EMIGRE VOICES

The central goal of this course is to provide first-year students with an opportunity to learn from the émigré experience in literature, with attendant questions of nationality and identity coming to the foreground. For example: What happens to language and identity in immigration? To what degree can a "lost" home culture continue to affect its carriers in their new cultural matrix? To this end, readings have been chosen to form an overview of the last century of émigré literature written by authors from the former Russian Empire and the former Soviet Union, primarily from places located in present-day Russia and Ukraine. Students will choose an assigned work of their liking and write original explorations of their selected topics (to be chosen from a list or created in consultation with the instructor).  Naturally, these authors are a varied group. They come from various places and generations and have varied overarching concerns, such as fractured identity, survival techniques that look unusual within their new cultures, and the necessity of conscious self-fashioning. While the central readings assigned for the course are works of literary fiction (some artworks and publications based on diaries will also be included), the instructor will provide the necessary historical and cultural context for each work during class meetings.