Literature. Full immersion - course RUB 14,850. from Synchronization, training 6 months, Date December 3, 2023.

Prepare to read difficult books
In the Complex books block we analyze Ulysses, Iliad, Don Quixote and more

block 1 (webinars)

How complex books are structured
In 8 webinars we will understand how “Ulysses”, “Iliad”, “Don Quixote” and other masterpieces that few people have read work

webinar 1
Homer's Iliad
The Iliad is a monument of ancient Greek literature, an epic poem dedicated to the events of the Trojan War. Many historians and philologists believe that it was with this work that European literature began. Let's find out how the Iliad influenced writers and poets from Antiquity to the 20th century, why it has not lost its relevance and today, and we’ll also find out how the Roman poet Virgil, the Trojan War, the Scandinavian god Odin and the foundation are connected Britain.

webinar 2
Bible
The Bible is a key book for Western culture. In Christianity, this collection of texts is considered sacred, and the most prominent artists and writers throughout the centuries have turned to biblical stories. At the webinar, we will understand the variety of biblical stories and their interpretations, and also find out why without the Bible there would be no philology.

webinar 3
"The Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri
Some philologists and historians call The Divine Comedy an encyclopedia of medieval life. This work really helps to learn about the morals and worldview of the people of the 14th century. But this is also a story about eternal themes: virtues, faith, the finitude of human life. At the webinar we will find out what other questions Dante poses to the reader, and we will also find out what cantics and terzas are and how the structure of the novel is related to the medieval worldview.

webinar 4
"Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes
Don Quixote is a novel about an eccentric hero who read many chivalric novels and decided to become a knight errant himself. But this book is not only a successful parody of the chivalric romances popular in the 17th century. This is an innovative work that influenced the development of all European literature. We will find out what is revolutionary about the novel, and also find out how “Don Quixote” and “Dead Souls” by Nikolai Gogol are connected.

webinar 5
"War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy
The epic novel “War and Peace” amazes readers with its scale. The book has four volumes, over 500 fictional and historical characters, and takes place over a period of about 15 years. Let's find out why Tolstoy decided to write such a voluminous work and how his contemporaries perceived the novel. We’ll also find out which laws of the genre Tolstoy violated and whether War and Peace can even be called a novel.

webinar 6
"The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoevsky
“The Brothers Karamazov” is not only a multifaceted literary work with a detective plot, but also a philosophical work. At the webinar we will find out what ideas Dostoevsky put into the book and why he criticizes the heroes. We will also discuss what paradoxes can be found in the text and what their essence is.

webinar 7
"Ulysses" by James Joyce
The novel has about 800 pages, but its action lasts only one day and one night, and there are only three main characters. The reader gets into the minds of each of them, but cannot always understand what is happening to the characters and what they are thinking about. After all, the text is filled with references, quotes and symbols that are not easy to understand. Let's try to do this in the webinar!

webinar 8
Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann
German writer Thomas Mann wrote the first pages of the novel in 1943 while in the United States. In the story about the composer Adrian Leverkühn, he wove philosophical discussions about the crisis of culture, the origins of fascism, the role of art, and the connection between the fate of one person and an entire country. At the webinar we will find out why the author made the composer the main character.

Learn to understand poetry
In the Poetry block we study poems by Akhmatova, Pasternak, Grebenshchikov and others

block 2 (webinars)

Poetry: to understand and love
In 8 webinars, we will get acquainted with the work of 35 poets, learn to analyze lyrics, compile the top favorite works and understand why we like some poems and not others

webinar 1: January 10, 20:00 
What is poetry and how has it changed?
Let's figure out what criteria can be used to distinguish good lyrics from bad, what modern poetry is and why it seems strange to many.

webinar 2: January 17, 20:00 
Alexander Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov, Nikolai Nekrasov, Fyodor Tyutchev, Afanasy Fet
The golden age of Russian poetry began with Alexander Pushkin inventing a new and modern language of versification. At the webinar, we will figure out exactly how the language changed during this period and how the poets of the 19th century deserved their place in history.

webinar 3: January 24, 20:00
Alexander Blok, Konstantin Balmont, Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Zinaida Gippius
At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Russian culture experienced the heyday of symbolism. We will find out why the symbolists abolished or changed the original meanings of words, and how poets created a sensual poetic language.

webinar 4: January 31, 20:00 
Anna Akhmatova, Nikolai Gumilyov, Osip Mandelstam
In the 1910s, the ideas of symbolism lost their relevance - the country was on the verge of great political changes. Understatement and mystical images did not correspond to the spirit of the new time. This led to the emergence of Acmeism, which, in contrast to symbolism, proclaimed the objectivity and accuracy of images. At the webinar we will discuss the Acmeists and find out why Acmeism as a poetic school turned out to be short-lived.

