91937

RUS 106

Russian Intensive

Oleg Minin

M T W Th 12:00 pm-2:00 pm

OLINLC 208

FLLC

8 credits This intensive course is designed for beginners who have had little or no prior knowledge of Russian. The course focuses on the fundamentals of the spoken and written language, and introduces students to Russian culture. We will work on speaking, reading, and written proficiency as well as the acquisition of new vocabulary and grammatical accuracy. Creative expression in autobiographical and fictional compositions is also encouraged. Audio-visual materials will be an integral part of the learning process. In addition to regular class meetings, students will be required to attend a one-hour-per-week tutorial. Students who completed beginning intensive will be able to take a 4-credit course in the spring as well as apply for a 4-credit summer language and culture program in St. Petersburg, Russia. Class size: 20

92233

RUS 206

Continuing Russian

Marina Kostalevsky

T W Th 11:40 am – 12:40 pm

HEG 106

FLLC

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 in Russian. Class size: 14

92133

RUS / LIT 2245

Contemporary Russian Fiction

Marina Kostalevsky

T Th 3:10 pm-4:30 pm

OLINLC 120

FLLC

Cross-listed: Russian In this course, we will examine the diverse and unpredictable world of contemporary Russian literature from the late Soviet and post-Soviet periods to the present. Through the reading of both the underground publications of "samizdat" and officially published texts of the first period; the post-modernist works written at the end of the twentieth century; and the literary texts of the last two decades, we will focus on the issues of narrative strategies adopted by individual writers, reassessment of Russian history, gender and sexuality, religion and spirituality, cultural and national identity. The course will also explore the changing relationship between Russian literature, the state, and society. Readings include: Venedikt Erofeev, Tatiana Tolstaia, Liudmila Petrushevskaia, Viktor Pelevin, Boris Akunin, The Presniakov Brothers, Ludmila Ulitskaia, Vladimir Sorokin, Andrei Volos, Eugene Vodolazkin, and Mikhail Shishkin. Conducted in English. Class size: 20

92134

RUS / LIT 2311

St. Petersburg: City, Monument, Text

Olga Voronina

M W 10:10 am-11:30 am

OLIN 304

FLLC

Cross-listed: Environmental & Urban Studies; Russian Emperors, serfs, merchants, and soldiers built St. Petersburg, but it was the writers who put it on the cultural map of the world. Founded on the outskirts of the empire, the city served as a missing link between “enlightened” Europe and “barbaric” Asia, between the turbulent past of the Western civilization and its uncertain future. Considered to be too cold, too formal, too imperial on the outside, St. Petersburg harbored revolutionary ideas and terrorist movements that threatened to explode from within. While its granite quays were erected to withstand the assault of the floods, some of its most famous monuments, including literary works, resisted the onset of new, radical ideologies. In this course, we will study the conflicting nature of the city as reflected in literature and literary criticism. The poems and novels on our reading list will provide a sweeping overview of Russia’s literary canon in the 19th and 20th centuries, from Pushkin to Dostoevsky and from Gogol to Bely and Nabokov. After exploring Queen of Spades, Crime and Punishment, and Anna Karenina, we will move on to Petersburg and The Defense, thus undertaking a journey through Russia’s literary tradition and the urban landscape of the north with the authors who either reconstructed St. Petersburg in their memory or re-visited it in their imaginations.

Class size: 18

92136

LIT 3019

Nabokov’s shorts: the art of Conclusive Writing

Olga Voronina

T Th 10:10 am-11:30 am

OLIN 308

ELIT

This course will focus on Vladimir Nabokov’s short stories as well as his memoir Conclusive Evidence and the novel Pnin, both of which first appeared in story-length installments in The New Yorker. We will read “Details of a Sunset,” “Christmas,” “A Guide to Berlin,” “A Nursery Tale,” “The Visit to the Museum,” “The Circle,” “Spring in Fialta,” “Cloud, Castle, Lake,” “Ultima Thule,” “Solus Rex,” “Signs and Symbols,” and “The Vane Sisters.” Keeping our eyes open for the elusive, but meaningful, textual details and discussing the writer’s narrative strategies, we will also trace the metaphysical streak that runs through the entire Nabokov oeuvre. A discussion of all matters editorial will be our priority. We will study Nabokov’s correspondence with Katharine White and William Maxwell, his editors at The New Yorker, and look at the drafts of his stories, now part of the Berg Collection in the NYPL. Our endeavor to understand the Nabokovian process of composition and revision will go hand-in-hand with the work on our own writing. This course is a literature junior seminar. Class size: 15

91936

RUS 328

between friends: Letters of Russian Writers

Marina Kostalevsky

M W 3:10 pm-4:30 pm

OLINLC 120

FLLC

This advanced-level Russian language course is dedicated to the study of the professional and confessional, of business and love letters by famous Russian writers of the nineteenth century. We will look at the everyday life, literature, and culture of their time through the epistolary lens -- a fascinating and enlightening tool for those who have already encountered great Russian classics either in translation or in the original. The letters of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Chekhov will be among the documents offered for reading comprehension, translation practice, and socio-historical analysis. Pre-requisite: a 200 or 300-level Russian language course. Conducted in Russian. Class size: 12

Cross-listed courses:

92112

JS 215

East European Jewry:Modern Era

Cecile Kuznitz

M W 3:10 pm-4:30 pm

OLIN 310

D+J

HIST

DIFF

Cross-listed: Global & International Studies; Historical Studies; Russian Class size: 18

92133

LIT 2245

Contemporary Russian Fiction

Marina Kostalevsky

T Th 3:10 pm-4:30 pm

OLINLC 120

FLLC

Cross-listed: Russian Class size: 20

92134

LIT 2311

St Petersburg:City/Monumnt/Txt

Olga Voronina

M W 10:10 am-11:30 am

OLIN 304

FLLC

Cross-listed: Environmental & Urban Studies; Russian Class size: 18

92135

LIT 2404

Fantastic Journey/Modern World

Jonathan Brent

F 3:00 pm-5:20 pm

OLIN 202

ELIT

Cross-listed: Jewish Studies; Russian Class size: 25

91701

LIT 276B

Chosen Voices: Jewish Authors

Elizabeth Frank

W Th 1:30 pm-2:50 pm

ASP 302

D+J

ELIT

DIFF

Cross-listed: Jewish Studies; Russian Class size: 22

92136

LIT 3019

Nabokov:Conclusive Writing

Olga Voronina

T Th 10:10 am-11:30 am

OLIN 308

ELIT

Cross-listed: Russian Class size: 15

92138

LIT 3640

Memorable 19th C. Novels

Justus Rosenberg

Th 10:10 am-12:30 pm

OLIN 302

ELIT

Cross-listed: French Studies; Russian Class size: 15