Russian Literature

A five-week course with Antony Black . Thursday mornings 10.00 a.m. - 12.00 p.m. 26th February - 26th March 2026.

Booking will close on Monday 23rd February at 12 noon.

Due to limited resources, we are UNABLE TO ACCEPT LATE BOOKINGS after this date.

This course will be held in Room 2F 03 of the Dalhousie Building, University of Dundee.

Thursday mornings 10.00 a.m. - 12.00 p.m. for five weeks, 26th February to 26th March 2026.

Life and love were explored by Tolstoy (1828-1910), Dostoevsky (1821-81), Bulgakov (1891-1940) and Grossman (1905-64) in their novels, and by Shalamov (1907-82) in his gulag reminiscences, with a gut-wrenching sincerity, sometimes in circumstances harsher than we can imagine. `'My mother always taught me to be moral and honest, to live a life of truth, as preached by the great Russian writers' (Valentin Muravsky, 1954). They wrote from different perspectives: Tolstoy became an independent dissenter, Dostoevsky was devoutly Orthodox, the others more or less non-religious. We examine especially Tolstoy's War and Peace, Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, and Grossman's Life and Fate.

Tutor: Antony Black

Antony Black is Emeritus Professor of the History of Political Thought at the University of Dundee. His published works include a world history of ancient political thought, from prehistory to c.300 CE, a complete history of Islamic political thought, and a comparative study of political thought in the West and in the Muslim-ruled world from the origins to the present, a history and theory of community and recently explored climate change in the context of world history and the challenge it presents today. He is currently working on a global history of political thought up to the present.

Course code: 09 218

Enquiries should be sent to: lifelonglearningdundee@gmail.com

As a volunteer organisation with limited resources, we try to respond to all queries as quickly as possible. Please bear with us.