Tolstoy’s Anna
Karenina: An Epic of 19th-Century
Russian Social and Cultural Life
Professor Kevin J. McKenna
Tolstoy’s epic novel, Anna Karenina,
has attracted the attention and
admiration of readers around the world for more than a century.
Its epic sweep of 19th-century cultural and intellectual life, social
mores, and philosophical ideas reveals a wealth of detail about
contemporary historical issues and social concerns in Russia at the
time: the role of “enlightened reason” in Russian life; the “women’s
question” and the status of women in mid-19th-century Russian society;
the role of agriculture in the Russian economy; the peasant in
post-emancipation Russia; the impact of the railroad and
industrialization in the latter half of the 19th century; the role of
the family on the path to “human happiness.” With the help
of the latest translation (2001) of “Anna
Karenina,” by an
award-winning translation team, the power and sweep of Tolstoy’s novel
is more accessible to American audiences than it has ever been in the
past.
Our class discussion will examine the novel from a variety of
historical and literary perspectives, with particular emphasis on the
social and cultural backgrounds of Russian life at the time the novel
was written.
Reading Assignments:
July 5th: General Introduction to course. Description of
grading system. Introductory Lecture on Leo Tolstoy and his place
in Russian Literature.
July 10th: Lecture on the “family novel” in Europe at the time of
Tolstoy’s novel. Discussion of Tolstoy’s early drafts of the
novel. Read: Part I and Chapters 1-3 of Part II.
July 12th: Lecture on major themes of Russian literature prior to
Tolstoy. Discussion of the relationship between history and
literature in the 19th-century Russian novel. Read: Part II
and chapters 1-13 of Part III. [Distribution of optional
take-home essay questions.]
July 17th: Lecture on social and cultural
developments in Russia following the emancipation of the serfs.
Discussion of Levin’s views on Russian vs. European agriculture and how
this relates to the novel. Discussion of the theme of "death" in Anna Karenina. Read: the
conclusion of Part III and
read Part IV.
July 19th: Lecture on the role of “ideas” and ideology in
mid-19th-century Russian literature and how they are developed in Anna
Karenina. Discussion of the “architectural” structure of
Tolstoy’s novel. Read: Part V. [Distribution of take-home
final essay questions.]
July 24th: Lecture on Tolstoy’s views on Russian social and
intellectual life. Discussion of the alternating thematic
patterns of Anna Karenina:
the “Levin” story vs. the “Anna” story.
Read: Part VI.
July 26th: Lecture on Russian religious views of Tolstoy and
Dostoevsky. Discussion of the theme of “family” as developed
in Tolstoy’s novel. Read: Part VII.
July 31st: Lecture on Tolstoy’s metaphysics and how they relate
to the novel. Discussion of the conclusion to Anna Karenina:
various modes of contemporary and modern interpretations of Tolstoy’s
novel. Read: Part VIII.