Modernism: Russian Poets of the Silver Age ★ 4.833

Our course is devoted to the Silver Age of Russian Poetry. This is a term traditionally applied to the period in the history of Russian culture at the turn of the 20th century. The Silver Age is a unique period of Russian culture. The Russian Empire was approaching its decline, there was an era of wars and revolutions ahead.

The course is aimed at philological and language students who need a special course on a period of Russian culture covering approximately 1890–1917, the period of the Silver Age of Russian poetry, people interested in Russian poetry and Russian culture in general.

Module 1 General Concept of the Silver Age. This module will provide an overview of the subject, explain how the term Silver Age was coined and give you insights into the origin of a unique phenomenon of Russian modernism. It will deal with the particularities of the Silver Age and outline the problems concerning the study of this period. We will tell you about two generations of Russian symbolism, paying special attention to the Elder Symbolists, the symbolist manifestos and the prominent symbolists, Dmitry Merezhkovsky and Zinaida Gippius, Konstantin Balmont and Valery Bryusov. Innokenty Annensky’s poetry will be a prime focus.

Module 2 Second generation of Russian Symbolism. In this module we will talk about the writings of one of the most famous and talented poets of the Silver Age, Alexander Blok. We will tell you about the life of Blok and his feelings for Lyubov Mendeleeva. We will describe the poetics of one of his most famous books, Stikhi o Prekrasnoi Dame [Verses About the Beautiful Lady]. Considering his poems about Russia and the revolution, we will show how Blok’s poetics developed when images of a terrible world emerged in his poems. Also, In this module we will talk about the work of one of the most peculiar representatives of the ‘Younger Symbolists’, Andrei Bely. We will tell you about his life, including his relationship with Alexander Blok. We will focus on the particularities of his poetry, especially Ash, a book of his poems as a peculiar turn in symbolist poetry, the novel Petersburg being briefly described.

Module 3 Acmeism. This module focuses on the emergence of a literary movement known as Acmeism. We will tell you about the conflict between the future Acmeists and Vyacheslav Ivanov, which led to the creation of the Guild of Poets, an association that formed the basis for a future literary movement. We will consider the Guild of Poets and the aesthetic views of its founders, manifestos of the Acmeists and the life and poetry of Sergey Gorodetsky, Mikhail Zenkevich, and Vladimir Narbut, Nikolay Gumilyov, Osip Mandelstam ans Anna Akhmatova.
Then we will reflect on the poem Requiem, which describes the horror of the repressions and, finally, we will ponder the creation and particularities of Poem without a Hero (‘Poema bez Geroya’), a kind of metatext of the Silver Age.

Module 4 Russian Futurism. This module is about Russian Futurism, which emerged under the influence of Italian Futurism, eventually evolved into a movement in its own right and influenced the entire European Avant-Garde. We will discuss the contradiction between Ego-Futurism and Cubo-Futurism. We will tell about Velimir Khlebnikov’s life and specific features of his poetry. We will describe his attempts to create a new language to expand the limits of poetry and promote global brotherhood, focusing on the theme of time, the central theme in Velimir Khlebnikov’s work. Also, we will tell you about Mayakovsky’s life and his early poetry. It is full of both theomachy (i.e. God-fighting) and God-seeking. It is an important part of the poetic landscape of Russian modernism.

Module 5. This is the last Module of our course. In this Module, you are to summarize all the knowledge gained and to write an essay on one of the topics given.
In addition, the Module contains detailed instructions for writing an essay and the criteria by which your essay will be marked by other course participants.