Welcome

Hosted by Marc Boots, the Russian Literature Study Podcast offers a different kind of literary analysis, one built on active listening and personal discovery. This isn't a series of formal lectures. Instead, each episode presents carefully selected extracts from major works, read aloud to highlight the rhythm and texture of the prose in translation. The core idea is to use the podcast itself as a flexible study tool. You are encouraged to build your own playlist from the available episodes, placing a passage from Gogol next to one from Tolstoy, or juxtaposing early Dostoevsky with later Soviet writers. This method of rearranging the podcast episodes creates various juxtapositions of text extracts, allowing unexpected connections and contrasts to surface organically. As you listen, the process involves writing down any motifs, use of language, themes, or questions that occur to you. It’s a practice in close reading and comparative thought, designed to deepen your engagement with these complex texts. The podcast provides the raw material-the spoken words from novels, stories, and poems-and a framework for you to construct your own analytical pathways, making each listening session a unique investigation into the heart of Russian literature.