RUSN 284 Madness and Murder

An examination of the phenomenon of madness in Russian culture through literature and film. The main focus will be on the psychological literature of the 19th Century including the the murder novels of Dostoevsky as well as studies of madness by Lermontov Gogol Chekhov and others. This trend in Russian literature will be related to pathological features of Russian history (Tsarism Totalitarianism) to find underlying reasons why these features are so prevalent in the Russian arts. Films will include Tsar concerning Ivan the Terrible and Burnt By the Sun a chronicle of the Stalinist terror.