RUSSIAN LITERATURE II

Narrating the threshold. Golgol', Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Chekhov: writing in the face of death

"We Russians, all decent people as we are, have a real passion for these problems that remain unresolved."

From the remote tradition of ancient lamentations, literature has always found itself face to face with death. If literature is really a figure of life, it is in one specific thing: in the feeling of being to limited in itself, wanting to go beyond its own borders. It creates magnificent enclosed works that imitate the maximum openness of life. And for this reason the end and beginning of life are at the centre of her interests, they are "in a strong position", one might say in poetry.
"Art is always and relentlessly dominated by two things. It reflects tirelessly on death and thus creates, tirelessly, life. The great, true art is that which is called the Apocalypse of St. John and that which adds something to it" (B. Pasternak, Dr. Zhivago)
The course focuses on the theme of death in some of the stories of the three giants of Russian literature of the nineteenth century. Precisely because the theme is often dealt with by epiphanies, the short form has been preferred, often more suitable for expressing the dark anguish of death and the possible overcoming of it. Tolstoy's diaries a will help in the reflection, without analysis or conceptualization, but through an experiential journey, because the experience of death is inextricably linked to the experience that life has of itself and represents one of the most valuable experiences of man.