This course is primarily a patient and fastidious close reading of War and Peace. It examines how complex narrative structures are conceived and evolve; how great fiction resists genre definition; and how believable fictional realms may coexist with other discourses. By considering the relationship of key philosophical and historical texts and works of art to Tolstoy's masterpiece, this “not-a-novel,” the course introduces students to various comparative perspectives on the many worlds of War and Peace (cultural-semiotic, philosophical, historical, as well as historiographic, narratological, visual, operatic, and theatrical). Work in the course is supplemented by the study of criticism and other short original works that enter into a poignant conversation with War and Peace in its time and afterlife.