This course serves as an introduction to research writing in the humanities. An initial working hypothesis of this course is that any research project worth pursuing begins with the feeling of aliveness that occurs when we encounter a work of art. The primary goal of this course is to cultivate a capacity to sense this aliveness in the works we encounter together, including your own writing. Readings will include fictional works by some of the most well-known Russian authors of the 19th and 20th century, such as Fyodor Dostoevsky, Nikolai Gogol, Mikhail Bulgakov, and Vladimir Nabokov. We will also screen at least one film. In addition to these works of fiction, we will also read selected secondary sources. Some of these texts will serve as examples of scholarship in the humanities; others will theorize the illusive feeling of aliveness that we will seek to understand and learn to notice as a constitutive feature of the experience of a work of art.

Primary Texts:

Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita (2001, 2016) [Penguin 978-0-143-10827-6]
Course Reader

Prerequisite: Successful completion of the “A” portion of the Reading & Composition requirement or its equivalent. Students may not enroll in nor attend R1B/R5B courses without completing this prerequisite.

Due to the high demand for R&C courses we monitor attendance very carefully. Attendance is mandatory the first two weeks of classes, this includes all enrolled and wait listed students. If you do not attend all classes the first two weeks you may be dropped. If you are attempting to add into this class during weeks 1 and 2 and did not attend the first day, you will be expected to attend all class meetings thereafter and, if space permits, you may be enrolled from the wait list.