Seminar F: Reading the Nation
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What is a “national literature”?
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Do nations need a national literature and national poets?
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How important is reading for nation building?
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What are the functions of reading clubs?
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Which role do national poets play in the 20th century?
Essential Reading
Hosking, Geoffrey, Russia. People and Empire, pp. 286-311 [= ‘Literature as Nation-Builder’].
Subtelny, Orest, Ukraine. A History (Toronto/Buffalo/London, 3rd ed., 2000), pp. 221-242 [= Chapter 13: ‘The Growth of National Consciousness’]
Davies, Norman, God’s Playground. A History of Poland, Vol. 2: 1795 to the Present, (New York, 2005) [1983], pp. 3-59 [= Chapter 1: ‘NARÓD: The Growth of the Modern Nation (1772-1945)’].
Eile, Stanislaw, Literature and Nationalism in Partitioned Poland, 1795-1918 (Houndmills, 2000) [especially Chapter 2: ‘Messianism and the National Cause’, pp. 46-67].
Additional Reading
Figes, Orlando, Natasha’s Dance. A Cultural History of Russia (London, 2002).
Sandler, Stephanie, Commemorating Pushkin: Russia’s Myth of a National Poet (Stanford, 2004).
http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/pages/S/H/ShevchenkoTaras.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Pushkin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Mickiewicz
Mickiewicz, Adam, Pan Tadeusz (New York, 1992).
Pushkin,Alexander, Boris Godunov (Whitefish, 2004), Internet version: http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/brsgd10.txt
Shevchenko, Taras, Selected Works (London, 1982), Internet version
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/GogTara.html