Alexander Pushkin is widely considered one of the greatest writers—if not the very founder—of Russian literature. Eugene Onegin, Pushkin’s novel in verse, is the author’s crowning literary achievement. Published serially from 1825-1833, the novel follows its eponymous hero, an affluent and terminally bored dandy, as he navigates Petersburg high society before finding—and ultimately rejecting—true love with the elemental Tatiana, the daughter of a provincial landowner. With Onegin, Pushkin asks his readers: Where does the border between lust and love lie? What is true love? Does possessing cultivated aesthetic sensibilities and cultural capital make us better or happier people? Does society alienate the individual or does one merely alienate themselves from others? And what is the meaning of a life without love?
In this course, we will read the entirety of Eugene Onegin (in James Falen’s Oxford World’s Classic translation) from a multifaceted critical perspective that addresses themes of love, sex, friendship, hedonism, social alienation, and the meaning of art itself. Together, we will answer: What is the spiritual cost of being too cool to care? Is an unrequited love really love? What do we owe ourselves and others in our platonic and romantic relationships? And do art and beauty truly elevate our souls? Course meetings will also provide important contextual information about Pushkin himself, the development of Russian literature in the early 19th century, and detailed explanations of the intertextual dimensions of the text.
