Register for Newberry course “Dostoevsky’s Short Fiction and Film Adaptations” starting May 22, 2024

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.

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.

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. Registration begins on the morning of May 22, 2024. For more information on registration procedures, see the Newberry’s Adult Education page. (As of April 11, 2024, the summer class listings have not been posted; click here for the complete course description.