CZCH 0100. Introductory Czech.

Introduces the performance of basic tasks in Standard Czech, highlights of Czech culture, and a worldview of a nation uniquely located on the threshold of western and eastern Europe. Emphasis on oral communication. Five meetings per week and use of audio/visual materials. Enrollment limited to 18.

CZCH 0200. Introductory Czech.

Introduces the performance of basic tasks in Standard Czech, highlights of Czech culture, and a worldview of a nation uniquely located on the threshold of western and eastern Europe. Emphasis on oral communication. CZCH 0200 includes readings of annotated literary texts on the Web. Five meetings per week and use of audio/visual materials. Enrollment limited to 18.

CZCH 0320A. Czech Animation: Cross-cultural Dialogs.

Czech animation has a long tradition and international reputation. Jiří Trnka beat Walt Disney at the post-war Cannes Film Festival. Karel Zeman is a pioneer in creating fantasy films with animation. Surrealist films by Jan Švankmajer continue to shock the audience. Younger animators such as Barta, Klimt, and Pospíšilová have been developing new modes of expression after the fall of socialism. This course explores a variety of Czech animated films from the 1960’s to the 21st century and its cross-cultural dialog, especially with the Japanese anime. Readings in English and films with English subtitles.

CZCH 0400. Intermediate Czech.

Expression of abstract notions for discussion in complex structures; introduction to stylistic nuances. Listening comprehension exercises and discussion of Czech culture and history based on readings of literature and films. Prerequisite: CZCH 0200 or equivalent.

CZCH 0410A. Boys and Girls: Relationships under Socialist Bohemia.

Using Milos Forman's film "Loves of a Blonde" and supporting materials around it, we will discuss human relationships and how they can be interpreted culturally and politically. Equally important is the acquisition of language. Tasks for the course are adjusted to two different language levels (intermediate and advanced). Enrollment limited to 18.

CZCH 0410B. Coming of Age in Postwar Czechoslovakia.

Examines political and cultural changes in the post-WWII Czechoslovakia through the eyes of a child. Centerpiece of the course is a film on elementary school in post-war Prague as a symbolic representation of the society that is about to emerge. Other materials such as literary and journalistic texts are used. Places equal emphasis on the acquisition of language, including exposure to Colloquial Czech. Separate language tasks are given to students of two proficiency levels (2nd and 3rd year). Conducted in Czech. For students who completed CZCH 0200 or equivalent. Four meetings per week and use of audio/visual materials. Enrollment limited to 18.

CZCH 0410C. Czech View of Self and Others.

Examines the Czech view of themselves as well as others, one of the most debated topics in the current context of expanding European Union. The centerpiece is a film about a man-eating flower (animated by Jan Svankmajer) invented by a crazy scientist, which unfolds in Prague, involving a peace-loving Czech botanist and his daughter, the American detective Nick Carter (played by a Slovak actor), and the Czech police enforcement. The film is a treasure box of symbolic representations of Czechs and people Czechs view as others. Reading materials are drawn from literary and journalistic texts. Equal emphasis on the acquisition of language, including exposure to Colloquial Czech. Separate language tasks for students of two proficiency levels (2nd and 3rd year). Conducted in Czech. The course is for students who completed CZCH 0200 or the equivalent. Enrollment limited to 18.

CZCH 0410D. Czechs and the Big Brother: Czech Lands in the 1980s.

Events in Czechoslovakia in the late 1980's as represented in the Oscar-winning film Kolja. The Velvet Revolution and the Czech perspective on Russia. Readings from different genres. Equal emphasis on language acquisition, including Colloquial Czech. Separate language tasks for two proficiency levels (2nd-3rd year). Conducted in Czech. For students who have completed CZCH 0200 or the equivalent. Enrollment limited to 18.

CZCH 0500. Advanced Czech.

Consolidation of Standard Czech and active acquisition of stylistic registers. Discussion of emblems and icons in modern Czech culture. Focus on the process of myth-making specific to the nation, on the Czech cultural identity viewed from within and without. Prerequisite: CZCH 0400 or equivalent.

CZCH 0600. Advanced Czech.

Consolidation of Standard Czech and active acquisition of stylistic nuances. Discussion of emblems and icons in modern Czech culture. Focus on the process of myth-making specific to the nation and the debates on the Czech cultural identity viewed from within and without. Prerequisite: CZCH 0500 or instructor permission.

CZCH 0610B. Psychosis of Occupation in the Czech Lands.

Discussion of the Occupation period during WWII. The course is built around a Czech New Wave classic film about an eccentric director of a crematorium in Prague, who turns into a fanatic collaborator under the terror and demagogy of the regime. We will also read excerpts from the original literary text on which the film was based, and work with the Czech National Corpus. Separate language tasks given to students of two proficiency levels (2nd, 3rd year). Conducted in Czech. The course is for students who completed CZCH0410 or the equivalent. Enrollment limited to 18.

CZCH 0610C. Czech Cultural Icons, Emblems, and National Identity.

The "most famous Czech" Jára Cimrman and his most active period, namely the late 19th to early 20th-century Bohemia. Highlights of Czech cultural icons and emblems, and discussions on what constitutes Czech national identity reflected in the Cimrman phenomenon. Readings on several Czech cultural icons. Two different sets of requirements for students of two language proficiency levels. The course is for students who have completed CZCH 0410 or the equivalent. Enrollment limited to 18.

CZCH 1000. Dimensions of Czech Animation: Contexts, Interpretations, and Dialogs with the East.

What are our expectations of animation films? This course will help you rethink and learn to “read” animation as an artistic and politically inspired form. Czech animation, with its long tradition and international reputation, is a vibrant branch of visual arts. Yet this artistic form has not only been extensively studied nor noticed until recently. We will study cultural-historical contexts that gave rise to the internationally acclaimed Czech animation by Trnka, Svankmajer and others. Fascination with Czech animation in Japan used as an example to illustrate the mechanism of cross-cultural reception of Czech animation. Readings of related Czech culture/metaphor/animation techniques. Selected Japanese animation films will also be discussed. Readings in English. Films are dubbed or subtitled in English. No prerequisites.

CZCH 1050. Contemporary Czech Society and Literature in Translation.

Surveys representative Czech prose texts mainly from the late 20th to 21st century, in English translation. No knowledge of Czech is required. Readings include Hasek, Capek, Kundera, Hrabal, and Havel. Films also part of course.

CZCH 1250. Introductory Czech.

CZCH 0100, 0200 and additional work in communicative practice, Web-based exercises, and reading.

CZCH 1260. Introductory Czech.

CZCH 0100, 0200 and additional work in communicative practice, Web-based exercises, and reading.

CZCH 1350. Intermediate Czech.

CZCH 0400 and additional work in communicative practice, Web-based exercises, and reading.

CZCH 1360. Intermediate Czech.

CZCH 0400 and additional work in communicative practice, Web-based exercises, and reading.

CZCH 2710. Advanced Czech.

CZCH 0500, 0600 and additional work in communicative practice, web-based exercises, and reading.

CZCH 2720. Advanced Czech.

CZCH 0500, 0600 and additional work in communicative practice, Web-based exercises, and reading.

PLSH 0100. Introductory Polish.

Introduction to Polish language and culture. Oral and written communication in Polish; emphasis on the literary and everyday culture of Poland. Four meetings per week, plus use of audio, video, and web materials.

PLSH 0200. Introductory Polish.

This course is a continuation of PLSH 0100 or the equivalent, and it aims to establish essential “survival skills” that are needed in real-life situations. The primary focus is building vocabulary, reading, and engaging in guided conversation. In addition to learning the language, students are introduced to Polish literature and culture through film, music, and video presentations.

PLSH 0300. Intermediate Polish.

