, and Selected Stories Author: Gogol, Nikolai Copyright: 2006 Edition: Volume: ISBN: Publisher: Penguin Classics |
Required | 15.99 |
| Title: Dead Souls Author: Gogol, Nikolai Copyright: 2004 Edition: Volume: ISBN: 9780140448078 Publisher: Penguin Classics |
Required | 15.99 |
| Additional Book Comments |
| This is the complete book list for this class. |
| Instructor's comments about the book list: Please read carefully: editions are important! There will be only two texts for purchase in this course. Both are texts by Nikolai Gogol, and both are translated by Robert Maguire and published by Penguin Classics. All other readings will be made available to students as PDFs on our Moodle site. I am sensitive to the costs that students accrue while taking courses here. I still recommend purchasing these two texts in a new or used state because they are, in my opinion, the best English language translations of Gogol?s most important works, and, for the purpose of class discussion, it will be important for us all to be on the same page (literally and metaphorically). If you are reluctant or unable to make those purchases, I will work to help you find an alternative. There will be at least one copy of Diary of a Madman? and Dead Souls on reserve at Willston that students can check out for short periods of time. These texts can also be borrowed through the 5C library system or through ILL. Please make sure that you are ordering the same translation & edition as we are using, and please let me know if you need help. I promise to help you get the most out of the course content, and make it as convenient as possible to submit your assignments to me in whatever manner you prefer. |