3 Reasons to Take 'Russian Literature' at the University of Hawaii at Manoa

1. You learn about a wide-variety of Russian authors

Okay, so this one is obvious, but true nonetheless. I grew up knowing only one Russian author: Tolstoy. And I never read anything by him. About 6 months prior to taking Russian Literature, I was introduced to Dostoevsky and Pushkin- and that was solely because I was living in Georgia at the time (Georgia as in the country, not the state). Otherwise, if you asked me to name a handful of Russian authors, I couldn’t do it. The only piece of Russian literature I read prior to class was Pushkin’s epic-poem Eugene Onegin (and LOVED IT, btw).

Russian Lit will expose you to so many fantastic authors and creative, brilliant stories. It covers the time period 1900-1950, and we read short stories, poems, and novels. We got to read and discuss Nobokav, Bulgakov, Pasternak, Bunin, Belyi, Chekov, Maiakovsky, Blok, Tsvataeva, Gumilev, Akhmatova, etc. (I’ll write a separate blog post on my favorites later- but hands down Chekov and Nabokov are at the top of the list!)

After the semester, I returned to Georgia for a month. I was out with a group of friends at one of our favorite spots (It’s called Fabrika- basically a wide-open space surrounded by a few bars.) I was talking to someone I just met, and the conversation somehow turned to Russian literature. I was able to contribute intelligently to the conversation, discuss different authors, different stories, pros/cons, likes/dislike, etc. If I had had this conversation a year ago, I would have only been able to say one thing (something like, “oh yeah, I’ve heard of Tolstoy…”).

Aside from being able to just hold your own in a conversation about Russian literature, reading these authors gives you a lot of insight into life in general. They tackle issues such as revolution, the role of government, socialism, communism, Stalin, family life, work, romantic relationships, evil, death, science, advancements in technology, utopia, the meaning of life, etc. Russian literature also holds up a mirror to Russian culture of the time period in which the authors were writing.

2. Small class size = awesome class discussions

There was only like 6 or so students in my class. All of us had different majors- Russian, Linguistics, Business, English (I think), Classics, Theatre (again, I think). We were all different ages, had different jobs and careers, and were interested in vastly different things. The point being we all came from various backgrounds and each person brought a unique perspective to the table.

The class was designed for as much student discussion as possible- so it was great in that we often worked together to try to elicit meanings from the text. I swear sometimes it was like “with our powers combined, we will find out the meaning of this story.” It was fascinating in that each of us was able to pick up on something different in what we read. I remember countless times thinking “I never would have thought of that,” or “well, that would have flown right over my head” after one of my classmates pointed out something or explained something in the text we were reading.

It was a lot more fun to engage in interesting and thoughtful discussions in class than to have a teacher just tell you what you should think for 50 minutes. Often class was over before I knew it. And the class discussions ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS led to a better understanding of what we were reading.

3. It gives you the knowledge to read other Russian authors.

I tried to read Dostoevsky’s The Idiot before I started studying Russian at UH. I made it like 60 pages or so, but I literally had no idea what was going on. I didn’t “get it”, like, AT ALL. I gave up and never finished reading it. But taking Russian Lit (and especially combined with Russian Culture class) I was able to understand Russian authors so much more. I had a better sense of why they were writing, what they were trying to say, historical context, cultural context, etc. This has made reading them so much easier. I decided to give Dostoevsky another shot (and we did not cover him in class by the way.) I’m currently reading Dostoevsky’s Crime & Punishment, and I have much better “background knowledge” let’s say, to understand and ENJOY the novel. I don’t plan on stopping there either. This class has opened up a whole new section of literature for me, and I plan on reading even more.