This course is for students who have completed first-year Polish. In this course you will further develop skills in speaking, reading, writing and understanding Polish. By the end of this course, you will be able to carry on basic conversations in Polish on many topics from your daily life. You will be able to write notes and simple letters to Polish friends or keep a journal in Polish. You will also have the skills to read basic texts. Enrollment limited to 18.

PLSH 0400. Intermediate Polish.

This course is designed for students who want to continue exploring Polish language and culture and have completed the Introductory Polish language sequence (PLSH 0150/0100, 0200 and 0300) or have otherwise acquired basic proficiency required for the second year sequence. The main goal of the course is to enhance students’ Polish language skills (speaking, writing, reading and listening) through authentic participation in Polish culture: film, politics, and poetry. The course incorporates various Internet resources, selected contemporary Polish films as well as up-to-date news from Poland. Discussed topics and level of difficulty will be determined by students' individual interests and needs.

PLSH 0410. Intermediate Polish.

This course is for students who have completed first-year Polish. In this course you will further develop skills in speaking, reading, writing and understanding Polish. By the end of this course, you will be able to carry on basic conversations in Polish on many topics from your daily life. You will be able to write notes and simple letters to Polish friends or keep a journal in Polish. You will also have the skills to read basic texts. Prerequisite: PLSH 0150. Enrollment limited to 18.

PLSH 0500. Advanced Polish.

This course is designed for students who have completed the introductory and intermediate Polish language course sequence – PLSH 0100, 0200, 0300, and 0400, or have otherwise acquired basic proficiency required for the third year sequence.

In this course the students will further develop skills in speaking, reading, writing and understanding Polish. They will continue developing speaking, reading, and writing skills by reading and discussing increasingly more elaborate authentic texts and writing essays, and their listening skills will be cultivated by in-class interactions and listening to authentic Polish audio and video recordings.

PLSH 0600. Advanced Polish.

In this course students will further develop their skills in speaking, reading, writing and understanding Polish. They will continue developing reading and writing skills by reading increasingly more elaborate authentic texts, writing essays, and learning about Polish stylistics, syntax, and grammar at the advanced level. Their listening skills will be cultivated by in-class interactions and listening to authentic Polish audio and video recordings. Emphasis in this course will be on mastering oral expression and vocabulary building, as well as comprehension of fiction and non-fiction texts of a moderate level of difficulty. The course will be conducted almost exclusively in Polish.

PLSH 1050. Polish Cinema: Uneven Histories, Uneasy Aesthetics.

This course critically examines the ways in which the medium of cinema addresses issues of structural and individual inequalities (such as those related to gender, education, housing) experienced by an ordinary Polish citizen within the period spanning from the Second World War (1939–1945), through communist era to the economic transformation to capitalism in the 1990s. The course material is organised thematically and focuses on two major areas: 1) how political systems – in this case communism and capitalism – aim at individual disempowerment through corruption, intimidation, and marginalization; and 2) gender inequity during and after various violent armed conflicts. We will discuss these topics not only within the context of the turbulent history of 20th-century Poland but, above all, with aesthetic cinematic categories in mind that additionally reconfigure, challenge, and/or counteract our perception of inequalities.

PLSH 1150. Polish for Reading Knowledge.

This course is designed for advanced undergraduates (or graduate students), who wish to develop reading competence in Polish with the aid of a good dictionary. Using texts from various disciplines in the social sciences and humanities, as well as journalistic and technical writings, students will learn the fundamentals of grammar and syntax, and how to decipher the meaning of a text, proceeding from very basic to more and more complex readings. Students will acquire a basic reading vocabulary and understanding of Polish grammar through analytical discussion, grammar exercises, and extensive reading of selected texts in the field of individual students.

RUSS 0100. Introductory Russian.

Introduction to Russian language and culture. Oral and written communication in Russian; emphasis on the literary and everyday culture of Russia and the former U.S.S.R., including the changes that have reshaped everyday life for citizens of Russia. Five meetings per week, plus use of audio, video, and web materials. Enrollment limited to 18.

RUSS 0110. Intensive Russian.

Intensively-paced introduction to Russian culture and language; completes one year of study in one semester (RUSS 0110 = RUSS 0100-0200). Comprehension and use of contemporary Russian; fundamentals of Russian grammar; vocabulary acquisition; focus on oral communication. Introduces aspects of everyday culture of Russia and the former U.S.S.R. Ten to fifteen hours weekly work outside the classroom. Enrollment limited to 18.

RUSS 0200. Introductory Russian.

Introduction to Russian language and culture. Oral and written communication in Russian; emphasis on the culture of Russia and the former U.S.S.R., including the changes that have reshaped everyday life for citizens of Russia. Five meetings per week, plus use of audio, video, and Web materials. Prerequisite: RUSS 0100 or RUSS 0250. Enrollment limited to 18.

RUSS 0250. Introductory Russian in St. Petersburg.

Intensive introductory language and culture taught in St. Petersburg, Russia, meeting 15 hours per week. Students develop communicative and cultural competence in Russian, emphasizing 1) culture of everyday life in Russia and 2) life in St. Petersburg. For students without previous study of Russian.

RUSS 0300. Intermediate Russian.

Continues development of language proficiency while broadening understanding of contemporary Russian culture via readings in literature and history. Expansion of vocabulary for dealing with conversational topics and review of Russian grammar. Features literary and nonliterary readings in Russian, as well as video and computer resources. Five class meetings per week. Prerequisite: RUSS 0110 or RUSS 0200 or RUSS 0250 or placement by exam. Enrollment limited to 18.

RUSS 0320A. Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov" - The Art of the Novel.

An in depth analysis of Dostoevsky's last novel as the culmination of his art and thought. Central religious and philosophical themes of the novel, such as the relations of faith to morality, modes of transgression, retribution, and epiphany, the question of theodicy, and the nature of authority. Discussion of Dostoevsky's poetics and of his contribution to the genre of the novel. Readings from literary criticism and from other pertinent literary texts, such as the Bible, Schiller, and Voltaire will also be discussed. In English. Enrollment limited to 19 first year students.

RUSS 0320B. Freshman Seminar: Gogol: A Journey into the Fantastic.

Gogol's altered states of reality uniquely shape the rise of modern Russian literature and anticipate the fictional worlds of Kafka and Borges. Gogol unfolds a grotesque gallery of characters with radish-shaped heads and ghosts with moustaches, who live in a world, in which dogs can talk and noses can walk. Dostoevsky was among the first to relish the labyrinths of Gogol's fantasy scapes; we will follow in Dostoevsky's footsteps. Enrollment limited to 19. Written permission required.

RUSS 0320C. Demons and Angels in Russian Literature.

The literary images of fallen angels, as well as various poetic demonologies in Russian literature extend from the medieval apocrypha, up to famous works of the twentieth-century literature, like, for example, Bulgakov's Master and Margarita or Dostoevsky's Demons. Although, the Russian literary angels are in many respects related to their Western counterparts, the apocalyptic character of Russian spiritual culture makes them in many respects unique. Examining these images, the course addresses the important questions concerning the human condition in general. Angels as one critic said, "represent something that was ours and that we have the potential to become again"; their essence is otherness. Consequently, their literary representations explore the possibilities of human existence as well as its central paradigms like, love, rebirth, mortality, or 'fallenness.' The course will analyze the images of angels and fallen angels (devils) in the works of the nineteenth and the twentieth-century Russian prose, visual art, and film - from romanticism to 'postmodernism' - in the context of the world literature and culture. Authors to be studied: Byron, Lermontov, Balzac, Dostoevskii, Sologub, Bulgakov, Nabokov, Erofeev. We will also discuss films by Tarkovskii and Wenders, Russian icons, and paintings by Vrubel. In English. Enrollment limited to 19 first year students.

RUSS 0320D. The Tolstoy Event: War and Peace.

