DOSTOEVSKY IN TRANSLATION


MARIST COLLEGE
DIVISION OF HUMANITIES
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
DEPARTMENT OF MODERN LANGUAGES

ENGLISH 346 L - 111: DOSTOEVSKY IN TRANSLATION
RUSSIAN 320 L - 111: DOSTOEVSKY

INSTRUCTOR: DR. C. NORKELIUNAS
OFFICE: SAINT ANN'S HERMITAGE (located north of The Bank Of New York branch)

SEMESTER: FALL 1999
TIME: TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS
      9:30 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.

SYLLABUS

REQUIRED TEXTS

Mochulsky, Konstantine. Dostoevsky: His Life And Works. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1973.

Dostoevsky, Feodor. Crime And Punishment. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1989.

Dostoevsky, Feodor. Brothers Karamazov. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1989.

Dostoevsky. The Best Short Stories of Dostoevsky. New York: The Modern Library, 1992. (hard cover edition)

American Heritage Dictionary (Third Edition, 1994) (IT IS MANDATORY TO BRING THIS TEXT TO CLASS)

RECOMMENDED TEXTS

Terras, Victor. History of Russian Literature. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. 1991.

Dostoevsky, Feodor. The Idiot. New York: Penguin Books.

Dostoevsky, Feodor. The Possessed (The Devils). New York: Penguin Books.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

Essentially, this course is the study of literature as an art form. Specifically, it is the study of the psychological novel as a genre. The course is devoted to the examination and analysis of the works of FEODOR MICHAILOVICH DOSTOEVSKY, Russia's most profound psychological/ religious writer. To quote the famous Russian philosopher Nicholas Berdaev: "So great is the worth of Dostoevsky that to have produced him is sufficient justification for the existence of the Russian people in the world; he will bear witness for his countrymen at the last judgement of the nations."

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

  1. Required reading of assigned materials.
  2. Participation in classroom discussions.
  3. Two examinations: mid-term and final.
  4. Term paper (8-10 pages in length).
    Note: Term paper should be on any theme or topic analyzing Dostoevsky's works or life. Choice of topic to be submitted by October 8, 1999.

INSTITUTIONAL GRADE POLICY (Consult the current college catalogue).

SURFING THE INTERNET AND MARIST E-MAIL

A PIECE FOR AN
ANTHOLOGY ON BOOKS

When my children come out into the street badly dressed, it hurts me when street urchins throw stones at them from behind a corner, I suffer. When a surgeon approaches them with forceps or a knife, I think I would prefer that he cut my own body.

My children are my books: I have no others.

There are books of the same chemical composition as dynamite. The only difference is that a piece of dynamite explodes once, while a book explodes a thousand times.

Man ceased to be an ape, vanquished the ape, on the day when the first book was written. The ape has not forgotten it to this day: try and givc it a book, it will immediately spoil it, tear it up, befoul it.

23 December 1928

THE QUOTATION IS FROM EVGENY ZAMYATIN, AUTHOR OF WE.

A CHRONOLOGY OF DOSTOEVSKY'S LIFE

COURSE OUTLINE

The Brothers Karamazov

Crime and Punishment

The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor

Grading System