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Students will get in-depth knowledge of how Germans/Austrians/Swiss are depicted in Russian literature.

Today, Russia’s relationship with Western Europe is once again a hot topic that is discussed extensively both in Western and in Russian media. This adds new interest to the question of how Germans and German-speaking foreigners are depicted in Russian literature, in particular as these groups make up the largest proportion of Western European immigrants in the Russian Empire and its successors. Conversely, most of the Russians who emigrated after 1917 and 1991 had a German-speaking country as their destination.

This interdisciplinary course, which is designed for students of Slavic as well as comparative literature, will focus on cultural contact and its literary transformations. How are Germans, Austrians and Swiss portrayed in Russian literature from the 19^th century until the present day? What are the prominent individual characters, images, stereotypes? How does literature reflect everyday cultural contact, war and conflict, major historical upheavals and subsequent migration? We will read the texts with a view to national images and stereotypes, plot and character analysis, axiology and discourse analysis. Knowledge of Russian is an asset but no necessity.

Tandems of Slavists and Comparatists, presentations by the participants and the two lecturers, open discussion, teamwork in groups.

Regular and active participation, presentation in class, small written sample (minutes, essay or similar).

Herrmann Dagmar (Hg.):  Deutsche und Deutschland aus russischer Sicht. 19./20. Jahrhundert: Von den Reformen Alexanders II. bis zum Ersten Weltkrieg. München 2006.

Danilevskij, Rostislav J.: Literarische Beziehungen zwischen St. Petersburg und der Schweiz. Petersburg 2003.

Šiškin, Michail P.: Die russische Schweiz. Ein literarisch-historischer Reiseführer. Zürich 2003.

Žerebin, Alexej J.: »Das Bild Österreichs in der russischen Literatur«, in: Modern Austrian Literature. Journal of the International Arthur Schnitzler Research Association 30 (1997), Nr. 1, S. 25-36.