A close reading of Tolstoy's major novel, with a focus on its interweaving of fictional and historical narrative and metahistorical discourse. Attention to issues of genre (e.g. the tension between "epic and novel"), literary tradition, the poetics of time and space, as well as his iconoclastic ideas about narrative, art, religion, and society. Tolstoy's formal innovation will be considered in a broader historical and cultural context. Selected readings in Bakhtin, Lukacs, Shklovsky, Eikhenbaum, Hayden White and others. Enrollment limited to 19 first year students.

RUSS 0320E. Crime and Punishment through Literature.

The seminar will explore how texts of different epochs and cultures, ranging from Ancient to Modern and from drama to poem, novel, and film treat the issues of transgression, punishment, justice, and forgiveness. We will examine each text both in terms of its artistic merit and its place within its cultural and historical milieu. Enrollment limited to 19 first-year students.

RUSS 0350. Intermediate Russian in St. Petersburg.

Intensive intermediate language and culture taught in St. Petersburg, Russia meeting 15 hours a week. Continues development of language competence while broadening understanding of Russian culture via readings. Includes expansion of vocabulary for dealing with conversational topics and review of Russian grammar. Features literary and nonliterary readings in Russian. Five class meetings per week. Prerequisite: RUSS 0110 or RUSS 0200 or placement by language coordinator.

RUSS 0400. Intermediate Russian.

Continues development of language proficiency while broadening understanding of Russian culture via readings in literature and history. Includes expansion of vocabulary for dealing with conversational topics and review of Russian grammar. Features literary and nonliterary readings in Russian, as well as video and computer resources. Five class meetings per week. Prerequisite: RUSS 0300 or placement by exam. Enrollment limited to 18.

RUSS 0500. Advanced Russian.

Examines selected topics in Russian culture and history as depicted in readings, the media, and Russian and Soviet films. Language work emphasizes increasing facility with spoken Russian and developing writing skills. Includes work on advanced grammar and syntax. Five class meetings per week. Prerequisites: RUSS 0350 or RUSS 0400 or placement. Enrollment limited to 18.

RUSS 0550. Advanced Russian in St. Petersburg.

Intensive advanced language and culture taught in St. Petersburg, Russia, meeting 15 hours per week. Development of communicative and cultural competence in Russian, emphasizing topics in culture and history as depicted in film and short texts. Emphasizes increasing facility with spoken and written Russian. Features work on advanced grammar and syntax. Prerequisite: RUSS 0400. Enrollment limited to 18.

RUSS 0600. Advanced Russian.

Examines selected topics in Russian culture and history as depicted in readings, the media, and Russian and Soviet films. Language work emphasizes increasing facility with spoken Russian and developing writing skills. Includes work on advanced grammar and syntax. Four class meetings per week. Prerequisites: RUSS 0500 or placement. Enrollment limited to 18.

RUSS 0770. Utopian Spaces in Fantasy Worlds in Literature and Film: East and West.

A survey of Russian, Czech, Polish, and Austrian 19th- and 20th-century works of fiction that depict altered states of reality. Readings (in English translation) range from folk tales and tales of the supernatural, 19th-century utopias and works by such major writers as Turgenev and Dostoevsky, to accomplished novels of the 20th-century. Showings of contemporary fantasy and science fiction movies from the U.S., Russia, England, France, and Czechoslovakia.

RUSS 0930. Cultures and Literatures of the Russian and Soviet Empires.

Examines in depth various topics that constituted the cultural and literary landscape of the Soviet Union, examining their antecedents in the Russian empire and their reemergence in the post-Soviet world. Topics include: the Caucasus, from Tolstoy to modern Chechnya; Orientalism; the Civil War and Pasternak; Akhmatova and the experience of the totalitarian state. Enrollment limited to 30.

RUSS 0990. The Black Experience in Russia and the Soviet Union.

A study of the African-American experience in Russia and the Soviet Union through the prism of autobiographies, biographies, diaries, travel journals, and memoirs from the 18th century to the present, of actors, American Communists, domestic servants, journalists, musicians, poets, political activists, publishers, stage designers, students and writers, including W.E.B. Du Bois, Harry Haywood, Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson and Richard Wright. Enrollment limited to 30.

RUSS 1000. Russian Modernism and the Arts.

Russian culture in a period of revolutionary upheaval: developments in literature, film, design, visual and applied arts. Avant-garde experimentation and the creation of tradition: primitivism, futurism, constructivism, and other movements in literature and the arts.

RUSS 1019. Revolution in Russian Women's Writing.

This course will use Russian women’s writing, primarily fiction, to develop a new understanding of Russian literary and cultural history. By weaving together literature, historical texts, and feminist theory from Russia and beyond, we will reveal a narrative of Russian literary and cultural history that is generally relegated to footnotes, a narrative that contains different cataclysmic shifts and revolutions than those that occurred at the state level, and we will examine the inception and development of the tradition of Russian women's writing. No knowledge of Russian required.

RUSS 1020. Russia Rediscovered.

Explores Russian culture in the pre-Revolutionary era (ca. 1861-1905): encounters between elite and popular culture in a period of immense social upheaval, in particular the attempt to recover indigenously Russian art forms and rural traditions. Analyzes the expressions of this nativist trend in literature, ethnography, religion, and visual and applied arts, and attempts to sketch out the sociohistorical contexts of this "rediscovery" of native Russian culture.

RUSS 1050. Russian Culture: From Peter The Great to Putin.

Taught by Vladimir Golstein and Maria Taroutina. An interdisciplinary exploration of Russian cultural history through its literature, art, religion, political thought, and film. This course seeks to encourage thinking in more integrative and interdisciplinary ways about history, arts, and society. We examine a wide range of cultural expressions: visual arts, religion, civic rituals and practices, social customs and popular entertainment. Topics include: conceptions of Russian nationhood; visual arts in the service of Russian Empire, the myths of St. Petersburg and Moscow; the interaction among elites, intelligentsia, and the common people (narod); conflicting appeals of rationality, spirituality, and nihilism. All of these themes and forms will be treated as interrelated, as connected to social and political life, and as part of a larger European culture.

RUSS 1060. St. Petersburg: A Window on Russia.

An interdisciplinary exploration of Russian cultural history through its literature, art, architecture, religion, social and political thought, theater and ballet. Elements of Russian culture will be presented through the prism of the city of St. Petersburg, its history, its urban and cultural landscapes. Regular field trips to museums, theater, and city tours focused on specific themes.

RUSS 1090. Esoteric Russia.

A survey of the main currents of mystical, esoteric, occult, and magical theories and practices in Russia from the 11th century onward. Topics include pagan survivals, Orthodox mysticism and magic, heresies and schisms, Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism, Mesmerism and Spiritualism, H. P. Blavatsky, and G. I. Gurdjieff. No knowledge of Russian is necessary. Prerequisite: HIST 1400, 1410, or UNIV 0820, or instructor permission.

RUSS 1100. The Roots of Russian Culture.

Study of the patterns and roots of Russian culture over the last millennium and how Russia's languages have determined its worldviews and cultural structures (the Whorf-Sapir thesis). Principal topics: Russian spirituality, diglossia, other kinds of literacy; speech and silence as means of knowing and unknowing; the shape of time and the rhythm of space; sacred vs. secular history; etc. Lectures and discussions in English. Prerequisite: Intermediate Russian.

RUSS 1110. Special Topics in Russian Studies I: Advanced Reading and Conversation.

An advanced course recommended for students who are either planning to go or are returning from abroad. Focus on Russian culture as seen through the prism of Russian poetry. Extensive classroom discussion and frequent writing assignments. Prerequisite: RUSS 0600 or written permission. May be repeated once with permission from the instructor. Enrollment limited to 18.

RUSS 1120. Special Topics in Russian Studies II: Advanced Reading and Conversation.

