RUSS V 1101x-V1102y First-year Russian, I and II

Grammar, reading, composition, and conversation.
Prerequisites: for V1102: RUSS V1101 or the equivalent. Corequisites: RUSS V1103-V1104
5 points

RUSS V 1103x-V1104y First-year Russian Grammar, I and II

Must be taken concurrently with RUSS V1101-V1102.

RUSS V 1201x-V1202y Second-year Russian, I and II

Drill practice in small groups. Reading, composition, and grammar review.
Prerequisites: For V1201: RUSS V1102 or the equivalent. For V1202: RUSS V1201 or the equivalent
5 points

RUSS V 3101x-V3102y Third-year Russian, I and II

Enrollment limited. Recommended for students who wish to improve their active command of Russian. Emphasis on conversation and composition. Reading and discussion of selected texts and videotapes. Lectures. Papers and oral reports required. Conducted entirely in Russian.
Prerequisites: RUSS V3331:RUSS 1202 or the equivalent and the instructor's permission.
Prerequisite for V3332: Russian V3331 or the equivalent.
4 points

RUSS V 3421y Russian Phonetics and Intonation

Review of principles of phonetics and intonation. Intensive drill for the development of correct speech habits. Attention to expressive reading and poetry recitation. Conducted entirely in Russian.

RUSS V 3430x-V3431y Russian for Heritage Speakers, I and II

Review of Russian grammar and development of reading and writing skills for students with a knowledge of spoken Russian.
3 points

RUSS W 4333x-W4334y Fourth-year Russian, I and II

Either term may be taken separately. W4333: Systematic study of problems in Russian syntax; written exercises, translations into Russian, and compositions. W4334: Discussion of different styles and levels of language, including word usage and idiomatic expression; written exercises, analysis of texts, and compositions. Conducted entirely in Russian.

RUSS G 4431x Reading Practicum

For non-native speakers of Russian. Review of phonetics and intonation and reading of literary texts. Texts vary from semester to semester.

RUSS W 4432 Contrastive Phonetics and Grammar of Russian and English

Comparative phonetic, intonational, and morphological structures of Russian and English, with special attention to typical problems for American speakers of Russian.
Prerequisites: RUSS W4334 or the equivalent and the instructor's permission.
3 points

RUSS W 4433 Specific problems in mastering and teaching Russian

The Russian verb (basic stem system, aspect, locomotion); prefixes; temporal, spatial, and causal relationships; word order; word formation.
Prerequisites: RUSS W4334 or the equivalent and the instructor's permission. Not offered in 2009-2010.

RUSS W 4434x Practical Stylistics [in Russian]

Focuses on theoretical matters of style and the stylistic conventions of Russian expository prose, for advanced students of Russian who wish to improve their writing skills.

RUSS W 4911y Introduction to Simultaneous Interpretation: Russian-English

Enrollment limited. A hands-on introduction to the principles and techniques of simultaneous interpretation. Students will work in the language laboratory, primarily from Russian to English. Background reading on the history, practice, and techniques of simultaneous interpretation will supplement practical work from cassettes and CDs. Students must have a portable cassette tape recorder. - L. Visson
Prerequisites: Three years of college Russian or the equivalent. Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

RUSS V 1330y The Russian Short Story [In English]

Knowledge of Russian not required. A survey of the Russian short story tradition and a close consideration of the genre in question. Works by Karamzin, Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Leskov, Chekhov, Bulgakov, Zoshchenko, Solzhenitsyn, Pelevin, Tolstaya, and others.
Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

RUSS V 3220x Literature and Empire: The Reign of the Novel in Russia (19th Century) [In English]

Knowledge of Russian not required. Explores the aesthetic and formal developments in Russian prose, especially the rise of the monumental 19th-century novel, as one manifestation of a complex array of national and cultural aspirations, humanistic and imperialist ones alike. Works by Pushkin, Lermonotov, Gogol, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Chekhov.

