RU 10101-10102
Beginning Russian I
and II
An
introduction
to the Russian language. Develops students’ skills in
listening, speaking, reading, and writing, while also
fostering an appreciation for Russian culture. Emphasis
is placed on the acquisition of basic structures, vocabulary,
and sound systems. (Textbook: Marita
Nummikoski, Troika: A Communicative Approach to Russian
Language, Life, and Culture, 2nd ed.)
RU 40101-40102
Advanced Russian I and
II
Designed
to
significantly improve students’ comprehension, reading, and
self-expression skills in Russian and to prepare them to read
and study Russian literature in the original. The course has
two main components: language and literature. The language
component includes an intensive review of essential Russian
grammar principles; Russian stylistics, syntax, and advanced
grammar topics; essay writing in Russian; and extensive work
on vocabulary building and advanced conversation skills. The
literature component includes a foundation in the major
movements, tendencies, and authors of 19th- and 20th-century
Russian literature and an introduction to the reading and
analysis of a wide range of literary texts (fiction and
poetry). The course is conducted primarily in Russian.
RU 43110
Introduction to
Russian Poetry
RU 43204
Pushkin
An introduction to Pushkin’s life and works. Through a
reading and discussion of selections from Pushkin’s lyric
verse, narrative poetry, drama, and prose, students gain an
appreciation for Pushkin’s extraordinary literary imagination
and innovativeness, as well as his significance for the
history of Russian literature as a whole. Attention is given
to Pushkin’s evolving understanding of his role as Russia’s
national poet, including such themes in his work as the beauty
of the Russian countryside, the poet’s sacred calling,
political repression and the dream of civic freedom, Russia’s
relationship to East and West, the dialectic between chance
and fate, St. Petersburg and the specter of Revolution, and
the subversive power of art.
RU 43208
Chekhov
An
introduction
to the short stories and plays of Anton Chekhov, with
attention to the development of his art of characterization,
dialogue, plot construction, and innovative dramatic
technique. Central themes are alienation and banality in
Chekhov’s works, his attitude to science and progress, and his
views on the future of Russia. A portion of the semester is
largely devoted to the reading and performance (in Russian) of
Chekhov’s one-act comedy The
Marriage
Proposal (Predlozhenie).
RU 43405
Russian Romanticism
An introduction to the literature of
Russian Romanticism, which was the first literary movement in
Russia to seek to develop a definitively national, uniquely
Russian literature and literary language. The course explores
this quest for a national literature in light of Russian
Romanticism’s Western influences. Students read works of
poetry, fiction, and drama by a diverse group of Romantic
writers; each thematiс unit begins with a work of British
Romanticism and then moves on to a number of works from the
Russian tradition. Themes of the course include the national
and the exotic, the natural and the supernatural, rebellion
and social alienation, violence and passion, Byronism, and
poetic inspiration.
RU 30510
One Thousand Years of
Russian Culture
In 1939 Winston Churchill famously
called Russia “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an
enigma.” This course is an introduction to the mysteries of
Russian culture from medieval times to the present that are
often overlooked in surveys of Western European art,
literature, and culture. Through explorations into the Russian
religious tradition, painting, music, architecture, dance,
cinema, folk art and folk tales, proverbs and superstitions,
intellectual debates, socio-political movements, and of course
literature, the course explores the ways in which Russians
define themselves and their place in the world, and how they
experience and express their cultural uniqueness as well as
their ties to both East and West. By the end of the course,
students are able to trace certain patterns of belief and
sensibility in Russian culture that persist in spite of the
country’s long history of succumbing to sudden, revolutionary
change. Literary readings for the course range from the
ancient historical chronicles and lives of early Russian
saints, to short works by such classic Russian authors as
Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Chekhov, to poems and
stories by several contemporary authors.
RU 33401
A Space for Speech: Russian Women Memoirists
Throughout the history of
Russian literature, the genres of autobiography, memoir, and
diary have provided a venue for women writers to find their
voices in a private arena safely distanced from the privileged
genres of novels and lyric poetry. This course examines
the history and development of the female memoir in Russian
literature, from the eighteenth-century memoirs of a courtier
of Catherine the Great to documents of the Stalinist terror
and prison camp life of the twentieth century. The
course also addresses theoretical questions about women's
autobiographical writing and considers the relationship of the
works students read to the dominant (male-centered) Russian
literary tradition.
RU
33520
Post-Soviet Russian Cinema
Freed from the constraints of
Soviet-era censorship, since 1990 Russian filmmakers have
exploited the unique qualities of the film medium in order to
create compelling portraits of a society in transition. The
films we watch in this course cover a broad spectrum:
reassessing Russia’s rich pre-Revolutionary cultural heritage
as well as traumatic periods in Soviet history (World War II,
the Stalinist era); grappling with formerly taboo social
issues (gender roles, anti-Semitism, alcoholism); taking an
unflinching look at new social problems resulting from the
breakdown of the Soviet system (the rise of neo-fascism, the
war in Chechnya, organized crime); and meditating on Russia’s
current political and cultural dilemmas (the place of
non-Russian ethnicities within Russia, Russians’ love-hate
relationship with the West). From this complex cinematic
patchwork emerges a picture of a new, raw Russia, as yet
confused and turbulent, but full of vitality and promise for
the future.
RU 13186
-- University (Freshman) Seminar
Chasing the Troika: Russia’s Literary Search for Self
Russia’s identity crisis began long
before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the onset of perestroika,
or even the Bolshevik Revolution. In this introduction to
nineteenth- and twentieth-century Russian literature, we
explore the historical and cultural roots of the problems
facing Russia today. By focusing on images of “Russia” and
“Russianness” in works by some of the greatest Russian writers
and poets (Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Akhmatova,
Solzhenitsyn, and others), we trace Russia’s tortured literary
search for her own national identity.
CSEM 23101
-- College (Sophomore) Seminar
Single and Double
Selves
This course addresses a basic
question of human identity: how do we form a concept of the
singular self? And what happens on the margins of that
concept, when self and other, individuality and alterity, seem
to merge disconcertingly (and often traumatically)? The topics
of the course include such phenomena as twins, doubles or
so-called doppelgängers, dream-doubles, alter egos and
anti-egos, split personalities, shadow figures, imposters,
vampires, clones, and mirror reflections. We approach
our study of self-definition and its limits from a variety of
theoretical perspectives drawn from the fields of
anthropology, psychiatry, philosophy, and cultural and
literary studies, and we have occasion to reflect on
such diverse matters as folklore and mythology; the body-soul
dichotomy; early childhood psychological development;
primitive ancestor worship (totemism); conscience and the
unconscious; demonic possession; ghosts and the occult; the
construction of racial, cultural, national, and gender
identities; animistic belief systems; shamanism; the nature of
authorship and authorial self-creation; the attractions and
dangers of mimesis; and the subversive power of art.