A continuation of Russian 1110. Examines aspects of Russian culture as manifested in Russian literature. Readings range from fairy tales to contemporary works. Extensive classroom discussion and frequent writing assignments. Prerequisite: RUSS 1110, 1700, or written permission. May be repeated once with permission of the instructor. Enrollment limited to 18.

RUSS 1150. Russian/Soviet Performing Arts: Dance, Opera & Theater.

This course offers an introductory lens into 19th and 20th century Russian and Soviet culture. By examining the performing arts – dance, opera, music, and theater – of this time, we will trace the major artistic movements that governed Russia including Romanticism, Realism, Symbolism, and Socialist Realism. We will consider how history, politics and foreign influences affected the rise and shape of these movements in Russia and the former Soviet Republics.

RUSS 1200. Russian Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Survey of Russian literature, from fairy tales, utopias, and dream sequences to science fiction, which depict altered states of reality. Readings in English, supplemented with films in March and April. Seminar with emphasis on discussion. Russian concentrators and graduate students expected to cover most of the readings in Russian. Familiarity with Russian literary history is not required.

RUSS 1210. Art from the Underground: Currents of Soviet Nonconformist Art.

What is Soviet underground art and from where did it arise? Is it a continuation of the avant-garde, a Western knock-off, a kind of political protest or passivist dissent, or something else? This course introduces students not only to the world of Soviet Nonconformist visual art, but also to the historical and political context that shaped the period and the artistic movements therein. The course begins by laying a foundation concerning what preceded the underground movements, from the Russian and Soviet avant-garde to Stalinist Socialist realism, before examining the development of Soviet Nonconformist art from the mid 1950s to current day Russian art activism. By opening up the discourse to the Baltics, Georgia, Ukraine, and Central Asia, this course moves beyond the Russian-centric approach to Soviet Nonconformist art toward a more comprehensive understanding of what was occurring across the Soviet Union.

RUSS 1220. Nationalism and Nationalities.

This course explores the meaning and significance of nationalism and national identity in modern culture and society, starting with the emergence of nation-states, up to the recent rise of nationalist and identitarian movements throughout the globe. We will study the main theories of nationalism, as well as some of the art and literary movements that this ideology inspired. By developing an open discussion about different incarnations of nationalism as an ideology and a social practice, we will retrace a cultural history of this concept, and shed light on its crucial role and impact on contemporary political processes.

RUSS 1230. Putin’s Russia – Fact or Fiction.

How has Vladimir Putin engaged with and impacted Russian culture? How did he come to power and how has he maintained his position? This course explores the impact of the collapse of the Soviet Union in Russian culture and identity formation from 1990 to the present day. We will examine how cultural memory manipulation has become a corner stone of Putin’s Russia through film, the use of public space and commemorative practices. Core questions that will be addressed is the use of history to legitimate the present, Russia’s relationship with its neighbors and what can be considered as the defining features of contemporary Russian identity and culture. Discussion and readings will be in English, with Russian originals available for interested students

RUSS 1250. Russian Cinema.

This seminar will provide a chronological overview of Russian cinema from its beginning to the present. The films will be considered against the background of some historical, political, and theoretical readings. The students will also be encouraged to juxtapose Russian and non-Russian films in order to evaluate the place of Russian cinema within a global film culture. Enrollment limited to 20.

RUSS 1290. Russian Literature in Translation I: Pushkin to Dostoevsky.

Survey of Russia's literary masterpieces of the early and mid-19th century, including Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Turgenev, and Dostoevsky. From Pushkin's celebrated poem "The Bronze Horseman" and his novel in verse 'Eugene Onegin' to Gogol's grotesque and fantastic Peterburg tales and Dostoevsky's 'Crime and Punishment,' we will discuss questions of national identity and Empire, individual vs. the state, as well as other moral, political and philosophical issues that shaped Russian classical texts. Lectures and discussion. No knowledge of Russian is required.

RUSS 1300. Russian Literature in Translation II: Tolstoy to Solzhenitsyn.

Survey of major works of Russian literature of the late 19th and 20th centuries. Traces the development of Russian literature from realism to symbolism and decadence, from revolutionary experiments to socialist realism and dissent. Authors to be studied include Tolstoy, Chekhov, Sologub, Blok, Mayakovsky, Babel, Olesha, Zamiatin, Bulgakov, and Solzhenitsyn. Lectures and discussion. No knowledge of Russian required.

RUSS 1310. Russian Poetry and Poetics.

The technical study of verse; metrics and rhyme; linguistic analysis of poetic language; semiotic aspects of verse semantics, including genre and historical development. Primary focus on Russian verse, but some attention will also be given to other (Slavic and non-Slavic) traditions, as well as to general theoretical issues of poetic structure. Conducted in English.

RUSS 1320. Soviet Literature from 1917 to 1953.

Survey of Soviet literature and culture from the Bolshevik revolution to the death of Stalin, with particular emphasis upon intersections between politics, history and aesthetics. Texts by Akhmatova, Babel, Blok, Bulgakov, Gan, Mandelstam, Mayakovsky, Malevich, Platonov, Zamiatin and others, as well as films by Eisenstein, Vertov, and Alexancrov. Enrollment limited to 30.

RUSS 1330. Soviet Culture: Propaganda, Dissidence, Underground.

After the October Revolution of 1917, Soviet society became gradually split into official culture, dissidence, and the underground. Authors who did not conform to the limitations imposed by Soviet institutions often circulated their works illegally or published them abroad. Some of them were forced to emigrate. This course explores the complex intersections of propaganda, dissidence, and underground in Soviet literature, art, and film.

RUSS 1340. The Russian Novel.

When one considers the impact of Russian literature on world literature, one thinks first of all of the novel. And indeed, since the late nineteenth century its readers all over the world could not resist its artistic powers. The course explores selected Russian novels form the nineteenth- to the twenty-first century. Our in-depth (slow) reading and discussions will be guided by the questions concerning the stylistic peculiarities of the novel, and its development in changing historical and cultural contexts. The course includes: Gogol’s Dead Souls, Goncharov’s Oblomov, Dostoevsky’s Idiot, Bely’s Petersburg, Platonov’s The Fountain Pit, among others.

RUSS 1350. Putin, Russia and the New Conflict with the West: Reading Modern Russian Culture.

The collapse of the USSR in 1991 was widely hailed in the West as a triumph of democracy over totalitarianism, and for some it even signaled the end of history as such. Today however it would seem history has returned with a vengeance, and there is now talk of a new Cold War, with Russia once again serving in its previous role as the enemy. This course will seek to understand this apparent reversal of vectors from within Russian culture, through analysis of literary works, films, television, and social media. No knowledge of Russian culture required. In English.

RUSS 1400. The Black Experience and Russian Culture.

The contact that began in the early eighteenth century between the Russian empire and the cultures of Africa and its diaspora reveals a mutual fascination that speaks powerfully about notions of racial identity in an increasingly global era. We will study the fateful misunderstandings as well as strong mutual influences between Russians, Africans and their descendants from the Abyssinian ‘prince’ Abram Gannibal’s entry into the court of Peter the Great up to the tense dialogue over political values and conceptions of race, ethnicity and sexuality that underpins the volatile relations between Barack Obama’s United States and Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

RUSS 1420. Twentieth-Century Russia (HIST 1420).

Interested students must register for HIST 1420.

RUSS 1440. Imagining Moscow: Utopia and Urban Spaces in 20th-Century Russian Culture.

The course explores the role of Moscow in the Russian collective imagery throughout the 20th century. We will study how different utopian visions of the city in art, literature, film, and architecture affected the radical transformations of its urban landscape from the October Revolution to the present. We will start with the 1920s and 1930s, when the image of a new Moscow became closely associated with the creation of new socialist ways of life, and conclude with the neoliberal facelift of the city in the post-Soviet period, retracing a history of 20th-century Russian culture through its urban imagination.