RUSS V 3221y Literature and Revolution: Tradition, Innovation, and Politics (20th century) [In English]

Knowledge of Russian not required. Survey of Russian literature from symbolism to the culture of high Stalinism and post-Socialist realism of the 1960s and 1970s, including major works by Bely, Blok, Olesha, Babel, Bulgakov, Platonov, Zoshchenko, Kharms, Kataev, Pasternak, and Erofeev. Literature viewed in a multi-media context featuring music, avant-garde and post-avant-garde visual art, and film.

RUSS V 3222y Tolstoy and Dostoevsky [In English]

Two epic novels, Tolstoy's War and Peace and Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, will be read along with selected shorter works. Other works by Tolstoy include his early Sebastopol Sketches, which changed the way war is represented in literature; Confession, which describes his spiritual crisis; the late stories "Kreutzer Sonata" and "Hadji Murad"; and essays on capital punishment and a visit to a slaughterhouse. Other works by Dostoevsky include his fictionalized account of life in Siberian prison camp, The House of the Dead; Notes from the Underground, his philosophical novella on free will, determinism, and love; "A Gentle Creature," a short story on the same themes; and selected essays from Diary of a Writer. The focus will be on close reading of the texts. Our aim will be to develop strategies for appreciating the structure and form, the powerful ideas, the engaging storylines, and the human interest in the writings of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. No knowledge of Russian is required.

RUSS V 3223x Magical Mystery Tour: The Legacy of Old Rus' [In English]

Winston Churchill famously defined Russia as " a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." This course aims at demystifying Russia by focusing on the core of its "otherness" in the eyes of the West: its religious culture. We will explore an array of texts, practices and pragmatic sites of Russian religious life across such traditional divides as medieval and modern, popular and elite, orthodox and heretical. Icons, liturgical rituals, illuminated manuscripts, magic amulets, religious sects, feasting and fastings, traveling practices from pilgrimages to tourism, political myths and literary mystification, decadent projects of life-creation, and the fervent anticipation of the End are all part of a tour that is as illuminating as it is fun. No knowledge of Russian is required

RUSS V 3470 Re-Reading Nabokov [In English]

"A good reader, a major reader, an active and creative reader is a re-reader"--V. Nabokov. The name of the game is reading Nabokov Nabokov's way. The course examines with Nabokovian scrutiny--and with special emphasis on bilinguialism, translation, and untranslatability--some of the writer's major works in their Russian and English versions, including his double take on Lolita. Knowledge of Russian helpful but not required.

RUSS W 4006y Modern Russian Religious Thought [In English]

Explores Russian religious thought of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with special attention to its close ties to the Russian literary tradition. We start with Chaadaev's questions about Russia's otherness, move on to Slavophile solutions, then to folk piety and religious practice, and the religious thought of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. We will then study the renaissance of Russian religious thought that took root in the work of Soloviev and Fedorov and inspired Russian modernists. The course will end with the development of these ideas in the first half of the twentieth century in Russia (Florensky) and the Paris emigration (Berdiaev, Shestov, Bulgakov, Skobtsova [Mother Maria]). Readings in religious thought will be supplemented by relevant literary texts.

RUSS W 4017y Chekhov [In English]

Close reading of Chekhov's best work in the genres on which he left an indelible mark (the short story and the drama) on the subjects that left an indelible imprint on him (medical science, the human body, identity, topography, the nature of news, the problem of knowledge, the access to pain, the necessity of dying, the structure of time, the self and the world, the part and the whole) via the modes of inquiry (diagnosis and deposition, expedition and exegesis, library and laboratory, microscopy and materialism, intimacy and invasion) and forms of documentation (the itinerary, the map, the calendar, the photograph, the icon, the Gospel, the Koan, the lie, the love letter, the case history, the obituary, the pseudonym, the script) that marked his era (and ours). No knowledge of Russian required. Please register for this course under CLRS W4017, with call number 10850.

RUSS W 4676y Russian Art between East and West: The Search for National Identity

Aims to be more than a basic survey that starts with icons and ends with the early modernists. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, it aims to highlight how the various cultural transmissions interacted to produce, by the 1910s, an original national art that made an innovative contribution to world art. It discusses the development of art not only in terms of formal, aesthetic analysis, but also in the matrix of changing society, patronage system, economic life and quest for national identity. Several guest speakers will discuss the East-West problematic in their related fields-for example, in literature and ballet.

Some familiarity with Russian history and literature will be helpful, but not essential. Assigned readings in English. Open to undergraduate and graduate students.

RUSS V 3319y Masterpieces of 19th-Century Russian Literature

Close study, in the original, of representative works by Pushkin, Lermonotov, Gogol, Turgenev, Ostrovsky, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Leskov and Chekhov.

RUSS V 3320x Masterpieces of 20th-Century Russian Literature

Close study, in the original, of representative works by Bely, Sologub, Pasternak, Bulgakov, Nabokov, Olesha, Mandel'stam, Akhmatova, Solzhenitsyn, Terts, and Brodsky.

RUSS V 3332x Vvedenie v russkuiu literaturu: Scary Stories
For non-native speakers of Russian. The course is devoted to the reading, analysis, and discussion of a number of Russian prose fiction works from the eighteenth to twentieth century. Its purpose is to give students an opportunity to apply their language skills to literature. It will teach students to read Russian literary texts as well as to talk and write about them. Its goal is, thus, twofold: to improve the students' linguistic skills and to introduce them to Russian literature and literary history. In 2008-2009: A close study in the original of the "scary stories" in Russian literature from the late eighteenth century. Conducted in Russian. - I. Reyfman
Prerequisites: Two years of college Russian or the instructor's permission Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

RUSS V 3333x Vvedenie v russkuiu literaturu: Poor Liza, Poor Olga, Poor Me

For non-native speakers of Russian. The course is devoted to the reading, analysis, and discussion of a number of Russian prose fiction works from the eighteenth to twentieth century. Its purpose is to give students an opportunity to apply their language skills to literature. It will teach students to read Russian literary texts as well as to talk and write about them. Its goal is, thus, twofold: to improve the students' linguistic skills and to introduce them to Russian literature and literary history. In 2007-2008: A close study in the original of the "fallen woman" plot in Russian literature from the late eighteenth century. Conducted in Russian.
Prerequisites: Two years of college Russian or the instructor's permission.
3 points

RUSS V 3344y Vvedenie v russkuiu kul'turu: Russian Culture in New York City

In 2008-2009: A study of Russian culture as it is represented in New York City. Conducted in Russian.

RUSS V 3345x Vvedenie v russkuiu kul'turu:Advanced Russian through History

Advanced Russian through History is a language course designed to meet the needs of those foreign learners of Russian as well as heritage speakers who want to develop further their reading, speaking and writing skills and be introduced to the history of Russia.
Prerequisites: Five semesters of classroom Russian or equivalent and instructor's permission Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

RUSS V 3461 Pushkin

Conducted mainly in Russian. Examinations in English. A close study in the original of Pushkin's narrative, dramatic, and lyrical verses.

RUSS V 3463 Tolstoy

A close study, in the original, of Anna Karenina. Class discussions conducted in English.
Prerequisites: three years of college Russian or the instructor's permission. Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

RUSS V 3464 Dostoevsky

A close study, in the original, of selections of representative works. - V. Izmirlieva
Prerequisites: Three years of college Russian and the instructor's permission. Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

RUSS V 3465 Russian Poetry of the 19th and 20th centuries

A close study, in the original, of selected texts of five representative lyric poets: Tuitchev, Fet, Blok, Tsvetaeva, and Brodsky. Attention given to metrics, formal analysis of style and structure, and the relationship to literary and philosophical movements. Class discussion is conducted in English.
Prerequisites: Three years of college Russian or the instructor's permission. Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

RUSS V 3466 Chekhov

Close reading in the original of Chekhov's prose (principally his shorter stories) and one drama.
Prerequisites: Three years of college Russian or the equivalent, or the instructor's permission. Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

RUSS V 3468 Russian Plays

A close study, in the original, of several representative Russian plays, with emphasis on problems of translation, literary technique, and dramatic presentation.
Prerequisites: three years of college Russian and the instructor's permission. Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

RUSS V 3472 Platonov

Close reading in the original of representative works by the 20th century Russian writer Andrei Platonov. Discussion, in English, of the meaning, style, and context of Platonov's writings. - Christopher Hardwood
Prerequisites: three years of college Russian or the instructor's permission. Not offered in 2009-2010.

