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Knowledge of the most important stages in Akhmatova's poetic work and contextualization of her poems through Russian-Soviet history

Anna Achmatova (1889-1966) is considered one of Russia's greatest poets. Her lyrical texts are - according to the poetic program of acmeism to which she was committed in her early career - clear, rational, "stony". Most of the acmeists orientate themselves on the visible, on the tangible things. At the same time - as the formalist Boris Ėjchenbaum emphasized - Achmatova's poems are characterised by a narrative component. They're miniature stories.

Using these techniques, Akhmatova captured Russian and Soviet history in its darkest phases, but also in bright moments: the world of the Petersburg bohemians before the First World War, the revolution, the Stalin era, the blockade of Leningrad and recurring: the loss of close people and love.

In the course, Achmatova's poetic art will be illuminated with a view to her personal history and the political history of the Tsarist Empire and the Soviet Union.

Input from lecturer, student presentations (= poetry analysis and elaboration of the historical background)

Attendance and active participation of students in courses, oral presentations of students; written poem analysis

Ėjchenbaum, Boris: Anna Achmatova. Opyt analiza. Paris 1980.

Gasparov, Michail Leonidović: Očerk istorii russkogo sticha: metrika, ritmika, rifma, strofika. Moskva 1984.

BA (for students of the Bachelor and Master’s Programme), no prerequisites for students of the Teacher’s Programme, language skills (Russian) are necessary

Due to substantial differences in the allocation of ECTS-Credits in various curricula (teacher training programs/specialized degree programs), the requirements for this course vary. Information will be provided by the instructor at the beginning of the course.