The course explores the literary and cultural histories of Saint Petersburg, its mythologies and ‘urban geography,’ as represented in a range of fictional and non-fictional texts dating from the 19th c. to the early 20th c. Students will be introduced to the concept of the ‘city-text’ and the basics of urban semiotics, and to the major aesthetic movements and stylistic trends of the period (including Romanticism, Realism, and Symbolism). Approached from diverse perspectives (as a myth, text, ‘body,’ modern urban metropolis, a metaphor for Russia, an imperial city, the epitome of state bureaucracy, a ‘window onto Europe,’ and the ‘cultural capital’) Petersburg will also be contrasted to Moscow to examine the fundamental duality informing Russian national identity. Contextualization within broader historical, ideological, and cultural parameters will be combined with close textual analysis of selected passages. Native views on Petersburg will be juxtaposed against foreign reception.