RUSS 1450. Love, Adultery, and Sexuality.

Literary representations of love, marriage, adultery, and sexuality. Examines the formation of the notion of passionate romantic love, the myths of femininity, and various concepts of love and family. Emphasizes the way in which the notions of love and sexuality are linked to national identity. Readings include several Russian popular and revolutionary feminist writers as well as such classics as Rousseau, Racine, Pushkin, Flaubert, Tolstoy, Chekhov, and Kate Chopin.

RUSS 1470. New Russia and Ukraine: Culture and Politic in Post-Soviet Space.

Political and cultural aspects of transition from the authoritarian Soviet state to democracy. This transition will take considerable effort and time and will require change in people's mentality. Enrollment limited to 40.

RUSS 1500. Approaches to Russian Literature.

Reading in Russian of selected poetry and prose by important authors, among them Lomonosov, Karamzin, Derzhavin, Pushkin, Lermontov, Tiutchev, Gogol, Fet, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Briusov, Akhmatova, Sologub, Remizov, Blok, Bely, Zamiatin, Pilnyak, and Mandelshtam. Lectures in Russian on literary problems, literary terms, and important aspects of literary history. Prerequisites: RUSS 0600 plus RUSS 0290 or 0310 or written permission.

RUSS 1520. Between Heresy and Orthodoxy: A Survey of Russian Religious Thought.

This course focuses on Russian religious thought and its impact on culture, literature, and art. Beginning with a historical overview, it will examine the first engagements of 19th century thinkers including Fyodor Dostoevsky with Russian theology and with members of the clergy. The central unit will focus on the late 19th-early 20th century, particularly the works of Vladimir Soloviev, Pavel Florensky, and Leo Tolstoy. We will examine the impact of leading figures’ writings and faith practices on the transformation of discourse around the Russian Orthodox Church as well as on key debates surrounding corporeality, sexual and platonic love, and salvation.

RUSS 1550. Beyond the Kremlin: Russian Culture and Politics in the Twenty-First Century.

This course explores the radical transformations of Russian cultural and political life after the end of the Soviet Union, with a specific focus on the Putin era. By combining the approaches of literary analysis and cultural anthropology, the course studies representations of social change, and attempts at producing social change, in Russian everyday life and language, as well as in contemporary art and literature. All readings and discussions in English, with Russian originals available for interested students.

RUSS 1600. Literature and History: Russian Historical Imagination in the European Context.

Relationships between fact and fiction between historiography and historical fiction, between ideology and various ways of reconstructing the past. Readings will include historical fiction of Shakespeare, Schiller, Walter Scott, Pushkin, Tolstoy War and Peace, and Pasternak, as well as theoretical texts from Aristotle to Nietzsche, White, and LaCapra. Enrollment limited to 30.

RUSS 1660. Sexuality and Revolution in 20th-Century Russian Culture.

The course explores the role of the body and sexuality in 20th-century Russian literature, art, film, and everyday life, covering the sexual revolution of the 1920s, the mass spectacles of the Stalinist period, and the prominent role of sexuality and the body in post-Soviet literature, film, and mass culture. We will focus in particular on the question of how artistic representations of, and reflections on, the body and sexuality, affected social and political revolutions throughout contemporary Russian history.

RUSS 1700. Advanced Russian Grammar.

Uses M. Bogojavlensky's Russian Review Grammar. Readings of selected passages from Russian literature as examples of Russian morphology and syntax. Prerequisite: RUSS 0600 or instructor permission.

RUSS 1720. Decadent Identities.

The course focuses on Decadent literature and culture and their responses to the loss of a unified human identity and their challenge to fundamental presuppositions about sexuality, social norms, and ethics around 1900. In our analyses of works of Russian and European literature and art, we will explore various meanings of the idea of "the decadent", and look at how these works put into play a range of theories of degeneration, evolutionism, the limits of the human, medical diagnostics, mystical ideologies, or criminal anthropology in their search for new models of identity and the world.

RUSS 1750. Russian and East European Folklore.

Introduction to the folklore of Russia and the Slavic countries of Eastern Europe, with occasional reference to the folklore of other regions. Among the types of folklore to be discussed: magical incantations, proverbs and riddles, ritual and lyric songs, folktales, epic poetry, and laments. Special attention to the relation of folklore to ritual and to mythology. Lectures and discussions geared to English translations.

RUSS 1800. Pushkin.

For generations of Russian readers and writers, Pushkin has been a cult figure, a true "national poet." This course focuses on Pushkin as the progenitor of Russian national mythology and examines the seminal nature of his writing. Analysis of the dazzling array of genres which became his greatest achievement: lyric poetry, narrative poetry, novel in verse, prose, drama, history, and other nonfictional narratives. Enrollment limited to 20.

RUSS 1810. Tolstoy.

Close readings of Tolstoy's major novels (War and Peace and Anna Karenina, in particular) and shorter narratives with special emphasis on his iconoclastic ideas about art, religion, philosophy, and society. Considers Tolstoy's formal innovation in a broader historical and cultural context. The course will discus Tolstoy's contribution to the European novel. Focus on improving writing skills and critical thinking. Lectures and discussion. No knowledge of Russian required.

RUSS 1812. Fathers and Children in Literature and Culture.

This seminar explores the representations of generational conflict in both Western and Russian literature. We'll examine Russian culture's tendency to view social, political and religious conflicts in terms of a family model, thus merging psychology, politics, and religion. Focusing on formal and ideological aspects of these texts, we'll discuss the issue of genre, the use of rhetoric and ideology, and the connection between authors' politics and art. Russian application of a family model to such issues as political or religious radicalism will be considered from the perspective of Western studies of generational conflicts. Readings and discussions in English.

RUSS 1820. Dostoevsky.

An examination of Dostoevsky's major texts tracing his development as an artist, thinker, and religious visionary. The texts will be considered against the background of literary and cultural history of Dostoevsky's period. No knowledge of Russian required.

RUSS 1840. Nabokov.

The course examines Vladimir Nabokov's (1899-1977) major achievements in prose in both Russian and American periods, paying particular attention to their cultural context (Russian émigré culture of the 1920s and 30s); the questions of his aesthetics, ethics, and metaphysics, as well as his engagement in the dialogue with other European modernist writers, especially with the existentialists. Readings include Nabokov's selected short stories and novels, such as The Defense, Invitation to a Beheading, Despair, The Eye The Gift, Pnin, or Lolita. In English.

RUSS 1848. Central Europe: An Idea and its Literature.

Today’s Central Europe has been defined by historical events from the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy (1918) to the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989), to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the crisis of European identity. Focusing on literary works from this multicultural and multilingual world—not neglecting their artistic qualities—we will address the question: How does the Central European experience help us to understand the current European cultural, social and political tensions, as well as its aspirations and the perennial question of its unity? Authors include: J.Roth, Musil, Schulz, Canetti, Gombrowicz, Cioran, Hrabal, Kiš, Kundera, H.Müller. This course is a great way to learn more about Austrian, Czech, Polish, Romanian, Serbian, and Ukrainian literature and culture in their historical contexts.

RUSS 1857. Russian Intellectual History.

The course examines Russian nineteenth- and twentieth-century philosophical, political, and social thought analyzing its representative primary texts. The course focuses on the questions of political philosophy, social ethics, wisdom and power, existence and life, religious and aesthetic values, and Russia's relation to the West — all of which are central to Russian intellectual history and current political, social, cultural, and philosophical debates. In English.

RUSS 1860. Chekhov.

This course will examine Chekhov's innovations in the genre of the short story and in modern theater, as well as his ongoing literary influences in Russia and the world. Themes include the nature of the Chekhovian comic, subversion of the dominant literary and cultural paradigms and myths, representations of gender and sexuality. In English. One of the tasks is to improve students' writing skills.

