Minor in Russian Studies - Black Identity in Pushkin (English) RUSN 3103   Black Identity in Pushkin (English)
CREDIT HOURS: 3
Conducted in English. A close study of the poetry and prose of the father of Russian literature, Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin, needs to be grounded in the centrality of his Black Identity for his life and oeuvre. Pushkin's unfinished work Arap Petra Velikogo serves as the window illuminating his artistic genius and struggle for a mode of expression for his own identity. The silences which shroud Pushkin's blackness are probed to reveal their ideological, historical, legal and human significance, which are then critically assessed. The major narrative and lyric poems, Eugene Onegin, the Little Tragedies, Boris Godunov, the Tales of Belkin, the Queen of Spades, as well as Pushkin's letters and critical works are revisited in this new light. Students will explore such themes as marginalization, liberty, prescience, aesthetic innovation, and the poet as political symbol and creator of a new literary language. Restoring Pushkin's identity to its proper place is a condition -- sine qua non -- for understanding the true meaning of his work for modern literature and its ongoing influence on world culture.
FORMAT: Seminar