Monthly Archives: April 2011

It’s a dog’s world.

Tolstoi gets into everyone’s mind, even Laska’s-the dog. Yet each sees the world and events in a different light. Tolstoi sees the irony, hypocrisy, and superficiality of conventions-societal, religious, legal. He also employs a technique called “defamiliarization” in which a common occurrence is presented from a unique perspective so that we the readers can experience the old and familiar in a refreshingly new way.  What have you learned from Books 5 and 6?

Forgive and forget?

There is lots of forgiving going around, but also haymowing, death anxiety, moth killing divorce lawyers, kids running wild, and the contrast of one family dissolving while another gets ready to tie the knot. And what about Vronsky’s suicide attempt-Anna being pregnant-and so much more? Can anyone sum up this chaos in 250-300 words?

Winners and losers in Anna Karenina.

Tolstoi builds his novel on contrasts and comparisons, Anna and Kitty, Vronsky and Levin, Petersburg and Moscow and many more. By bringing his main characters into contact with one another he highlights them for us the reader. Choose one of the comparisons-contrasts and comment on who emerges in a more favorable light.

Projects

One member of each group should describe in 100 words or less the project, provide a link or access to the project, identify all contributors and if possible indicate the major contributions of each to the final project. The project description and link should be posted the evening before class.

Crime and Slime

The novel which begins with a simple murder turns into a melting pot of characters and sub-plots: Sonya and redemption, Dunya and female courage,  Porfiry and criminal investigation, Luzhin and exploitation, and even poor Raskolnikov and his search for meaning. So pick a plot and share your thoughts.

or

Contrast Raskolnikov’s theory of the Extraordinary Man with Sonya’s alternative.