Question by Street Spirit: What Russian writers are usually studied at school in Europe or US?
I am Russian myself living in Russia, and would like to know if Russian literature has its place in study programs overseas. What particular works do you study and in what grades?
Many thanks in advance!
Answers and Views:
Answer by the lone writer
It’s not really studied in Europe (at least in Britain), mainly because it’s rare we get any authors outside of the Western world. I’ve only read 2 books that weren’t written by someone from Britain or America. One was Dutch, and that was Michal Faber, who wrote Crimson petal and the white. The other was Russian – and probably the most well known Russian – Vladimir Nabokov, who, as you probably know, wrote Lolita. It’s not really studied in high school at all.
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tiandron says
I don't remember studying any Russian literature through high school. In college, we read Gogol, Pushkin, Pasternak and Solzhenitsyn. I majored in literature, and while I have read Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, I dont think we studied either of those authors; I read them on my own.
no name=no online cr says
in my US high school we did crime and punishment by dostoyevsky as a required reading (loved it haha)….anna karenina by tolstoy was an option but not required. these were both for 11/12th grade english classes. other high schools near me read the idiot, the death of ivan ilyich, and/or the brothers karmazov.
in general, i'd say tolstoy and dostoyevsky are the most widely studied, with nabokov popping up occasionally. almost everyone i know at my university now read something by at least one of those three in high school. actually, other than british authors, i think russian authors tend to be some of the most widely covered foreign writers studied in US grade schools.
Pheasant Queen says
I have to agree with the lone writer.
I'm from Austria and we didnt study any Russian books at school. (actually, we only studied German literature in German and english literature in English)
i've read ana karenina though