webinar 5: 07 February 20:00
Anatoly Mariengof, Alexey Kruchenykh, Velimir Khlebnikov, Vasilisk Gnedov
The thirst for radical artistic changes led poets of the early 20th century to the emergence of futurism, zaumi, poetic performances and visual poetry. Let's figure out what it is and why the avant-garde poets wanted to “throw Pushkin off the ship of modernity.”

webinar 6: February 14, 20:00
Sergei Yesenin, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Marina Tsvetaeva, Daniil Kharms
Many poets of the 20th century began their creative careers in line with avant-gardeism. Over time, some of them managed to develop their own poetic language and completely change the way critics and the public thought about poetry. At the lecture we will talk about such poets and find out how they found their style.

webinar 7: February 21, 20:00 
Boris Pasternak, Vladimir Nabokov, Joseph Brodsky, Bella Akhmadullina, Robert Rozhdestvensky
Not all poets agreed with Soviet ideology. Many of them were forced to go abroad, and those who remained were looking for ways to express themselves in Soviet reality. Let's find out how emigrant poets and those who lived in the USSR composed poems.

webinar 8: date to be confirmed
Boris Ryzhiy, Viktor Tsoi, Vladimir Vysotsky, Boris Grebenshchikov, Oksimiron
Modern poetry is diverse and contradictory. She is the most difficult to evaluate, because we have no time distance with her. Let's find out whether this can still be done, and also talk about the trends of modern poetry.

Rediscover your favorite masterpieces
In the Books of Great Writers block we reveal the secrets of “Anna Karenina”, “The Catcher in the Rye”, “Lolita” and 30 more books

block 3 (audio course)

Books by great writers
This is your pocket guide to world literature! We selected 30+ of the most important books and analyzed each one from 4 angles: author and era, genre and style, characters, issues. Each book contains 4 audio lectures for 30–60 minutes. Also, for each book we have prepared 10-minute videos with a story about the main features of different eras of world literature.

Complete list of books
Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita"

Vonnegut "Slaughterhouse-Five, or the Children's Crusade"

Hesse "The Glass Bead Game"

Goethe "Faust"

Gogol "Dead Souls"

Goncharov "Oblomov"

Dante Alighieri "The Divine Comedy"

Joyce "Ulysses"

Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment"

Camus "The Stranger"

Kafka "Castle"

Kerouac "On the Road"

King "It"

Lermontov "Hero of Our Time"

Moliere "Don Juan"

Nabokov "Lolita"

Orwell "1984"

Palahniuk "Fight Club"

Pasternak "Doctor Zhivago"

By Novella

Pushkin "Eugene Onegin"

Saint-Exupery "The Little Prince"

Cervantes "Don Quixote"

Salinger "The Catcher in the Rye"

Tolstoy "Anna Karenina"

Turgenev "Fathers and Sons"

Fitzgerald "The Great Gatsby"

Flaubert "Madame Bovary"

Hemingway "For Whom the Bell Tolls"

Shakespeare "Hamlet"

Eco “Name of the Rose”

Unravel the secrets of dystopias
In the Dystopia block, we analyze “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “1984,” “Us,” and more

block 4 (recorded webinars)

The main dystopian books: fantasy or prophecy
At each of the 6 webinars, we will analyze one dystopia, find out how the world of the future works in it, and analyze the ideas laid down by the author.

webinar 1: recorded webinar
“We” by Evgeniy Zamyatin
Yevgeny Zamyatin wrote “We” in 1920. The book, which defined the development of the dystopian genre, describes a future society: people use numbers instead of names, eat food made from oil and live in houses with transparent walls. At the webinar, we will find out how Zamyatin created these plots and images, and we will also find out what ideas of the novel influenced the dystopias of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley.

webinar 2: recorded webinar
"Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury
The main character of the book is a fireman who must burn books. In the world of the future, they were banned, and the progress of mankind turned into a regression of civilization. At the webinar we will learn how Bradbury wrote a work about the importance of books, sitting in the basement of a Los Angeles library, and we will also find out what problems of civilization the author was able to predict.

webinar 3: recorded webinar
"1984" by George Orwell
Orwell wrote one of the most famous dystopias in literary history. This happened in 1948: at the very beginning of the Cold War and a couple of years before the writer’s death. This novel is a reflection on world history and a grim warning to future generations. Let's find out why Orwell's words still ring true decades later and what the term "Orwellian" really means.

webinar 4: recorded webinar
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Canadian writer Margaret Atwood created the novel in 1985, but the interest of a wide audience flared up in it with renewed vigor after the release of the series based on it. Atwood describes the state of Gilead, in which religious radicals have seized power. In the world of the future, almost all women have lost the ability to have children, and those who retained it found themselves enslaved by the ruling class. In the webinar we will find out why Atwood wrote a novel about discrimination years after the sexual revolution and during the first successes in the fight for women's rights.

webinar 5: recorded webinar
"Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley
The novel takes place in 2540. In a genetically programmed society, people are born in incubators and are divided into castes, and the main values ​​are carelessness and consumption. In the webinar, we will find out why Huxley believed that humanity was approaching what he described in the book, faster than he himself imagined.

webinar 6: recorded webinar
“Day of the Oprichnik” by Vladimir Sorokin
Vladimir Sorokin is one of the most prominent postmodern Russian writers. In 2006, he released the novel “The Day of the Oprichnik,” filled with political satire, phantasmagoric images and historical references. At the webinar we will find out what problems of Russian society the author exposes in the book.

