At the Newberry, Summer 2024: Dostoevsky’s Short Fiction and Film Adaptations

Virginia Woolf wrote about Dostoevsky in “The Russian Point of View” (1925): “Against our wills we are drawn in, whirled round, blinded, suffocated, and at the same time filled with a giddy rapture.” This is true not only for Dostoevsky’s long novels, but for his striking short works, which are considered masterpieces in their own right.

I invite you to join us this summer at the Newberry as we read Dostoevsky’s short fiction and watch and discuss some of the most successful and unusual film adaptations of his short works. We will start with the highly entertaining The Village of Stepanchikovo and Its Inhabitants, followed by The Double, White Nights, A Disgraceful Affair, Bobok, Notes from the Underground, The Eternal Husband, A Gentle Creature, and The Dream of a Ridiculous Man. We will address important questions: Why do we still read Dostoevsky, and why should we continue to read him if his novels are so ambiguous? How does Dostoevsky capture fluidity, instability, and inner complexity of the human nature?

Dostoevsky’s ambiguities and controversial themes and characters have attracted filmmakers, such as Bernardo Bertolucci, Richard Ayoade, Luchino Visconti, Gary Walkow, Robert Bresson, and Alexander Petrov, who generated radically innovative and successful adaptations, which in turn raise new insights and questions for us to answer.

Click here for the complete course description. We will meet online via Zoom on Saturday mornings from 10:00 am to noon, for seven weeks, starting June 15, 2024 and ending August 3, 2024. I will provide registration details as they become available – follow this website for notifications.