Fall 2006

REE 335 • Old Russian: History Through Literature

Course Description

Early Russian literature offers many glimpses into the worlds of Viking and Russian Kievan princes (9th-13th centuries) and Muscovy's tsars (14th-17th centuries). Its chronicles, epics, saints lives, religious and political polemics, secular biographies and tales gradually move from legend to reality, and from Byzantine literary models to Western secular genres. This course will be a survey of the literature and also the cultural-historical context in which it was produced. It will find "windows to the West" that existed in Muscovy long before the founding of St. Petersburg.

Grading Policy

Mid-term exam 30% Final exam, to include 40% One Russian text, or one assigned article 20% Class participation 10%

Texts

S. Zenkovsky Medieval Russia's Epics, Chronicles, and Tales. Packet: Readings in modern Russian translation. Packet: Articles on the periods of Early Russian literature and culture.

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