RUSS V 3474 Russian Sci-fi

Reading of four major works of Russian science fiction from the 20th century. Focuses on answering the question "Is science fiction best understood as a literary genre or literary device?"
Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

RUSS V 3476 20th-Century Prose Writers

A close study, in the original, of the works of Isaak Babel and Yuri Olesha. Class discussion conducted in English. - R. Stanton
Prerequisites: Three years of college Russian or the instructor's permission. Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

RUSS V 3477x City, Town, Village: Mapping 20th-century Prose

Close reading, in the original, of representative works by 20th-century Russian writers. The prose we will read not only represents different periods of Russian, Soviet, and post-Soviet literature, but also "maps" the multicultural space of the former USSR and present day Russia. Authors include Bely, Babel, Bunin, Mandelshtam, Abramov, Iskander, Dovlatov, and Tolstaia, as well as some contemporary authors. Discussion, in English, of the meaning, style, and context of their writing, as well as the way geographical and/or architectural space may be "transcribed" into literary space.

RUSS V 3595x Senior Seminar

A research and writing workshop designed to help students plan and execute a major research project, and communicate their ideas in a common scholarly language that crosses disciplinary boundaries. Content is determined by students' thesis topics, and includes general sessions on how to formulate a proposal and how to generate a bibliography. Students present the fruits of their research in class discussions, culminating in a full-length seminar presentation and the submission of the written thesis.

RUSS W 3997x-W3998y Supervised Individual Research
Prerequisites: Departmental permission.
2-4 points.

RUSS W 4014x Introduction to Russian Poetry and Poetics

An introduction to Russian poetry, through the study of selected texts of major poets of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, primarily: Pushkin, Lermontov, Pavlova, Tiutchev, Blok, Mandel'shtam, Akhmatova, Mayakovsky, Prigov and Brodsky. Classes devoted to the output of a single poet will be interspersed with classes that draw together the poems of different poets in order to show the reflexivity of the Russian poetic canon. These classes will be organized according either to types of poems or to shared themes. The course will teach the basics of verisification, poetic languages (sounds, tropes), and poetic forms. Classes in English; poetry read in Russian.

RUSS W 4200y Theater Workshop: Gogol's Revizor

The study and staging, in the original of a Russian play (Gogol's Revizor). Concentration on exploration of character and style through language, phonetics, detailed textual analysis, and oral presentation.

RUSS W 4331y Chteniia po russkoi literature: Gogol

Conducted in Russian.

RUSS W 4332y Chteniia po russkoi literature: Turgenev

Conducted in Russian.

RUSS W 4345x Chteniia po russkoi kul'ture: Advanced Russian Through History

In 2008-2009: A language course designed to meet the needs of those foreign learners of Russian as well as heritage speakers who want to develop further their reading, speaking, and writing skills and be introduced to the history of Russia.

RUSS W 4346x Chteniia po russkoi kul'ture: Russian Folklore and the Folkloric Tradition

In 2007-2008: Reading and discussion of the principal genres of traditional and contemporary Russian folklore and readings about Russian folk customs. Conducted in Russian.

CZCH W 1101x-W1102y Elementary Czech, I and II

Essentials of the spoken and written language. Prepare students to read texts of moderate difficulty by the end of the first year.

CZCH W 1201x-W1202y Intermediate Czech, I and II

Rapid review of grammar. Readings in contemporary fiction and nonfiction, depending upon the interests of individual students.

CZCH W 3997x-W3998y Supervised Individual Research

Prerequisite: Departmental permission. - Christopher Harwood
2-4 points.

CZCH W 4333x Readings in Czech Literature, I

A close study in the original of representative works of Czech literature. Discussion and writing assignments in Czech aimed at developing advanced language proficiency. - C. Harwood
Prerequisites: Two years of college Czech or the equivalent
3 points

CZCH W 4334y Readings in Czech Literature, II

A close study in the original of representative works of Czech literature. Discussion and writing assignments in Czech aimed at developing advanced language proficiency.

