Listed in: First Year Seminar, as FYSE-130
Boris Wolfson (Section 01)
Leo Tolstoy insisted that War and Peace was not a novel, all appearances to the contrary. As we carefully read his subversive masterpiece, we will consider the ways in which the book attempts to revolutionize what literature can do, by posing radical questions about freedom, violence, the relationship between the life of the mind and everyday experience, the value of culture, the possibility of change, and the search for an authentic self. This course takes Tolstoy’s text as a departure point for exploring the possibilities of interpretation as an intellectual practice: the fictions of history and the truth of fiction; the challenges of writing about emotions, events, and texts; and the attempts to adapt something as complex and unorthodox as this book to stage and film, including a recent BBC re-make and the Broadway “electropop opera” that we will plan to attend as a class.
Fall semester. Professor Wolfson.
Section 01
Tu 11:30 AM - 12:50 PM WEBS 219
Th 11:30 AM - 12:50 PM WEBS 219
This is preliminary information about books for this course. Please contact your instructor or the Academic Coordinator for the department, before attempting to purchase these books.
| ISBN | Title | Publisher | Author(s) | Comment | Book Store | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| War and Peace | Trans. Pevear and Volokhonsky / Vintage | Tolstoy, Leo | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| MLA Handbook | 8th Edition | Modern Languages Association | Amherst Books | TBD |
These books are available locally at Amherst Books.