The course has a dual purpose: to introduce you to Russian literature and textual analysis and to improve your Russian reading skills. Instead of moving chronologically, we will reverse traditional chronology by starting with more contemporary literary texts and moving back into the earlier twentieth and nineteenth centuries. Because the reading assignments, mostly of short stories, will be short, students will be able to improve their close reading skills. The discussion of textual analysis will be conducted mostly in English.

Prerequisites: Knowledge of Russian at the level of 103A or its equivalent. The class can be taken concurrently with 103A.