POLI W 1101x-W1102y Elementary Polish, I and II

Essentials of the spoken and written language. Prepares students to read texts of moderate difficulty by the end of the first year.
4 points

POLI W 1201x-W1202y Intermediate Polish, I and II

Rapid review of grammar; readings in contemporary nonfiction or fiction, depending on the interests of individual students.
Prerequisites: POLI W1102 or the equivalent.
4 points

POLI W 3997x-W3998y Supervised Individual Research
- Anna Frajlich-Zajac
Prerequisites: Departmental permission.
2-4 points.

POLI W 4003 History of Polish Literature

A knowledge of Polish is not required, but students knowing the language are expected to read in the original and are given special assignments. A general survey of Polish literature from the Renaissance to WW I and the establishment of an independent Polish state.
Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

POLI W 4030 Post-WW II Polish Literature

Readings in English translation. Students with a knowledge of Polish are expected to do some work in the original. An introduction to major developments in Polish prose, fiction, poetry, and drama since the end of WW II and the establishment of the present government.
Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

POLI W 4031x Professional Polish for Heritage Speakers

Addresses the need for heritage speakers to speak, read, understand, and write in Polish at the highest level of functional proficiency. It serves students from all departments across the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.

POLI G 4040y Mickiewicz

The Polish literary scene that in this particular period stretched from Moscow, Petersburg, and Odessa, to Vilna, Paris, Rome. The concept of exile, so central to Polish literature of the 19th-century and world literature of the 20th will be introduced and discussed.

The course will offer the opportunity to see the new Romantic trend initially evolving from classicism, which it vigorously opposed and conquered. We will examine how the particular literary form - sonnet, ballad, epic poem and the romantic drama developed on the turf of the Polish language. Also we will see how such significant themes as madness, Romantic suicide, Romantic irony, and elements of Islam and Judaism manifested themselves in the masterpieces of Polish poetry. The perception of Polish Romanticism in other, especially Slavic, literatures will be discussed and a comparative approach encouraged.

Most of the texts to be discussed were translated into the major European languages. Mickiewicz was enthusiastically translated into Russian by the major Russian poets of all times; students of Russian may read his works in its entirety in that language.

The class will engage in a thorough analysis of the indicated texts; the students' contribution to the course based on general knowledge of the period, of genres, and/or other related phenomena is expected.

POLI G 4042y Bestsellers of Polish Literature

A study of the 20th-century Polish novel during its most invigorated, innovative inter-war period. A close study of the major works of Kuncewiczowa, Choromanski, Wittlin, Unilowski, Kurek, Iwaszkiewicz, Gombrowicz, and Schulz. The development of the Polish novel will be examined against the background of new trends in European literature, with emphasis on the usage of various narrative devices. Reading knowledge of Polish desirable but not required. Parallel reading lists are available in the original and in translation.

POLI W 4044 20th-Century Polish Drama and Theatre

A reading knowledge of Polish is desirable but not required. Primarily the plays of such avant-garde dramatists as Witkiewicz, Gombrowicz, Mrozek, and Rózewicz, and the theatre work of Grotowski.
Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

POLI W 4048 Masterpieces of 19th-Century Polish Poetry

Analysis of the major works of the 19th-century poets, including Mickiewicz, Slowacki, Krasinski, Fredro, and Norwid. Parallel reading lists for readers and non-readers of Polish. Students with sufficient knowledge of the language are required to read in the original.
Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

POLI W 4050 Contemporary Polish Poetry

Survey of the major contemporary Polish poets, schools, and genres. Lectures, assigned readings, and class discussion of poems. Additional reading list and anthology selections in English for supplemental reading and for comparison.
Prerequisites: Reading knowledge of Polish. Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

POLI W 4101x-W4102y Advanced Polish, I and II

Extensive readings from 19th- and 20th-century texts in the original. Both fiction and nonfiction, with emphasis depending on the interests and needs of individual students.

