Russian Culture between West and East



The course will dwell on eternal Russian questions: Where is Russia’s place? In Europe? In Asia? Or maybe there is some “third path” between West and East? Students will investigate how the most famous Russian writers (18th-21th centuries) sought answers to these questions. We will examine how Russia was perceived by foreign travelers, and how Russian writers construed West or East while traveling abroad. Slavophiles and westernizers from Nikolay Karamzin and Denis Fonvizin up to Vladimir Maikovsky or Andrei Platonov will be among our topics. We will study literary works in the wide context of Russian political history, arts, and music.