Discuss what you read with like-minded people
In the Literature Club, every month we read 2 books and discuss them with an expert and other participants

block 5 (club)

Book club
Every month we read and analyze with experts the main books on psychology, astrophysics, biology and other important topics.

november
"No rules." Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer
How did Netflix become the largest streaming service? Why is a person above processes, and innovation above efficiency? And why would a company give up good employees? The book by Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings and INSEAD business school professor Erin Meyer reveals the secrets of Netflix and reveals how the company's incredibly effective corporate culture works. “There are no rules. The Unique Culture of Netflix is ​​a frank, first-hand account that will teach you to look at the world of business and personnel policy in a new way.

December
"Sapiens". Yuval Noah Harari
How did Homo sapiens manage to conquer the world? What happened to the Neanderthals? When and why did money, states and religion appear? And how are culture and biology related?
Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari's bestselling book takes the reader through hundreds of thousands of years of our species' evolution, explaining how events from the distant past shape our present and future. The book “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” is not just a set of scientific facts, but a complete a story about the foundations of our civilization that will make you look at history, biology and themselves.

January February
"A Brief History of Time". Stephen Hawking
How did the Universe appear and what will happen to it in the future? Is time travel possible? And what are black holes made of? In the book by the famous physicist Stephen Hawking you will find answers to these and many other questions about our Universe, space and time. The author will take you through all the nooks and crannies of space. In simple language, he will explain even the most complex modern theories and help to understand how our world works from the point of view of science.

March
"Emotional intellect". Daniel Goleman
What is emotional intelligence? How to measure it? And how to use emotions to achieve goals? You will find answers to these and many other questions in the bestselling book by American psychologist Daniel Goleman - the book “Emotional Intelligence. Why it can matter more than IQ." Goleman explores how empathy and managing emotions can help you achieve harmony with yourself and success in life. You will learn how to properly analyze your feelings, understand how to cope with anger, sadness or short temper, and learn to better understand your interlocutors and yourself.

April
"Think slow, decide fast." Daniel Kahneman
In 2002, Daniel Kahneman received the Nobel Prize in Economics for his research into how we make decisions under conditions of uncertainty. But what is so important about his research? And how can the ideas of this Nobel laureate make our lives better?
Together with an expert, we will analyze the book “Think Slowly, Decide Fast” and find answers to this and many other questions. We will learn what makes us make mistakes, understand how to avoid cognitive traps, and learn how to train the decision-making process.

Discuss popular science bestsellers with experts
In the book club every month we read the main books on psychology, astrophysics, biology and other important topics

block 6 (club) 

Literature club
We read two books a month, discuss with the lecturer and like-minded people. Every week we analyze several chapters and dive into the work with the help of a video based on the passage we read.

December
"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" by JK Rowling
Books about the adventures of a young wizard changed the lives of not only the millennial generation, but also the writer herself. When JK Rowling began working on Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, she was depressed after the death of her mother, raising her daughter alone and struggling to make ends meet. At first, twelve publishers rejected the manuscript, but Rowling did not give up. As a result, the first book about Harry Potter was published in 1997 and immediately created a sensation. Together with the lecturer, we will figure out how JK Rowling managed to write a book that interested children and teenagers of the 90s more than video games, and brought back their love of reading, and we will also discuss The Philosopher's Stone in the context of the entire series about the young wizard
"The Hobbit, or There and Back Again" John Tolkien
Oxford University professor John Tolkien's story about the adventures of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, the dwarves and the wizard Gandalf was published in 1937. Over the course of several decades, this book has become a favorite work for several generations of readers, and the world of Middle-earth has become one of the most popular fantasy universes in literature. Let's find out how this fairy tale story was created, how Scandinavian mythology influenced it, and why both children and adults love this book.

January
"Hero of Our Time" Mikhail Lermontov
Mikhail Lermontov is considered to be the heir or “younger brother” of Pushkin. This is partly unfair, because Lermontov not only “picked up Pushkin’s lyre,” but became an innovator in Russian literature: the novel “A Hero of Our Time” was ahead of its time. Let's discuss why Lermontov's prose was valued by modernist writers and what original techniques can be found in the novel. Let's try to figure out what the author meant when he called the work that way.
“Laurel” Evgeniy Vodolazkin
Evgeniy Vodolazkin, a philologist and specialist in ancient Russian literature, calls his book a “non-historical novel.” Its action takes place in Medieval Rus'. The main character experiences the death of his beloved and decides to devote his life to healing people. Together with the lecturer, we will figure out why this book by a modern Russian author deserves attention, how the Old Russian and modern Russian languages ​​are intertwined in it, and what a novel-life is.