RUSS 1870. Gogol.

A thorough examination of Gogol's major works, with special emphasis on problems of genre and style. Lectures and discussions are geared to English translations, but Russian concentrators and Slavic graduate students are expected to do some reading in the original and to show evidence of it in their papers.

RUSS 1880. Russian Postmodernism and Cold War Narratives.

The course explores dystopian imagination, post-apocalyptic narratives, and the idea of the end of history in Russian postmodernist fiction. It will include discussion of some of the major Western theories on postmodernity, as well as comparisons with major American postmodern novels in connection with Cold War culture and sensibility. By looking at artistic and philosophical deconstructions of socialism and capitalism, the two main political regimes of the 20th century, we will study postmodernism as an art and literary current and as a cultural paradigm, pervading every aspect of contemporary culture and everyday life.

RUSS 1885. Literature and Art of the Russian Avant-Garde.

Examines the Russian avant-garde between 1912, the year of the first Russian futurist manifesto, and early 1930s when Social Realism became this only sanctioned style of art. This, arguably the most vibrant period in Russian art, permeated with unprecedented sense of creative and political urgency, coincided with the WWI and the Russian Revolution, which provide historical contexts for the analyzed works. Also stresses aesthetic and historic interconnections between the Russian and western avant-gardes. Includes the works of poetry, prose, literary manifestos, book design, painting, and film by such artists as Pasternak, Mayakovsky, Khlebnikov, Mandelshtam, Meyerhold, Malevich, Rodchenko, Eisenstein, among others.

RUSS 1890. The Arc of Russian Art.

Introduction to the history of art and architecture in Russia from the early Slavic period to the present day, tracing the main artistic developments throughout this period. Close examination of the works of artists such as Andrei Rublev, Dmitry Levitsky, Orest Kiprensky, Ilia Repin, Valentin Serov, Vasily Kandinsky, Marc Chagall, Kazimir Malevich, Robert Falk and many others. We will also study notable architectural masterpieces such as the Cathedral of Saint Sophia in Kiev, Saint Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow, and the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg. We will focus on recurrent themes such as the role of religious art in Russian culture; the artist in society; imperial, ecclesiastical and private patronage; the relationship between Russian art and the West; the connection between art and politics; and the role of art in modernizing and transforming society. No prerequisites.

RUSS 1895. Bakhtin, Formalism, and Soviet Avant-Garde Aesthetics.

This course examines the two approaches to literature, which in many respects changed the course of humanistic scholarship: Russian Formalism (1920s) focused on literary “devices” and “structures,” and credited by many for inventing “literary theory” as an autonomous scholarly discipline, and the theories developed by Mikhail Bakhtin (1895–1975) and his circle of philosophers, poets, and literary critics, for whom the most important task of literary discourse was to create multiple, living personalities. The course discusses these theories in the context of Soviet and European modernist art and aesthetics of the 1920 and 30s. In English.

RUSS 1900. Russian Jewish Literature and Film.

The roots of Russian Jewish literature reach back into the Pale of Settlement of the pre-revolutionary era. The Russian Jewish historical experience provided a highly distinctive perspective onto Stalin’s purges and the second World War, and the work of contemporary Russian Jewish authors and filmmakers reflects the complexity of the immigrant experience in Europe, North America, and the Middle East. We will also examine the diverse responses of writers to the present-day redrawing of the political map of Russia and Ukraine.

RUSS 1917. Communism and Soviet Literature.

The purpose of the course is to objectively study Marxist thought and its implementation by Soviet Literary practitioners. Clichés of the Cold War – presenting Soviet artistic experience as either a Big Truth or Big Lie -- will be stripped in favor of a fresh evaluation. We will consider salient writings of the Marxist canon, then examine Soviet creative output as it strove to embody Marxist ideals within artistic idiom. While the empty slogans, downright lies, and delusions of Soviet Communism are by now obvious, its aspirations and genuine feelings need to be re-examined. Enrollment limited to 20.

RUSS 1960. Independent Study.

Independent research project on topics related to Russian culture. Enrollment permitted only after the written proposal (instructions in the department office) is submitted to the Concentration Advisor and Chair of the department (deadline: the last day of Add a course without fee period during the semester when the project is undertaken). Please check Banner for the correct section number and CRN to use when registering for this course. Each section limited to 10 students; instructor permission required.

RUSS 1967. Russian Postmodernism.

This course will focus on Russian postmodern literature from the 1960s to the present. We will explore the extent to which its themes and experimental stylistic techniques unmask the sense of fragmentation, disorientation and instability that characterize late 20th-century and contemporary Russia. The fictions studied (including film) offer parodies of philosophical and ideological discourses; reveal an obsession with bodily functions, sexuality, and violence; and playfully reinterpret the grand "metanarratives" of Russian culture. We will relate these trends in Russian fiction to broader discourses of the postmodern in the West. Authors include: Bitov, Erofeev, Limonov, Sorokin, Pelevin, Kabakov, Petrushevskaya, Tolstaya.

RUSS 2010. Eighteenth-Century Literature.

The most important literary currents from the Baroque to early romanticism. Study of style and genre and the development of the literary language.

RUSS 2017. Roaring Twenties: Literature, Arts, and Politics in Post-Revolutionary Russia..

The goal of this seminar is to explore the cultural, artistic, and ideological diversity of the 1920s, with the focus on ideological and political confrontations resulting in the dogmatism of the later Stalinist period. We’ll examine literary practitioners, along with the cultural and literary politics of the 1920s and 30s. As the Communist Party moved from War Communism to New Economic Policy, so did the cultural and artistic discourse, producing innovative texts of the early Soviet Period (Gladkov, Bulgakov, Fadeev, Mayakovsky). Equally fascinating was the critical polemics of the period that clashed Trotsky with Blok, or Buharin with Zamiatin.

RUSS 2040. Russian Symbolism.

The origins and character of the Russian Symbolist movement; survey of major poets; the Symbolist novel (Sologub, Bely).

RUSS 2320. Old Russian Literature.

East Slavic literature from the Kievan period to the end of the seventeenth century.

RUSS 2410. Movements and Genres in Russian Literary Culture.

Seminar. Critical reading of selected texts from the Baroque period through the first half of the 19th century. Analysis is based on a study of the infrastructure of each work and the external influences of the period. Conducted mainly in Russian, with a focus on Russian critical terminology and approaches.

RUSS 2610A. Chekov.

No description available.

RUSS 2610B. Gogol's Dead Souls.

A research seminar for advanced students, including those with no Russian. Qualified undergraduates may be admitted with the instructor's permission.

RUSS 2610C. Russian Romanticism.

This course will examine the works of Zhukovsky, Batiushkov, Pushkin, Lermontov, Tiutchev, Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, Odoevsky, and Gogol in the context of Romanticist literary culture. Students will also read works by other European authors associated with Romanticism to elucidate the extent of the adherence of Russian writers to Romanticist aesthetics and philosophy.

RUSS 2610D. Pushkin.

For generations of Russian readers and writers, Pushkin has been a cult figure, a true "national poet." This course focuses on Pushkin as the progenitor of Russian national mythology and examines the seminal nature of his writing. Analysis of the dazzling array of genres which became his greatest achievement: lyric poetry, narrative poetry, novel in verse, prose, drama, history, and other nonfictional narratives. Pre Requisites: Advanced reading knowledge of Russian is required. The original Russian texts will be referenced during in-class discussion. Enrollment limited to 20.

RUSS 2620A. To Be Determined.

RUSS 2620D. Russian Freemasonry.

No description available.

RUSS 2710A. Pasternak.

The poetry of Boris Pasternak, its structure and development over the entire span of his working life. Conducted in Russian. Open to undergraduates.

RUSS 2710B. Poetic Structure.

