Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and the Family Novel



The course is designed as a close reading of the most acclaimed of Tolstoy’s works—his novel Anna Karenina. The novel was written and published in separate chapters during 1875-1877, and readers remained in suspense, as they did not know what would happen next with the heroes. Students will be repeating the experience of Tolstoy’s first readers during their six weeks of study. Tolstoy’s work is an encyclopedia of the Russian culture of the second half of the 19th century, making our course completely interdisciplinary: we will discuss social, historical, philosophical, religious, cultural, and legal issues, relevant for Tolstoy as well as for his heroes. Such topics as family, marriage, women’s emancipation, and children’s education will be the themes of our class discussion. Students must be prepared to read about 30 pages for each class session, to actively participate in class discussion, and to write weekly short papers. Students will compose their final paper and present it during the mini-conference at the end of the course.