Reading Tolstoy’s War and Peace
SLAVIC 118
Subject & Catalog Number
Course Information
Description
Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace (1865-69) is a magnificent work of art by a world-class writer tackling life’s “big questions” and it is also a pleasure to read. We will go through War and Peace closely together, savoring the details, while exploring Tolstoy’s artistic biography and the larger cultural and historical contexts for classic Russian novels. We will also consider the significance of the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) in Russian history. How many different ways are there to interpret Tolstoy’s work? What issues arise in translation? How does the pacing of the novel relate to nineteenth-century conceptions of time, space, narrative, and genre? What are the problematic distinctions between history and literature that the novel raises?
Course Notes
No knowledge of Russian required.
Available for Harvard Cross Registration
NOTE: This course requires additional sections; you will be prompted to choose secondary components during the Add to Cart process
