Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Chernyshevsky: The Intersection of Russian Politics and Literature

For centuries, Russia has confounded Western observers who have sought to impose order and logic on a country that appeared impervious to both. In this course we will read three texts from the all-important 1860s, the decade in which so many of Russia’s most complex problems were first articulated, with an eye toward better understanding post-Soviet political identity — Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons, and Chernyshevsky’s What Is to Be Done? Discussions will focus on movements and themes central to all three novels, including Nihilism, historicism, the superfluous man and the Nietzschean superman.