Resource Guides: SUNY Oswego's 2012-2013 Campus Read -- ORI -- City of Thieves by David Benioff : Start Your Research

Themes/Topics

The following themes from the novel may lead you to a potential paper topic.

Coming of age
Resilience of the human spirit
Extreme circumstances reveal humanity's best or worst qualities
Accuracy of oral histories/personal memories
Impact of war on the enviroment

Websites

Reading Guide
A guide by the publisher includes discussion questions and Q&A with David Benioff.
Literature about the Leningrad Siege
Compiled by Oleg Yuriev. Great source for books, poetry and diaries written about the siege.

Primary Sources: Memoirs & Diaries

These titles can be found in the Circulating Collection on the third floor of Penfield Library.

Writing the Siege of Leningrad by Cynthia Simmons; Nina Perlina
Call Number: D764.3.L4 S56 2002
ISBN: 082294183x
Women's Diaries, Memoirs & Documentary Prose
Blockade Diary by Elena I. Kochina; Samuel C. Ramer (Translator)
Call Number: D764.3.L4 K5824 1990
ISBN: 0875010652

Start Your Research

Thinking about writing a paper based on a theme from City of Thieves? Start with these databases.

Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
Find helpful background information including, biographical information, overviews, full-text literary criticism and reviews.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
One of the more popular databases because it covers a wide range of topics from a variety of disciplines. Search it and find peer-reviewed articles related to your topic.

Primary Sources: Images of the Siege

Primary sources provide invaluable first-hand accounts of an historical event or topic. The images and writing of a time period offer incredible insight into actual events.


War posters at Kazan Cathedral, Leningrad (October 1941). Source: RIA Novosti archive, image #594290 / Anatoliy Garanin / CC-BY-SA 3.0 [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons					A woman and a girl dragging a dead body along Nevsky avenue, Leningrad (April 1942). Source: RIA Novosti archive, image #762 / Michael Trahman / CC-BY-SA 3.0 [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Three men burying victims of Leningrad's siege. The Volkovo cemetery (October 1942). Source: RIA Novosti archive, image #216 / Boris Kudoyarov / CC-BY-SA 3.0 [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons					A street after a German artillery raid during the Leningrad blockade (January 1942). Source: RIA Novosti archive, image #95845 / Vsevolod Tarasevich / CC-BY-SA 3.0 [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons