OU abandons Russian literature

In 2019, the third chapter of the John Wick franchise graced the movie screen, following the continuing adventure of the titular hitman on his quest for revenge. The opening scene of the film sees John Wick go to the library and check out Aleksandr Afanas’ev’s “Russian Folktale.”

For most viewers, the book’s presence was a one-off device to push the plot forward (serving both as a stash of equipment and a weapon). The last time OU included a course on Afanas’ev’s folktales was Spring 2019.

Aleksandr Afanas’ev was a Russian ethnographer and folklorist who worked to catalog and publish nearly 600 Russian folktales across several volumes. His work in the cataloging of Russian Folk history has earned him comparisons to similar catalogists like “The Brothers Grimm.”

Contemporary to Afanas’ev were authors like Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekov’s collective works in literature have been canonized. Tolstoy’s works appear in many must-read lists. While Chekov’s theories on writing eventuate in the principle of “Chekov’s gun.”

These authors retain their relevance even today, with author George Saunders including them in his novel on writing “A Swim in a Pond in the Rain.” Saunders describes the importance of these authors in every literary moment with the following quote, “[Russian literature is] a resistance literature, written by progressive reformers in a repressive cul-