RUSS 1020-1 TR 9:30-10:20
RUSS 1020-2 TR 3:30-4:20
Plus discussion section
Introduces Russian grammar with emphasis on reading and speaking. Class meets five days per week plus work in the language laboratory.
Prerequisite: RUSS 1010 (with grade of C or better) or equivalent
RUSS 2020-1 T 9:30-10:20
RUSS 2020-2 T 3:30-4:20
Plus discussion section
Continuation of Russian grammar. Includes practice in speaking and writing Russian and introduction to Russian prose and poetry. Class meets four days per week.
Prerequisite: RUSS 2010 (with grade of C or better) or equivalent
MWF 10:00-10:50
Continuation of Russian grammar. Includes intensive oral practice through reports, dialogues, guided discussions; composition of written reports and essays; readings in literary and non-literary texts.
Prerequisite: RUSS 3010 (with grade of C or better)
RUSS 3030 Intermediate Conversation
Michael Marsh-Soloway and Victoria Vutova
T 7:00-9:00
Open to residents of the Russian House only. Two hours of conversation practice per week.
Prerequisite: RUSS 1020 or equivalent; RUSS 2020 is strongly recommended
MWF 10:00-10:50
Continuation of Russian grammar. Includes oral practice, extensive reading, and work in Russian stylistics.
Prerequisite: RUSS 4010 (with grade of C or better)
MWF 12:00-12:50
Ewa Setaro
Introduction to Polish language, with emphasis on grammar, reading, and speaking skills, and Polish culture.
Prerequisite: POL 1210 or instructor permission
MW 11:00-11:50
Plus discussion section
This course examines the structure, history, and sociolinguistics of American English as spoken in the southeastern part of the United States. Its purpose is also to learn some general assumptions of structural dialectology and their application to American English.
RUTR 2360 Tales of Transgression
MW 2:00-3:15
This course examines how Russian writers engage with ethical questions ranging from lofty pursuits of freedom and the meaning of life to more prosaic issues of personal responsibility and happiness. In the context of literary analysis, we explore such conceptual terms describing human activity as love and justice, right and wrong, good and evil. Texts by Dostoevsky, Leskov, Tolstoy, Ostrovsky, Chekhov, Olesha, and Petrushevskaya.
RUTR 2460 Civilization and Culture of Russia
MWF 1:00-1:50
Open to students with no knowledge of Russian. Surveys Russian civilization from the earliest times, with emphasis on literature, thought, and the arts. This course will begin with the founding of Christianity in Kievan Rus' in 988 and culminate with the fin-de-siecle culture of the late nineteenth century, addressing the development of Russian language and literature, artistic and religious expression in music and the visual arts, and essential constructs of folklore as they pertain to Russian and East Slavic culture. Texts will include works from the Primary Chronicle, as well as folktales, epics, hagiographies, philosophical writings, sacred texts, poetry, short stories, and the novel. This course can be used to fulfill the Second Writing Requirement.
RUTR 2730/RUTR 3510 Dostoevsky
TR 11:00-11:50
Plus discussion section
This course examines the remarkable legacy of the great Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky, beginning with his first experiments in prose fiction and culminating with his timeless masterpiece The Brothers Karamazov. Along the way we shall meet Dostoevsky's famous rebel, "the man from underground," the soulful murderer in Crime and Punishment, and a series of alienated heroes, would-be supermen, and relentless seekers after God. The course will also consider Dostoevsky's relationship to other masters of West European and Russian literature. All readings in English, no knowledge of Russian required. Satisfies the Humanities Requirement.
RUTR 2470 Understanding Russia: Symbols, Myths, and Archetypes of Identity
MF 2:00-3:15
This course explores different sources of Russian national identity from pre-Christian Rus' to the present. We will investigate how the occidental and oriental elements blend into a unique Euro-Asian culture, nation, and world power. Our main aim is to provide an orientation to the symbolic world of Russian self-identification. We will employ the tools of the historian, geographer, psychologist, political scientist, and student of literature and culture to craft an interdisciplinary portrait of Russia. This knowledge will enable us to look at Russia as Russians saw and see their country.
RUTR 3340 Books Behind Bars
T 12:30-4:45 and R 12:30-1:45
In this course we will grapple in a profound and personal way with timeless human questions: Who am I? Why am I here? How should I live? We will do this, in part, by facilitating discussions about short masterpieces of Russian literature with residents at a maximum security juvenile correctional center. This course offers an integrated academic-community engagement curriculum, and provides a unique opportunity for service learning, leadership and youth mentoring. It will give students first-hand understanding of both cultural diversity and the things all human beings share. It also will deepen students' appreciation of the ways in which the study and teaching of great literature can affect both personal and social change. Permission of the instructor required.
SLFK 2120 Ritual and Family Life
TR 12:30-1:20
Plus discussion section
Open to students with no knowledge of Russian. This course studies rituals and beliefs associated with marriage, birth, and death in nineteenth-century rural Russian and Ukraine. It will also do comparative work with American customs and look at gender roles, child-rearing practices, and changes in life-cycle ritual in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods.
Satisfies the Non-Western Perspectives requirement
RUSS 5050-1 MW 8:00-8:50
RUSS 5050-2 MW 4:00-4:50
Two hours of conversation practice per week. May be repeated for credit.
Prerequisite: RUSS 3020 or equivalent
RUSS 5190 Russian Drama and Theatre
TR 12:30-1:45
This course studies the history and development of Russian theatre. We will read plays from Fonvizin to Shvarts, with an emphasis on the major plays of Gogol, Chekhov, and Gorky. We will also examine production theories of Stanislavsky and Meyerhold.
RUSS 5500 Nabokov
TR 2:00-3:15
This course will examine Vladimir Nabokov's contributions as a Russian emigre writer in light of the work of his predecessors Anton Chekhov and Ivan Bunin. Consideration will also be given to the work of his contemporary Nina Berberova.
RUSS 5500 Tales of Transgression
MW 2:00-3:15
This course examines how Russian writers engage with ethical questions ranging from lofty pursuits of freedom and the meaning of life to more prosaic issues of personal responsibility and happiness. In the context of literary analysis, we explore such conceptual terms describing human activity as love and justice, right and wrong, good and evil. Texts by Dostoevsky, Leskov, Tolstoy, Ostrovsky, Chekhov, Olesha, and Petrushevskaya.
RUSS 7360 Tolstoy's War and Peace
TR 3:30-4:45
Close analytical reading of War and Peace in Russian and of critical works on it.
LNGS 5000 Applied Linguistics for Teachers
MW 8:30-9:45
The purpose of this course is to provide prospective language teachers with background in descriptive and theoretical linguistics as well as language typology, and thus to enable them to make informed pedagogical decisions, set realistic goals, and read scholarship in pedagogy of the type that appears in publications like the Modern Language Journal. Students should note that this is not a course in teaching methodology, although one of its aims is to aid in the implementation of effective methodology.
LNGS 7240 Southern American English
MW 11:00-11:50
This course examines the structure, history, and sociolinguistics of American English as spoken in the southeastern part of the United States. Its purpose is also to learn some general assumptions of structural dialectology and their application to American English.
All 5000-level courses are open to undergraduate enrollment. Though these are graduate-level courses, they are designed to accommodate advanced undergraduates who have previously taken courses in the Slavic Department. Minors, and especially majors are encouraged to consider enrolling in these courses. If you are an undergraduate interested in taking a 5000-level course, please contact the professor who will be offering it. The faculty of the Slavic Department welcomes such inquiries.