RUSSKAJA LITERATURA LM II - 57217-ENG

The Poetic Word

The course provides the necessary tools to 1) achieve a good knowledge of Russian poetry and the role of the poet in 19th and 20th century Russian society. 2) understand those peculiarities and nuances that characterise Russian poetry compared to European ones by applying an original key to interpretation: the literary fact of the poet's death.

The objectives are:

offer the opportunity to deepen your knowledge of a specific period of Russian and European culture;

help you read and understand challenging texts;

develop critical skills;

offer the opportunity to participate in what constitutes an academic investigation within a particular subject area;

hone oral and written communication skills through the preparation of term papers.

Course programme

1. Introduction to Russian poetry and the role of the poet

The Russian poetic tradition and its distinctive features

The poet as a social and cultural figure in historical and modern Russia

The death of the poet as a literary and symbolic fact

2. 19th-century Russian poetry and the role of the poet

Aleksandr Pushkin: the founder and symbol of Russian poetry

The figure of the poet as the voice of the nation and as a tragic figure

Pushkin's death and its symbolic significance

3. 20th-century Russian poetry and the role of the poet

Poetry at the turn of the century: Aleksandr Blok, Anna Achmatova, Marina Cvetaeva, Osip Mandel'štam, Boris Pasternak

The figure of the poet under the Soviet regime: repression, censorship and resistance

Death as a symbolic and real event in the lives of Russian poets

4. The poet's death as a literary and symbolic fact

Analysis of emblematic cases: Pushkin, Esenin, Majakovsky, Achmatova

Death as an act of resistance or social condemnation

Posthumous poetry and the myth of the dead poet

5. Contemporary poetry and the role of the poet today

The figure of the poet in the post-Soviet context

Poetic memory and legacy in modern Russian society