Course |
RUS
101 Beginning Russian
|
|
Professor |
Marina Kostalevsky |
|
CRN |
97099 |
|
Schedule |
M T W Th 2:55 -3:55 pm OLINLC 208 |
|
Distribution |
Foreign Language,
Literature & Culture |
A course for students with little or no previous knowledge
of Russian that introduces the fundamentals of the spoken and written language
as well as Russian culture. We will emphasize conversation, reading, and
written proficiency and encourage creative expression in autobiographical and
fictional compositions. Audio-visual materials will be an integral part of the
learning process. In addition to regular class meetings, students are required
to attend a one-hour-per-week tutorial. Beginning Russian will be followed by
an intensive 8-credit course in the spring semester and a 4-credit summer
language and culture program in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Course |
RUS 206 Continuing Russian |
|
Professor |
Elena Protsenko |
|
CRN |
97100 |
|
Schedule |
Mon Tu Th 3:00 – 4:20 pm OLINLC 115 |
|
Distribution |
Foreign Language,
Literature & Culture |
This course is designed to continue refining and
engaging students' practice of speaking, reading, and writing Russian. Students
will expand their vocabulary and range of stylistic nuance by writing regular
response papers and presenting oral reports. Increasing oral proficiency is a
primary aim of this course, as well as developing reading and viewing
strategies appropriate to the widest variety of written texts and Russian
television and film. We will focus on the syntax of the complex Russian
sentence and on grammatical nuances. The class will be conducted only in
Russian.
Course |
LIT 2404 Fantastic Journeys and the Modern World |
|
Professor |
Jonathan Brent |
|
CRN |
97029 |
|
Schedule |
Tu 7:00 -9:20 pm OLIN 202 |
|
Distribution |
Literature in English |
Cross-listed: Russian & Eurasian Studies
Related interest:
STS
The modern world has been characterized in many
ways, as a time of unimaginable freedom, as well as existential angst, exile,
loss of the idea of home, loss of the idea of positive heroes; a triumphant
embracing of the “new” and the future, as well as the troubling encounter with
machines and the menace of totalitarianism. It was a time when
barriers of all sorts began to crumble—barriers between past and present,
foreground and background, high and low culture, beauty and ugliness, good and
evil. Artists and writers responded in many different ways across the
world. The writers we will read in this class represent the fulcrum of
creativity in America, Central or Eastern Europe and Russia. Each lived
at a different axis of modernity—where East met West, where the Russian
Revolution provided a vibrant but terrifying image of liberation, where modern
technological innovation produced endless possibilities of satirization of both
the old world and the new, where ethnic and genocidal violence was developing under
the surface of this innovation into the foreseeable European Holocaust. These
writers have something powerful and unique to say about the advent of the
modern period in the fantastic parallel worlds they created where machines take
on lives of their own, grotesque transformations violate the laws of science,
and inversions of normality become the norm. Through their fantastic
conceptions a vision of modernity emerges which questions the most basic
presumptions of western civilization—in art, morality, politics, the psyche and
social life—a vision for which the West still has no satisfying response. All
readings are in English. We will read The
Marvelous Land of Oz (L. Frank Baum),
The Metamorphosis (Kafka), RUR (Capek), War with the Newts (Capek),
Street of Crocodiles (Schulz),
Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hour Glass (Schulz), Envy (Olesha) The Bedbug (Mayakovsky).
There will be 4 short papers for the course & one final paper.
Course |
RUS 314 Russian Your Way: Advanced Speaking and Writing |
|
Professor |
Elena Protsenko |
|
CRN |
97527 |
|
Schedule |
Tu Th 10:30 – 11:50 am Olin 308 |
|
Distribution |
Foreign Language,
Literature & Culture |
The focus of this course is on the refinement of skills
in written and spoken Russian on an advanced level. We will base our study of
conversational Russian on examples from contemporary fiction and non-fiction as
well as the most recent film materials available from Russia. Students will
actively increase their vocabulary through participation in discussions on a
range of topics and in role-playing situations based on “real life.” Our study
of written skills will be based on analytical reading of contemporary Russian
texts of various styles and genres. We will develop skills applicable to both
individual written analysis and spoken analysis in group discussions in
studying Russian syntax and its nuances. These approaches will enable students
to develop their own writing style in Russian as well as improve fluency in
expressing themselves. Students will be expected to write 1-2 essays per week
on relevant topics. Conducted only in Russian.
Course |
RUS / LIT 325 Body, Mind, and Spirit in Dostoevsky |
|
Professor |
Marina Kostalevsky |
|
CRN |
97480 |
|
Schedule |
Tu Th 1:00 – 2:20 OLINLC 120 |
|
Distribution |
Literature in English |
An exploration of Dostoevsky’s multifaceted world.
Particular attention will be paid to the way the writer experiments with the themes
of body and sexuality, intellectual pursuit and philosophy, spiritual quest and
religion. Readings include three short stories: “Bobok,” A Gentle Creature,”
“Notes from the Underground;” three novels: “Crime and Punishment,” “The
Idiot,” “The Brothers Karamazov;” as well as Dostoevsky’s letters and excerpts
from “A Diary of a Writer.” Analysis of ideas, devices and structures of these
texts will be supplemented by reference to major critical and theoretical
writings. The course is meant to provide both an approach to Dostoevsky and to
existing scholarship on Dostoevsky’s art and techniques. All readings and
discussions in English.
Course |
RUS 420 Detskii mir / A Child’s World |
|
Professor |
Marina Kostalevsky |
|
CRN |
97528 |
|
Schedule |
Wed 9:30 – 11:50 am OLIN 302 |
|
Distribution |
Foreign Language,
Literature & Culture |
Reading, discussion, and lexical analysis of
Russian literature for children and about children. Texts include folk fairy tales,
works by Pushkin, Odoevskii, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Sologub, Maiakovskii,
Chukovskii, Kharms, Marshak, and Zakhoder. Weekly compositions or translations,
reviews of grammar and syntax. Videotapes and films will be used for developing
skills in language comprehension. Conducted in Russian.
(Descriptions of these Social Studies courses
cross-listed in Russian & Eurasian Studies can be found in the primary
course section.)
Course |
HIST 168 Czarist Russia |
|
Professor |
Gennady Shkliarevsky |
|
CRN |
97024 |
|
Schedule |
Wed Fri 1:30 -2:50 pm OLIN 204 |
|
Distribution |
History |
Course |
HIST 245 History of East Central Europe since WWII |
|
Professor |
Gennady Shkliarevsky |
|
CRN |
97023 |
|
Schedule |
Tu Th 4:00 -5:20 pm OLIN 205 |
|
Distribution |
History |
Course |
PS 255 The Politics of Russia and the Soviet Successor States |
|
Professor |
Jonathan Becker |
|
CRN |
97174 |
|
Schedule |
Mon Wed 10:30 - 11:50 am PRE 128 |
|
Distribution |
Social Science |