Russian Short Stories
W 2020

Description

The short story holds a central place in Russian literature. Many of their authors; Gogol, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Pushkin and Solzhenitsyn,  acclaimed giants of Russian literature, are well known.   But, many of these writers have only recently become known to the English-speaking world.   Taken all together the gamut of human experience they portray is great.  Some stories are tragic.  But, there is comedy -- from Pushkin's subtle wit to Kharm's dark absurdism, Dostoevsky's graveyard humor, and Zoshchenko's satirical vignettes on life after the 1917 Russian Revolution.  All of them responded to the twists and turns of Russian history.  But as we shall see, humanity, in different times and different places, does not vary that much.

Weekly Topics

Week                                                         Topic                                                           Presenter

1

INTRODUCTION,  ALEKSANDER PUSHKIN - MIKHAIL, LERMONTOV


 Jack Kaczorowski

2

NIKOLAY GOGOL 



 Kenneth Korman

3

IVAN TURGENEV,

FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY 


 

4

COUNT LEV TOLSTOY, 

NIKOLAI LESKOW 


 

5

ANTON CHEKOV 


 

6

LYDIA ZINANOVYEVA - ANNIBAL IVAN BUNIN, ALEXANSDR L. LUPKIN


 

7

TEFFIYEVGENY ZAMIATIN, MAXIM GORKI 


 

8

VERA INBER, MIKHAIL BULGAKOV, 

ISAAK BABEL 


 

9

MIKHAIL ZOSHCHENKO

LEONID DOBYCHIN, MIHAIL ARTZYBASHEV, SIGIZMUND KRZHIZHANOVSKY 


 

10

ANDREY PLATONOV, LEONID ANDREEV, VSEVOLOD GARSHIN


 

11

DANIIL KHARMS,  VARLAM SHALAMOV 

 

 

12

ALEKSANDER SOLZHENITSYN What a Pity

VASILY SHUKSHIN In the Autumn

 

 

13

ASSAR EPPEL, SERGEI DOVILATOV, YURY BUIDA, BORIS PASTERBAK

SASHA SOKOLOVA, ANDREI SINYAVSKY, SASHA SOKOLOV


 

14

VLADIMIR NABAKOV, GEORGI VLADIMOV,  NADEZHDA MANDELSTRAM 


 

Bibliography

Russian Short Stories from Pushkin to Buida, Robert Chandler Ed. (Penguin Books, 2006.)