The purpose of the course is to familiarize you with the major works of
Leo Tolstoy and with the range of interpretations of this writer's works in
Russian and American literary criticism.
A secondary goal is to acquaint you with Tolstoy's background as a
Russian and as a human being who never gave up his search for answers to the
fundamental questions of human existence.
Great Short Works of Leo Tolstoy (Harper)
Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (Norton)
Tolstoy, War and Peace (Norton)
Tolstoy, The Confession and Other
Religious Writings (Penguin)
Tolstoy, by A.N. Wilson (Norton) (biography)
Tolstoy's Major Fiction, by Edward Wasiolek (interpretation)
Meeting 1: Why read Tolstoy? What can you expect from the course?
Leo Tolstoy, "Family Happiness,"
read by August 31
"The Cossacks," read by September
7
"The Devil," read by September 14
War and Peace, read half of it by September 16, the remainder
by September 30
Mid-term recess: October 11-12
"The Death of Ivan Ilych," read
by October 14
"Father Sergius," read by October
19
"The Confession," read by October 21
"The Kreutzer Sonata," read by October
26
"Hadji Murad" and "Alyosha
the Pot," read by November 2
Anna Karenina, read
by November 9
The dates are approximate. Quizzes will be given on "The Cossacks,"War
and Peace, Anna Karenina, "The
Death of Ivan Ilych," "Father Sergius," "The Confession,"
"The Kreutzer Sonata," and "Hadji Murad," on or after
the day indicated in CLASS SCHEDULE.
Lectures, presentations, discussion.
two presentations - 25 percent of the grade
passing quizzes on the assigned works - 20 percent of the grade
two papers (ca. 2,000 words each) due after mid-semester break and one
week after the last day of classes (earlier
submissions are welcome) - 40 percent of the grade
critical essays in the Norton edition of W&P and AK
Tolstoy, Childhood, Boyhood, Youth
Tolstoy, Diaries (Scribner's)
Tolstoy, What Is Art?
R. F. Christian, Tolstoy (Cambridge)
Alexandra Tolstoy, Out of the Past (Columbia)
Updated 05/05/10