RUSS 409 - Late Tolstoy: From Anna Karenina to a Religious Teaching

The course explores the second period of Leo Tolstoy’s career, from Anna Karenina (1870s) to his late fiction, such as The Death of Ivan Ilych (1886) and Hadzhi Murat (1904), and his aesthetic, ethical, theological, as well as political writings. We will study Tolstoy’s transformation from a fiction writer to a moral theorist and religious activist as we pay special attention to Tolstoy’s doctrine of nonviolence and his antiwar writings. Apart from a study of Tolstoy’s poetics and ideology, we will engage a number of cultural contexts for his works: Russian political and intellectual history, aesthetic and artistic developments in late nineteenth-century Russia, Tolstoy’s role and reputation in Russian society, his impact on anti-racist, anticolonial, and pacifist movements around the world. The workload includes extensive reading, oral presentations, and several writing assignments. All readings and discussions are in English. An additional weekly session will be scheduled for students taking the course for Russian credit.

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group I
Prerequisite(s): For Russian credit: RUSS 220
Instructional Method: Lecture-conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Cross-listing(s): LIT 463
Not offered: 2024-25
Group Distribution Learning Outcome(s):

Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).