Pushkin in Political Context: Liberal, Imperialist or Patriot?
The purpose of this course is to study and analyze answers to questions that remain relevant to this day: what is the Russian Empire? What has the Empire brought to her own and other peoples? What can we expect from it in the future? Will it come to an end? Is Pushkin an “imperialist,” a “nationalist,” a “patriot”? How has the poet answered these questions in different periods of his work? Students will analyze the political and ideological substrate of Pushkin’s texts (the poems “Кавказский пленник,” “Полтава,” “Медный всадник”; the travelogue “Путешествие в Арзрум”) and the literary and international context of the poet’s most controversial works (“Стансы,” “Клеветникам России”). We will review the parameters of the so-called “вольнолюбивые” works of the poet, as well as the entire spectrum of dialogue with authority (“Борис Годунов,” “Капитанская дочка,” articles and essays of the 1830s). Counts as a course in literature.