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Russian and East European Languages and Literatures

Spring 2023

  • 01:787:102 Elementary Polish II

    Agnieszka Makles

    Open to students with NO prior knowledge of Polish. Students with prior knowledge must take a placement test.

    Elementary Polish is an introductory course intended for students with no or minimal prior experience in the language. Students will learn the Polish sound and spelling system. They will develop proficiency in listening, reading, speaking, and writing. The basic of grammar and core vocabulary are introduced. In addition, the course provides an introduction to Polish culture, including geography, history, literature and practices through authentic texts, maps, websites and other supplementary materials.

  • 01:787:202 Intermediate Polish II

    Agnieszka Makles

    Prerequisite: 787:201 or placement or permission.

    Intermediate Polish is intended for students who have completed Elementary Polish or have placed into the course. Students will continue to develop proficiency in four skills: listening, reading, speaking, and writing. Orthography drills reinforce the sound and spelling system. This course will broaden students’ grammatical understanding and vocabulary. Students will read an authentic literary text, view a Polish film, and discuss current events in Poland, which will deepen students' knowledge of Polish history and culture. Fulfills SAS core goal AH q. 

  • 01:860:102 Elementary Russian II

     

    Prerequisite: 860:101 or placement.

    Elementary Russian is an intensive introductory course in spoken and written contemporary standard Russian, intended for students with no prior experience in the language. It develops proficiency in all four skills: speaking, reading, listening, and writing, as well as the basics of Russian grammar. It also introduces students to Russian life, culture, history, geography, and traditions through authentic target-language texts, websites, various media, and other supplementary materials.

  • 01:860:202 Intermediate Russian II

    Professor Cori Anderson

    Prerequisite: 01:860:201 or placement. Not for students who have taken 01:860:107.

    Intermediate Russian is an intensive intermediate course in spoken and written contemporary standard Russian, intended for students who have completed Russian 102 or placed into the course by exam. This course is not for students who have completed Russian 107 or those who speak Russian at home with their family. The course develops proficiency in all four skills: speaking, reading, listening, and writing. It includes a review and expansion of Russian grammar and vocabulary. It deepens students’ understanding of Russian life, culture, history, geography, and traditions through authentic target-language texts, websites, media (including films and music) and other supplementary materials. It is strongly recommended that students also take Intermediate Russian Conversation 860:204:01. Fulfills SAS core goal AH q.

  • 01:860:204 Intermediate Russian Conversation II

    Professor Cori Anderson

    This one-credit course continues to aid students in improving pronunciation, intonation, listening, and conversation skills in standard Russian. Students will navigate Russian websites, watch excerpts of Russian film and television, and listen to Russian music and radio broadcasts. Only open to students who are currently enrolled in Russian 202.

  • 01:860:208 Intermediate Russian for Russian Speakers

    Svetlana Bogomolny

    Prerequisite: 860:207 or placement. Not for students who have taken 860:102.

    Intermediate Russian for Russian Speakers is designed for students who learned Russian at home or from family members, and have had some formal study, including Russian 207. This course focuses on improving grammatical control, and expanding active vocabulary for discussing abstract topics. Students will improve their reading skills, through literary and non-literary texts of increasing length and difficulty, and their writing skills, working towards the goal of creating cohesive and organized paragraph-lengthy texts. Students will also increase their knowledge of Russian history, culture, geography and traditions through authentic materials, such as texts, films, music and other supplementary materials. Fulfills SAS core goal AH q.

  • 01:860:268 Art and Power

    Professor Jane Sharp

    In English. No prerequisites.

    cross-listed with Art History 01:082:204:01 and Comparative Literature 01:195:265:01

    This course will examine the interaction of art and politics in Soviet culture, focusing on specific artworks (visual and literary) and writings about them. It considers how creative interests in representing a particular social or political ideology are realized, and to what degree notions of artistic autonomy might conflict with appeals to the public and/or state authority. 

    Less a survey of Soviet art and literature than a cross-disciplinary inquiry, our course is structured around a series of themes addressing the interpretation, public promotion, and reception of art in the Soviet single Party state. Over the course of the semester, we will encounter a wide cross-section of both mainstream and underground Soviet works of art– including sculptures, paintings, film, and literature, as well as theoretical writings about art, such as manifestos and critical interpretations. We will see how Soviet Culture–often called “totalitarian”–provided a model for the interdependence of art and politics, the consequences of which resonate even today. Although the course focuses primarily on Russia, lectures also are devoted to art in the Caucasus (Georgia), the Baltics, and Central Asia. No prerequisites; all readings and discussions in English.

    Fulfills SAS Core goals AHo, AHp.

  • 01:860:272 Russia: Between Empire and Nation

    Arpi Movsesian

    In English. No prerequisites.

    cross-listed with Comparative Literature 01:195:272:01 and History 01:510:277:01

    Russia's Ambivalent Embrace: Empire, Periphery, Identity

    The Russian tsars called Moscow the New Jerusalem. The Russian emperors preferred Third Rome or Great European Power. Soviet leaders called it the Friendship of the Peoples. Putin calls it Russky mir or “Russian World.” Over the course of several centuries some idea of imperial dominance has been used to define how Russia has related to its many borderlands and its external neighbors and how the periphery has related to the metropole. Meanwhile, for successive generations of cultural elites, Russia’s vast territory has constantly presented a problem, inspiring pride, confusion, and resentment—sometimes all at once, in the very same people. Our course will try to understand why that is, by examining how literatures and art of the peoples from the former Russian and Soviet empires have engaged with Russia’s complicated territorial identity, focusing especially on the last two hundred years. One of the objectives of the course is to provide foundations for better understanding Russia’s orientation in the world today as concerning to Eastern Europe and Eurasia. No prerequisites; all readings, films, and class discussions in English.

