Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies

Duke University Library collects extensively in contemporary fiction, belles lettres, and drama from Russia, Eurasia, and Eastern Europe, in both the original vernacular languages and in English translation.  The Lilly and Music libraries at Duke also hold a collection of audio-visual materials (videos, CDs, DVDs) based on major works of Russian and other Slavic literature.  For a description of Duke's unique collection of Russian and Soviet films, as well as specifc suggestions for how to locate films on Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia in the online catalog, please see the film and video subject guide on this website.

Literature in Translation
To find English translations of works in the Slavic languages, consult volume two of the following major bibliography, The Literatures of the World in English Translation: A Bibliography. Vol. II. The Slavic Literatures, compiled by Richard C. Lewanski (New York: New York Public Library, 1967), which is located in the reference sections of both Lilly and Perkins/Bostock libraries.

For more recent English translations, perform a keyword search in the Duke library catalog for: [Author] -- Translations into English (e.g. Pushkin AND "translations into english"); [Title] -- Translations into English (e.g. "boris godunov" AND "translations into english").  You can also do a subject search for the literature of a particular century by using [Country] literature -- [Ordinal number] century -- Translations into English (e.g. Russian literature -- 19th century -- Translations into English).

Literature in the Vernacular Language
Since subject categories are not typically assigned to novels or plays (unlike to works of literary criticism or history), it takes some ingenuity and perseverance to locate contemporary works of fiction.  Use the "Advanced Search" tab of the Duke Catalog to limit your search to the most recent years of publication (e.g. 2006-2007) and conduct a keyword search, using the truncated versions of the relevant vernacular words for "drama" or "novel," or for specific genres, as in the following examples.

For contemporary Russian drama:

All fields:  drama? OR komedi? OR trag? or spektakl?
Language: Russian
Year From: 2006
Year To: 2007
Format: Book

For contemporary Russian fiction:

All fields: roman OR stikh? OR poem?
Language: Russian
Year From: 2006
Year To: 2007
Format: Book

You could also look for the relevant subject categories (e.g. Drama, Fiction) in the language of your choice.  For example, if searching for contemporary drama (or fiction) from 2006 to 2007, use you would enter the following information in the fields of the advanced search screen:

For contemporary Russian drama:

Subject: Russian drama
Language: Russian
Year From: 2006
Year To: 2007
Format: Book

For contemporary Russian fiction and belles lettres:

Subject: Fiction
Language: Russian
Year From: 2006
Year To: 2007
Format: Book

Since this search method will also return some works of literary criticism, you may have to go through the list of results in order to identify recent publications of contemporary fiction.

Full-text digital versions of classical works of Russian literature (Pushkin, byliny, The Lay of Igor's Campaign), as well as major works of literary criticism about them, can be found on in the Fundamental Digital Library of Russian Literature and Folklore (Feb-web).  This important electronic resource includes information in text, audio, visual, and other forms on 11th- to 20th-century Russian literature, Russian folklore, and the history of Russian literary scholarship and folklore studies. FEB-web combines an exhaustive collection of primary texts with all the essential secondary literature and bibliographical works you need to do research on a given author, genre, or work (e.g. Pushkin, byliny, or The Lay of Igor's Campaign). Project instituted in 1995 by the Gorky Institute of World Literature and the Informregistr Center at the Russian Ministry for Communications, and online since July 2002.

Belles Lettres in Audio-Visual Formats

Below is a partial listing of audio-visual resources relevant to the study of Russian literature and culture, including performances of Russian opera and ballet and adaptations of Russian belles lettres.  To search for audio-visual resources about other Slavic languages, conduct an advance search for the appropriate subject category (e.g. Motion Pictures), limit the language to the language of your choice (e.g. Polish), and select "Film/Video" as the format.

The Sleeping Beauty.
Lilly A-V Video cassette -- CALL NUMBER: 7863

The Eagle.
Lilly A-V Video cassette -- CALL NUMBER: 3787

The Little Humpbacked Horse.
Music Media Center -- CALL NUMBER: VC 162

Boris Godunov. (Mussorgsky's opera)
Music Media Center -- CALL NUMBER: VC 459

The Overcoat.
Lilly A-V Video cassette -- CALL NUMBER: 3388

Folklore and Legend.
Lilly A-V Video cassette -- CALL NUMBER: 2781 cass. 2

Chardynin's Pushkin.
Lilly A-V Video cassette -- CALL NUMBER: 2781 cass. 5

The Twelve Chairs.  (12 Stul'ev)
Lilly A-V Video cassette -- CALL NUMBER: 1894
Lilly also has the Hollywood version of this comedy classic.

Mother.
Lilly A-V Video cassette -- CALL NUMBER: 1990

The Anna Akhmatova File (Lichnoe delo Anny Akhmatovoi).
Lilly A-V Video cassette -- CALL NUMBER: 2943

War and Peace.
Lilly A-V Video cassette -- CALL NUMBER: 1764

Crime and Punishment. (Prestuplenie i nakazanie)
Lilly A-V Video cassette -- CALL NUMBER: 1755

Eugene Onegin. (Tchaikovsky's opera)I
Music Media Center -- CALL NUMBER: VC 15

Leo Tolstoy: A Page from Life (Lev Tolstoi: stranitsy zhizni)
Lilly A-V Video cassette [Limited Circulation] -- CALL NUMBER: 1957

The Sea Gull
Lilly A-V Video cassette -- CALL NUMBER: 1639

The Brothers Karamazov.
Lilly A-V Video cassette -- CALL NUMBER: 121

Doctor Zhivago.
Lilly A-V Video cassette -- CALL NUMBER: 225

Alexander Nevsky.
Lilly A-V Video cassette -- CALL NUMBER: 1904

Potemkin.
Lilly A-V Video cassette -- CALL NUMBER: 7751

Ten Days That Shook the World.
Lilly A-V Video cassette -- CALL NUMBER: 808