The technical study of verse; metrics and rhyme; linguistic analysis of poetic language; semiotic aspects of verse semantics, including genre and historical development. Primary focus on Russian verse, but some attention will also be given to other Slavic materials, as well as to general theoretical issues of poetic structure. Open to qualified undergraduates with instructor's permission.

RUSS 2710C. In Memoriam in Russian Literature.

A study of the philosophical vein in Russian poetry about the meaning of the poetic and cultural heritage of the past, as well as reactions of the rising voices in Russian poetry in succeeding generations to the individual deaths of their immediate predecessors.

RUSS 2720B. Seminar in Russian Literature: Pushkin.

RUSS 2720C. Death and Immortality in Russian Poetry.

No description available.

RUSS 2720D. Derzhavin and His Epoch.

No description available.

RUSS 2810. Russian Poetry: Silver Age.

Exploration of the writings of such Russian poets as Blok, Tsvetaeva, Pasternak, Mandelshtam – in the context of social and cultural changes that shook Russia in first decades of the twentieth century. The class will be conducted in English, but the poetry will be read in the original. Primary goal of the class is to teach students to analyze and discuss the complexities of poetic expression. The class is geared toward graduate students in Slavic but it is open to qualified upper level undergraduates, i.e. to those who can read poetry assignments in original. Instructor permission required.

RUSS 2970. Preliminary Examination Preparation.

For graduate students who have met the tuition requirement and are paying the registration fee to continue active enrollment while preparing for a preliminary examination.

RUSS 2980. Advanced Reading and Research.

Only for graduate students. Independent research project on topics related to Russian culture. Enrollment permitted only after the written proposal (instructions in the department office) is submitted to the DGS and Chair of the department (deadline: the last day of Add a course without fee period during the semester when the project is undertaken). Please check Banner for the correct section number and CRN to use when registering for this course. Each section limited to 10 students; instructor permission required.

RUSS 2990. Thesis Preparation.

For graduate students who have met the residency requirement and are continuing research on a full time basis.

SLAV 0990L. Jews between Christians and Moslems in the Early Modern World (JUDS 0990L).

Interested students must register for JUDS 0990L.

SLAV 1200. Slavic Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Slavic literatures, with emphasis on fairy tales, utopias, and dream sequences to science fiction, which depict altered states of reality. Readings in English, supplemented with films in March and April. Seminar with discussion. Slavic concentrators and graduate students expected to cover much of the readings in the original. Familiarity with Slavic literary histories is not required.

SLAV 1210. Ukraine: Continuities and Crises.

How has Ukraine developed into a distinctive nation? This course will address critical aspects of Ukrainian identity, history, culture and politics in relation to its neighbours and itself. As the War in Ukraine continues, we must understand the narration of the war and Ukraine at large both in the West and the former Soviet space. We will explore how memory wars that are occurring in East and Central Europe are shaped by the present realities of Ukraine.
Students will become acquainted with core texts on cultural study, memory study, literature and film relating to Ukraine. Students will gain critical insight into the core aspects of discourse surrounding Ukraine during its Imperial, Soviet and Post-Soviet experiences. We will look at the national revival of Ukraine, the heroization of the Cossack, and the Post-Soviet interpretation of the past in contemporary Ukraine.

SLAV 1250. Polish Culture Through Film.

This course uses Polish film and media to introduce cultural issues central to the Polish nationality and identity. It is a survey of Polish cinema from before World War II to the present, in which cultural and socio-historical contexts as part of Polish and European traditions are shown and examined through the lens of the camera. The main objective of the course is to provide students with deeper knowledge of and insight into the sociological and cultural issues of Polish society, as well as their complex and multifaceted nature.

SLAV 1260. Aesthetics at War: East European Film and Military Conflicts.

Can cinema adequately depict the experience of war? What are the limits of visual representation of excessive brutality? To what extent can we treat cinematic productions as historical commentaries on violence? We will turn towards several filmmakers from Poland, Czechia/Czechoslovakia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Ukraine to discuss these questions, while bearing in mind that the region has been - and continues to be - the site of some of the most horrific wars in modern history.

SLAV 1300. Sociolinguistics (with Case Studies on the Former USSR and Eastern Europe).

This seminar course examines the relationship between language and society: e.g. gender and language, politeness, terms of address, conversational analysis, dialects and language, language variation and social class, language policies and their consequences, language and national/ethnic identity. Case-study readings cover (but are not limited to) linguistic situations in East Europe, Russia, and the former republics of the USSR. Knowledge of Slavic languages not required. Open to advanced undergraduate and graduate students. Freshmen and sophomores who demonstrate their knowledge of the basic notions in linguistics or their familiarity with the former USSR and East Europe may enroll with the instructor’s written permission. Enrollment limited to 20.

SLAV 1310. Discourse Analysis: Approaches to Talk, Action, and Text.

This course examines approaches to language phenomena beyond the sentence level. We will study four aspects of discourse, spoken and written, that are relevant to linguistics: the interaction between grammar (e.g. deixis, inflection, tense-aspect) and discourse; functions of larger units of text (e.g. discourse markers, turn-taking, repair, (im)politeness, structure of discourse); functions of text types (e.g. discourse and ideology). Discussion of methodologies: qualitative analysis, use of language corpora, and triangulation approach. Case studies on Slavic languages. Open to concentrators in Slavic Studies and students interested in languages and/or linguistics.

SLAV 1350. Religion, Marriage and Gender in Russian Culture and Literature.

With Russia as our case study, in this course we will examine the cultural history of marriage as an ecclesiastical and popular religious institution and as a nucleus of debates regarding ecclesiastical authority, popular piety, secularization, modernization, and gender. Examining the dissemination of the ecclesiastical view, we will consider the role of secular literature in challenging official views and practices. We will also examine marriage as folk religious practice and its role in the social thought of the intelligentsia and study its influence on the concepts of gender, sexuality and the body through interaction with European theology and literature.

SLAV 1360. Deep Thoughts Versus Big Data: Dostoevsky’s Underground Man in the 21st Century.

This intensive Wintersession seminar centers on Fyodor Dostoevsky's novella, Notes from the Underground, which examines the plight of the underground man, an overly-conscious individual who struggles in a society that rewards conformity. We begin with an overview of the philosophy of the underground man in the context of nineteenth-century Russia and Russian literature (reading other related primary and secondary texts). Then we will apply our discussion to an investigation of own lives today, as our interactions increasingly occur on screens and not in person. Readings in English; no prior knowledge is required. 1/2-1/18 daily with longer meetings on weekends.

SLAV 1500. The Literature and Cinema of Global Organized Crime.

In this course we will examine the demonized, self-consciously romanticized, or pointedly de-glamorized images of organized crime in literature and cinema across the contemporary global village. We will discuss the ways in which literary and cinematic texts portray the lives of organized crime workers within the international marketplace, focusing on the countries within Eastern Europe and Mexico, Italy, France, Japan and India. We will also study theories of confessional and postmodernist narratology, in an effort to de-code representations of the criminal self that finds itself trapped in a world driven by the neoliberal economic policies of outsourcing and transnational mergers.

SLAV 1552. Co-existence and Conflict: Polish-Jewish Relations from 1500 until Today (HIST 1552).

Interested students must register for HIST 1552.

SLAV 1760. Film, Theater and Culture of Poland.

This course explores Polish twentieth-century culture with a special stress on literature, theatre, film, visual arts, and architecture. After the examining of the romantic roots of Polish twentieth-century culture through the works of two famous Polish poets, Mickiewicz and Krasinski, the course will explore the works of representative Polish modernist and avant-garde artists such as Przybyszewski, Wyspianski, Witkacy, Schulz, or Gombrowicz. The third part of the course is devoted to the Polish contemporary theatre and film, including the workshops of the two legendary European theaters Cricoteka and Gardzienice, and films of the famous Polish Film School. In English. First year students require instructor permission.

