480125 KO Colloquium on Regional and Cultural Studies (2019W)

The hagiographic vita means a biography of saints. In the theory of literature a vita also generally means the literary description of the life of a known personality. In the course we will see how this term was developed in the Russian literature. In 988 Russia was baptized and since the 11th century there are Russian manuscripts. The first vitae in the Russian literature were translated, but since the 11th century Rus already has already its own saints and develops its first example of a vita. The hagiography is very canonical and Russian hagiography continues the tradition. But the vita of Protopop Avvakum shows something completely new and here instead of a classical vita we see the first Russian autobiography. The course pursues the goal of introducing subject-related texts and programmatic statements in the subject areas, issues and orientations of the Russian vitae and biographies. We will read selected texts starting from hagiography till biography. In addition, each student must prepare a presentation on a selected topic.