    Fulfills SAS Core goals CC, AHp

  • 01:860:302 Advanced Russian II

    Cori Anderson

    Prerequisite: 01:860:301 or placement

    This is an advanced course in spoken and written contemporary standard Russian, intended for students who have completed the equivalent of four semesters of college-level Russian, or have placed into the course by exam. The course strengthens grammatical control and develops proficiency in speaking, reading, listening, and writing. Students will learn to summarize, develop narration, and create connected paragraphs in speech and writing. The will also study complex grammatical structures, such as participles and gerunds, and syntactic constructions, such as subordination. They will broaden their vocabulary through the study of word-formation. This course covers many elements of modern Russian life, such as education, employment, leisure and youth culture, through authentic target-language texts, websites, media (including films and music) and other materials.

  • 01:860:304 Advanced Russian Conversation II

    Cori Anderson

    Advanced Russian Conversation is a one-hour course to supplement Russian 302, providing additional work on conversational skills, pronunciation and intonation, and grammatical control in spoken contemporary standard Russian. This course is only open to students who are currently enrolled in Russian 302. This course also provides students with extra opportunities to engage with authentic Russian materials, such as print media and films.

  • 01:860:330 Dostoevsky

    Arpi Movsesian

    In English. No prerequisites.

    cross-listed with Comparative Literature 01:195:311:01

    Weird Dostoevsky

    What does it mean to be weird? This question preoccupied Fyodor Dostoevsky, the author of such masterpieces as Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and The Brothers Karamazov. Idiots, madmen, ascetics, holy fools, buffoons, schismatics, zealous monks, misanthropic Byronic heroes, self-sacrificing women, and other eccentric personalities make up Dostoevsky’s oeuvre and speak to his enduring interest in weirdness. Our course will examine the concept of the weird as an umbrella category, a kind of otherness in which perceived eccentric personalities participate, as the author’s way of approaching ethical issues and life’s “accursed questions” that concerned Dostoevsky throughout his life and career. We will likewise consider the notion of perception in its relationship to otherness, periphery, oddity, and disability in Dostoevsky’s novels, short stories, and diary entries, as well as his attitude toward certain typologies of weirdness. Closely studying the contradictions arising in each of these categories within their historical, socio-cultural, religious, and medical contexts will help us better understand the place of weirdness in Dostoevsky’s works, its role in unveiling contemporaneous issues, and perhaps also provide insight into our own fascination with this celebrated writer of human personality. No prerequisites; all readings and class discussions in English.

    Fulfills SAS Core goals AHo, AHp.

  • 01:860:337 Russian and Soviet Cinema

    Pavel Khazanov

    In English. No prerequisites.

    Cross-listed with Cinema Studies 01:175:377:02 and Comparative Literature 01:195:397:01

    This course surveys the impressive body of Russian and Soviet cinema, from its pre-Revolutionary roots to its contemporary circumstances. We will watch and analyze the films of Sergei Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov, Andrei Tarkovsky, and a variety of other directors from Russia and various former Soviet republics, including Ukraine, Georgia, and Armenia. This course will engage recurrent thematic concerns of Russian cinema (inter/nationalism, gender and sexuality, the aesthetics of violence) alongside formal ones (the development of montage, the advent of sound film, non-narrative cinema techniques). It will serve as an introduction to both cinema studies and Russian studies.

    No prerequisites; all readings and discussions in English.

  • 01:860:402 Russian Media and Film

    Svetlana Bogomolny

    Prerequisite: 01:860:302, or 01:860:306, or placement. May be taken out of sequence with 860:401, 860:402, 860:404, or 860:407.

    Taught primarily in Russian, the course fosters advanced language skills of conversational fluency, listening comprehension, writing and composition, expanded vocabulary, recognition of stylistic registers, and advanced syntax. These skills are practiced while learning about different genre of mass media in the USSR and Russia, i.e. print, radio, television, bard songs, as well as engaging with current events and Russian culture as depicted in film. 

  • 01:860:484 Russia After Stalin

    Pavel Khazanov

    In English. No prerequisites.

    Cross-listed with Comparative Literature 01:195:484:01 and History 01:510:484:01

    The death of the Soviet utopian project has been one of the most consequential events in the history of the twentieth century. But when did it start to die? In 1956, within three years of his demise, Khrushchev denounced Stalin as a mass murderer and the would-be demonic undertaker of the Soviet political dream. How was post-Stalinist society supposed to make sense of its bloody past? This question defined late Soviet culture and was partly responsible for the Soviet collapse. Today, the legacy of Stalinism continues to haunt post-Soviet Russia. Our seminar will engage with the problem of post-Stalinism in Russia by approaching it in two modules. In the first half of the course, we will examine several powerful fictional texts and films that have defined the post-Stalin era, from 1950s onwards. In the second half of the course, we will examine a number of non-fictional and theoretical texts on Stalinism and its aftermath. These dual lines of inquiry will allow us to flesh out the recent past of Russian culture and politics, and to trace the limits of the post-Stalin era’s influence in Russia today.

    All readings and discussions in English. No prerequisites.

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