Petersburg: Cultural Myth and Literary Text

In this language/literature course we will read works by Pushkin, Gogol, and Dostoevsky, as well as poems by 20th century authors, in which St. Petersburg plays a central role. We will trace the dualities and paradoxes of Petersburg's cultural myth and will discuss the links that unite these literary works into a single "Petersburg Text of Russian Literature" (the idea introduced by V. Toporov). Readings, discussions, oral presentations, and written papers in Russian. Special emphasis is placed on active use of language and expansion of vocabulary.