Russia

1) Describe the malady of klikushestvo: its symptoms, victims, causes, et cetera.  Then discuss Worobec’s propoed understanding of the role of the disease in Russian village life and its importance for Russian women as a cultural phenomenon.  How is Worobec’s understanding a “feminist” interpretation?  How does it relate to the scholarship and reinterpretation done by Elaine Showalter in The Female Malady?

2) Discuss Giselle’s Mania. How is madness portrayed (visually, in the soundtrack, in the storyline, etc)? What does the film suggest is the cause of Olga’s madness? How is this similar to or different from the madness we have read about in men (make some specific comparisons!)? How might you analyze this film from a feminist perspective? Click Here To Get More On This Paper.........


3) Discuss Joseph Brodsky’s “Gorbunov and Gorchakov.”  Consider the content of the poem: what ideas do you think Brodsky wanted to explore? (You can choose to reference Lev Loseff’s interpretation or not.)  Consider the form and language of the poem: how does it relate to and affect the content?  Finally, consider why Brodsky chose the setting of a madhouse: how does this setting affect your understanding of the poem?  Are the characters mad?  If so, in what way, and how does that affect the poem?  And if not …?

4) Select two of the four characters in the madhouse from Buddha’s Little Finger and describe their visions, including some of the main symbols contained therein and what you think they represent.  Present an analysis of the way Pelevin uses the contents of these characters’ fantasies and visions to create or bolster the larger themes or statements of the novel; you should include a description of what you think these themes or statements are.

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