Russian Lit in Bite-Sized Pieces: Alexander Pushkin

Randy Perazzini leads a monthly discussion focusing on short fiction by one of the great writers from Russia’s Golden Age, setting the stage with a brief description of the historical and biographical contexts. Alexander Pushkin, the Mozart of Russian literature, was outstanding in many genres and moods–elegant, ironic, playful, hard to pin down. His realism is tinged with magic and the exotic, he explores freedom and identity in personal and social contexts, he foreshadows all the later writers. Participants will discuss his “Tales of Belkin,” “The Queen of Spades,” and “The Captain’s Daughter.”

Randy Perazzini holds a Ph.D. in English literature from Cornell University and has taught for 27 years, primarily in Mexico City, at St. John’s College, and for Renesan, most recently offering “Aeschylus & O’Neill in Conversation.”