February
"Moby Dick" Herman Melville
American writer Herman Melville's novel "Moby Dick" about the adventures of the crew of a whaling ship is now included in the list of books that everyone should read. But in 1851, when Moby Dick was released, his contemporaries did not appreciate it. Only over the years did readers understand that behind the descriptions of ship life and the hunt for the White Whale hidden deep discussions about the universe, allusions to biblical stories, ancient Greek myths and much more.
In the literary club, together with the lecturer, we will figure out how Melville managed to combine in one a work of ideas about intuitive knowledge of truth, references to the myths of Oedipus and Prometheus and biblical stories about Jonah. We will also understand what is hidden behind the image of the White Whale and what psychoanalysis has to do with it.
"Madame Bovary" Gustave Flaubert
American writer Herman Melville's novel "Moby Dick" about the adventures of the crew of a whaling ship is now included in the list of books that everyone should read. But in 1851, when Moby Dick was released, his contemporaries did not appreciate it. Only over the years did readers understand that behind the descriptions of ship life and the hunt for the White Whale hidden deep discussions about the universe, allusions to biblical stories, ancient Greek myths and much more.
In the literary club, together with the lecturer, we will figure out how Melville managed to combine in one a work of ideas about intuitive knowledge of truth, references to the myths of Oedipus and Prometheus and biblical stories about Jonah. We will also understand what is hidden behind the image of the White Whale and what psychoanalysis has to do with it.

March
"The Master and Margarita" Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhail Bulgakov is one of the most popular Soviet writers. His novel The Master and Margarita is simultaneously considered both the most overrated and greatest book of the 20th century. High school students invariably become his fans, and quotes from him are spoken everywhere.
At the club we will discuss what historical and cultural motives formed the basis of the plot of “The Master and Margarita”. We’ll also find out what the novel is about: love, human vices, era or Soviet power.
“Chapaev and Emptiness” Viktor Pelevin
It is already clear: “Chapaev and Emptiness” is one of the main texts of Victor Pelevin and the concentration of his style. The book intertwines modernity with history, anecdotes about Chapaev and Petka with Zen Buddhist philosophy and the teachings of Carlos Castaneda. It was this novel that forever divided readers and critics into those who await Pelevin’s new novel every autumn and those who endlessly criticize the author for his pseudo-intellectualism. Whichever of these camps you are in, you will definitely have something to discuss at the Literary Club!
Together with the lecturer, we will find out why Pelevin is one of the main Russian writers today. Let's look into the philosophical and historical references and find out what ideas the author reveals with their help.

April
"The Trial" Franz Kafka
“The Trial” is one of Kafka’s three unfinished novels, in which the writer once again combined reality and absurdity. The book has been filmed several times, but the most famous and controversial version is the 1993 film The Trial, starring Kyle MacLahanan.
In class we will discuss how many layers of meaning can be found in one unfinished novel. Let's talk about Kafka's difficult fate and find out why the writer is called the “seismograph of the 20th century.”
"Lolita" Vladimir Nabokov
Nabokov's novel tells the story of the relationship between a 37-year-old French literature teacher, Humbert Humbert, and a young girl, Lolita. Over the years, debates about the book have not subsided: what is this novel really about? Is the main character really a villain? How does the author himself relate to the characters and their actions? Let's try to answer these and other questions about the novel, figure out why there are many references to the work of Edgar Allan Poe, and find out what is unique about Nabokov's literary style.

May
"Doctor Zhivago" Boris Pasternak
In 1958, Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize for his novel Doctor Zhivago. In the West, the book was received with enthusiasm, but in the USSR, on the contrary, it was banned from publication. Moreover, the writer was subjected to real persecution. He was expelled from the Writers' Union, was called names in the newspapers for a long time, and they even wanted to deprive him of his citizenship.
At the club we will discuss why the novel could cause so much negativity and why its author was called a “black sheep.” Let's find out what Pasternak really wanted to say and how he reflected his biography on the pages of the book.
"The Collector" John Fowles
The Collector is a postmodern novel by English writer John Fowles, written in 1963. This is the story of a lonely young man who collects butterflies and unexpectedly wins a large sum of money in the lottery. As in his other works, Fowles analyzes his contemporary society, interpreting the actions of the heroes and their motivation. Let's find out what psychological realism is in Fowles's literature, how this novel combines a detective story and a philosophical parable, and we'll understand the intertwining of the plot.