RUSSIAN LITERATURE 1

The course aims to give some basic notions concerning the main aspects of Russian civilization, and to give a brief presentation of the country in which the student wishes to learn the language (in all degrees and all addresses that provide the study of this subject). Through a periodization of the historical-cultural development of Russia, will be considered the key moments, using as a guide the various names that the East Slavic territories have taken over the centuries. The student will be guided to locate the most relevant phenomena of the social, institutional, cultural, artistic and literary characterizing Russia in its various stages, so as to acquire a set of basic knowledge of which the study will be detailed in subsequent years, coherently with the curriculum chosen.

- Knowing how to situate in the right period the various historic-cultural phenomena encountered;
- Comprehending the main peculiarities of the poetics of some classical Russian writers, although in Italian translation.

No one in particular is required.

The program covers the basics on the following topics: what is meant by the terms "Rus', Muscovy, Russian Empire," the circumstances of the Christianization of the East Slavic land, some features of literary culture in the "old Russia", Peter the Great and the opening to the West: the emergence of social and cultural institutions of the European type in the Eighteenth century; aspects of Russian literary civilization in the nineteenth century writers and society.

The attendance of the course (which comprehend additional activities of analysis of literary texts with tutors) is FUNDAMENTAL for the success in the exam. The students that cannot attend the course are required to study also the Literature textbook and the History one (cf. Testi secondari, "C").

Please read the texts in the order they are listed.

PRIMARY TEXTS:
A. Pushkin, "The Captain's Daughter"
N. Gogol', "The Overcoat"
F. Dostoevsky, "Notes from Underground"
L. Tolstoy, "The Death of Ivan Ilyich'"
A. Chekhov, "The Lady with the Dog"
(In any edition available)

SECONDARY TEXTS:
For a Bibliography in English language, please send an e-mail to the Lecturer.

The written test will last 1 hour and a half and will comprehend 8 open-ended questions (every answer should be approx. 5-12 lines long) on the fundamental topics discussed during the course and the activities with the tutors. 1 question will regard the knowledge of 1 of the critical essays (point A of the entry "Testi secondari": see the Italian page of the programme of this course), 1 question will regard the biography of one of the authors studied (point B of the entry "Testi secondari"); 3 questions will regard the contents of the "Testi primari" and 1 will be about the fundamental notions on Russian history and culture as outlined during the course (also present in the texts in point C of the entry "Testi secondari" for non attending students).

The tutors will give a mock test (20 minutes), structured more or less like the exam test, which will enable students to possibly gain a bonus (up to 2 points) for the final mark.

The final mark will depend on the correctness of the contents (80 %) and on language accuracy (20 %).

Lectures.

There will be also 4 additional lectures, given by the tutors, which will be devoted to the reading and the comment upon 4 out of 5 literary texts (see the entry "Primary texts").

Italian

Remember that the course is diveded into 2 classrooms (classroom 1 and classroom 2). In order to provide a good attending of the course and to avoid too numerous classrooms, it is necessary to sign in only one of the classrooms. Once the limit of registration to one of the two classrooms is reached, you will be able to sign in only the other one. They can sign to the classrooms through the lists at the porter's lodge of Palazzo Cosulich from 11 to 25 September.

As regards the 4 lectures with the tutors (that will start approximately in the week of the 7th lesson of the professor), the students will be furtherly divided into groups (max. 30-40 units for group). They can sign from 2 to 12 October.

Further materials (PowerPoint presentations, handouts, etc.) will be available on the Moodle page of the course.

written