Nikolai Gogol: Russia, Ukraine, War and National Identity
Week 5 | M, W, F | Hultquist 201A | Ages 16 and up
Ukrainian Nikolai Gogol was a font of the Russian literary tradition; Dostoevsky is supposed to have said, “We all came out from Gogol's overcoat.” First bursting onto the scene in the 1830s with tales from his native Ukraine, both Gogol himself and his historical novel about Cossacks and war, Taras Bulba, have been contested territory in the cultural war that set the stage for the shooting war afflicting Ukraine now. We will treat the short novel, a few tales that involve the Ukrainian-Russian cultural divide, and excerpt film adaptations.
Class Times
Michael C. Finke
BA, Cornell University; MA and PhD, Indiana University. Taught 18 yrs at Washington University in St. Louis, 13 yrs at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (department head 8 yrs, retired as Professor Emeritus). Author of two books on Chekhov and one other monograph on 19th-century Russian literature; published five other scholarly volumes as co-editor and many articles.
