HIS 241
Unit 13: A Golden Age of Russian Culture
Vasilii Perov (1834-1882), Portrait of Fedor Dostoevskii, 1872 (Oil on Canvas, 99 x 80.7 cm,
Tretiakov Gallery, Moscow)
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What you must do this
unit
What you can do this unit
- Professor Joseph Frank worked for over twenty-five years to publish his definitive, five-volume biography of
Dostoevsky (Dostoevsky: The Seeds of Revolt, 1821-1849; The Years of Ordeal, 1850-1859;
The Stir of Liberation, 1860-1865; The Miraculous Years, 1865-1871;
The Mantle of the Prophet, 1871-1881), truly a magnificent work. Read some of Frank's
reflections on his long, and continuing, study of Dostoevsky in *.doc or *.pdf format.
- Read my note about Tolstoi's idea about history presented in his great novel, War and Peace, which is about 1812.
Some videos that you can watch for this unit
Extra Credit Options
- For 50 points Maximum extra credit, Watch Anna
Karenina (1967) and
write a one-page paper about why your instructor thought that the film was so bad.
- For 50 points maximum extra credit, watch
Voina i Mir (War and Peace), if you dare. Watch instead Love and Death (1975),
and write a one-page paper assessing Woody Allen's portrait of Russia in the age of the Napoleonic wars.
- For
50 points maximum extra credit, compare and contrast the work of the
mighty three (Tolstoi, Dostoevskii and Turgenev) in a one-page paper. This might be
worth a lot more depending on how good your comparison is; I might accept longer than one page on this.
- For 50 points maximum extra credit, in a one-page paper, identify some of the
unifying traits of the work of the Mighty Five (Milii
Balakirev, Cesar Cui, Modest Mussorgskii, Aleksandr Borodin and Nikolai
Rimskii-Korsakov).
- For 50 points maximum extra credit, identify some of the
salient characteristics of the work of Ilya Repin and the Peredvizhniki in a one-page paper.
- For 50 points maximum extra credit, read
Lev Tolstoi (1828-1910), Anna Karenina (1873-78) and
write a one-page paper about his critique of Russian society.
- For 50 points maximum extra credit, read
Lev Tolstoi (1828-1910), Death of Ivan Ilich (1882) and
write a one-page paper assessing Tolstoi's criticism of Russian society.
- For 50 points maximum extra credit, read
Fedor Dostoevskii (1821-81), Crime and Punishment (1866) and
write a one-page paper, Why was this the "true" Russian novel.
- For 50 points maximum extra credit, read
Fedor Dostoevskii (1821-81), Idiot (1868) and
write a one-page paper in which you explain why this is Professor Evans' favorite Dostoevskii novel.
- For 50 points maximum extra credit, read
Fedor Dostoevskii (1821-81), Brothers Karamazov (1878-80) and
write a one-page paper, "Who was the Grand Inquisitor?"
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