SLAV 1770. Prague and St. Petersburg: A Tale of Two Cities.

An exploration of the mythopoetic universe of Prague and Petersburg through literature and film. Both - one, ancient, the other "modern" - served at one point of the historical continuum as capitols of multinational empires (Holy Roman and Russian), yet also as loci of national identity, both factors thus contributing to their respective enigmatic states. The course will attempt to identify these enigmas and discuss their possible futures in the global polity and culture. Enrollment limited to 20.

SLAV 1780. Economies and Politics of Transition.

The course identifies, describes, and explains major social, economic and political processes that have started in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the collapse of the communist systems in Poland and other East-Central European countries. The transition from the centrally planned to free market economies and the present challenges and problems associated with joining the European Union will be discussed in the context of the political and social changes and related to specific historical conditions. The course puts a special stress on Poland, which in turn will allow students to develop models of patterns of transition applicable to the entire region of East-Central Europe. In English. First year students require instructor permission.

SLAV 1800. Visual and Historical Imagination of Andrzej Wajda.

The course explores the cinema of one of the world’s greatest directors Andrzej Wajda (1926-2016). From his first film, “A Generation” (1955), to his last one, “Afterimage”(2016), Wajda unceasingly shaped visual and historical imagination of Polish post-war generations. His art--growing out of the trauma of WWII, and the experience of social and political changes in the twentieth-century Poland and Eastern Europe—shows the work of collective memory, and portrays individual lives enmeshed in history. His films— always in a dialogue with other forms of visual arts and literature—are also commentaries on the role of art and the artist in contemporary society.

SLAV 1821L. International Relations of Russian, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia (POLS 1821L).

Interested students must register for POLS 1821L.

SLAV 1890. Twentieth-Century Russian Literary Theory: Bakhtin and the Formalists.

In this seminar, we examine three schools of literary theory that emerged in Russia after the Revolution: in the twenties, Formalism, which is often credited for inventing literary theory as a distinctive scholarly discipline; Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975) and his circle of philosopher critics; and the Tartu School of Cultural Semiotics (1960-90s). We will learn how to apply these theories to a diverse range of literary texts (some chosen by students themselves, from their own areas of interest), and will also take into consideration their international influence on the work of critics such as Homi Bhabha, Elaine Scarry and Slavoj Žižek.

SLAV 1950. Independent Study.

Independent research project on topics in Slavic Studies. Enrollment permitted only after the written proposal (instructions in the department office) is submitted to the Concentration Advisor and Chair of the department (deadline: the last day of Add a course without fee period during the semester when the project is undertaken). Please check Banner for the correct section number and CRN to use when registering for this course. Each section limited to 10 students; instructor permission required.

SLAV 1970A. Literature in the Changing Eastern Europe.

Undergraduate seminar on the role of the intellectual in cultures subjected to enormous social and political change. Considers particularly the relevance of the intellectual's private and public selves to the literary, cultural and political life of society. Readings in English.

SLAV 1970B. Spirituality in Russian Literature.

Spirituality -- understood as the intimate, spiritual life of individuals as opposed to corporate expressions of religiosity -- occupies a large place in Russian national life, and its exploration has become the central issue of many famous literary texts. The course will examine selected Russian texts -- from symbolism to postmodernism -- from the perspective of the spiritual sensibility that combines atheism, Russian Orthodoxy, Gnosticism, and sectarian or unconscious religiosity. Authors to be studied include: Nabokov, Sologub, Rozanov, Erofeev, Sorokin and Pelevin. In English.

SLAV 1970D. Vaclav Havel: Dissident, Playwright, and Politician.

For Havel, life under communism represented "an inflated caricature of modern life in general" and the collective experiences of those who lived under such a totalitarian regime" stand as a kind of warning to the West, revealing to it its own latent tendencies." We will explore this hypothesis by studying Havel's texts and the cultural context where they arose.

SLAV 1970E. Kafka/Schulz.

The course explores the prose of Bruno Schulz and Franz Kafka, grasping a profound similarity between those two writers on many levels: cultural, religious, sexual, existential, and artistic. In English. For more information visit the Slavic Department web page.

SLAV 1970F. Comparative Slavic Linguistics.

An overview of the phonological and morphological development of Slavic languages from Common Slavic using readings and problem sets. The course will also examine the basic structure of Old Church Slavonic. Typological comparisons between contemporary Slavic languages. Familiarity with at least one Slavic language is required. Instructor permission required.

SLAV 1970G. Polish for Reading and Research.

An intensive course designed for students who wish to receive concise and systematic language instruction to read Polish for their research projects and/or to prepare for advanced language study in the study abroad context. The course does not require any previous knowledge of Polish. Students will develop functional reading and comprehension strategy in Polish through extensive activities focusing on grammar and reading of selected texts.

SLAV 1970H. Gender and Identity in Modern and Contemporary East Central European Visual Arts.

While issues of gender and identity are commonplace in Western modern and contemporary art discourse, due to isolation from the west for a better part of the twentieth century, East Central European modern and contemporary art has not been privy to similar conversations. This course will explore modernity in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary through discussions on Expressionism, Primitivism, Cubism, and Surrealism. Discussion on the role of the avant-garde artist, his manifestoes and art during heightened nationalism; the role of women as subject of modernity, significant female artists within the avant-garde context, especially in DADA and surrealist circles. Enrollment limited to 20.

SLAV 1981. Independent Research in the Slavic Language(s).

Independent research on various topics in Slavic cultures. Reading, discussion, research must be done in the chosen Slavic language (Czech/Russian). Close work with faculty on project is expected. Prerequisites: minimum RUSS0600/CZCH 0610 (3rd year-level) or placement evaluation by Russian or Czech language coordinator. Enrollment permitted only after the written proposal (instructions in the department office) is submitted to the Concentration Advisor and Chair of the department (deadline: the last day of Add a course without fee period during the semester when the project is undertaken). Each section limited to 10 students; instructor permission required.

SLAV 1990. Senior Thesis.

Only for Slavic concentrators writing their senior theses. For requirements and schedule, contact the department. Each section limited to 10 senior Slavic Studies concentrators.

SLAV 2210. Old Church Slavonic.

Introduction to Church Slavonic philology. Structural analysis of Old Church Slavonic. Readings in Old Church Slavonic texts.

SLAV 2230. History of Russian.

Elementary history of Russian, with emphasis on the standard languages, from the Kievan period to the 19th-century. Readings in early Russian texts. Some acquaintance with Old Church Slavonic is desirable. Not for graduate students in Slavic linguistics, who should take seminars in East Slavic historical dialectology and the history of the Russian literary language.

SLAV 2320. Russian Syntax.

Survey of approaches to the relationship between semantics and syntax in Russian. Discussion of morphosyntactic variation in Russian, including gender-number agreement, tense-aspect, case, reflexivization, and pronominalization. Some topics relevant to the teaching of Russian and stylistics.

SLAV 2450. Exchange Scholar Program.

SLAV 2970. Preliminary Examination Preparation.

For graduate students who have met the tuition requirement and are paying the registration fee to continue active enrollment while preparing for a preliminary examination.

SLAV 2980. Advanced Reading and Research.

Only for graduate students. Independent research project on topics in Slavic Studies. Enrollment permitted only after the written proposal (instructions in the department office) is submitted to the DGS and Chair of the department (deadline: the last day of Add a course without fee period during the semester when the project is undertaken). Please check Banner for the correct section number and CRN to use when registering for this course. Each section limited to 10 students; instructor permission required.

SLAV 2990. Thesis Preparation.

For graduate students who have met the residency requirement and are continuing research on a full time basis.

SLAV XLIST. Courses of Interest to Concentrators in Slavic Languages.