POLI W 4110 The Polish Novel

Evolution of the novel form in Polish literature from the Baroque memoir through the Enlightenment, Positivism, modernism, and the avant-gardists of the 20th century. Reading knowledge of Polish desirable but not required.
Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

POLI G 4111 Polish Drama

A survey of Polish drama from the Renaissance through the radical experiments of the recent period. Current performances in New York will be incorporated into the course. Knowledge of Polish is desirable but not required.
Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

SCRB W 1101x-W1102y Elementary Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian, I and II

Essentials of the spoken and written language. Prepares students to read texts of moderate difficulty by the end of the first year.
4 points

SCRB W 1201x-W1202y Intermediate Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian, I and II

Readings in Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian literature in the original, with emphasis depending upon the needs of individual students.
Prerequisites: SRCR W1102 or the equivalent.
3 points

CLSS W 3997x-W3998y Supervised individual instruction
- Radmila Gorup
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.
2-4 points.

SCRB W 4331x-W4332y Advanced Serbian-Croatian-Bosnian, I and II

Further develops skills in speaking, reading, and writing, using essays, short stories, films, and fragments of larger works. Reinforces basic grammar and introduces more complete structures.

UKRN W 1101x-W1102y Elementary Ukrainian, I and II

Designed for students with little or no knowledge of Ukrainian. Basic grammar structures are introduced and reinforced, with equal emphasis on developing oral and written communication skills. Specific attention to acquisition of high-frequency vocabulary and its optimal use in real-life settings.

UKRN W 1201x-W1202y Intermediate Ukrainian, I and II

Reviews and reinforces the fundamentals of grammar and a core vocabulary from daily life. Principal emphasis is placed on further development of communicative skills (oral and written). Verbal aspect and verbs of motion receive special attention.

UKRN W 3997x-W3998y Supervised Individual Research
Prerequisites: Departmental permission.
2-4 points.

UKRN W 4001x-W4002y Advanced Ukrainian, I and II

The course is for students who wish to develop their mastery of Ukrainian. Further study of grammar includes patterns of word formation, participles, gerunds, declension of numerals, and a more in-depth study of difficult subjects, such as verbal aspect and verbs of motion. The material is drawn from classical and contemporary Ukrainian literature, press, electronic media, and film. Taught almost exclusively in Ukrainian.

UKRN W 4040 Twentieth-Century Ukrainian Prose

Survey of the major works from the turn of the century through the 1990s with a brief overview of 19th-century Ukrainian prose and its connection to later developments.
Prerequisites: Reading knowledge of Ukrainian or fluency in another Slavic language. Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

UKRN W 4058 The Ukrainian Cultural Renaissance: 1917-1934

A course focusing on the literary and cultural politics in Ukraine during the period of relative liberalization and the national revival in 1917-1934. Fiction, poetry, drama, films, manifestoes, and theoretical and polemical writings by Mykola Khvyl'ovyi, Valerian Pidmohyl'nyi, Mykola Kulish, Mykhail' Semenko, Pavlo Tychyna, Mykola Zerov, Maksym Ryl's'kyi, Oleksandr Dovzhenko, Les' Kurbas, and others.
Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

UKRN W 4060 Cultural Currents and their Political Context in Twentieth-Century Ukraine

A survey of the major cultural currents in twentieth-century Ukraine in the context of contemporary political developments, with emphasis on five separate fields: literature, film, theatre, music, and art. All readings in English; a knowledge of Ukrainian not required.
Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

UKRN G 4069y The Missing Link: Cinema and the Emergence of Modern Ukraine

This course discusses the influence of cinema on the formation of modern Ukrainian identity. An overview of Ukrainian cinema history will be followed by analyses of major Ukrainian Soviet and post-Soviet films and the tension between their Ukrainian and Soviet aspects. Special emphasis on the most recent Ukrainian cinema and its quest to liberate itself from the legacies of the Soviet empire.

UKRN W 4100 Literatures and Identities in Post-Soviet Ukraine

The course seeks the connection between literary production and identity construction in present-day Ukraine. Major literary trends and the most representative texts since 1991 are studied, with emphasis on cultural hybridity, bilingualism, and decentralization. Readings include works by Yuri Andrukhovych, Yuri Vynnychuk, Oksana Zabuzhko, Solomea Pavlychko, and others.
Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

UKRN G 4120x Euphoria, Chaos, and a Community of Others in Post-Soviet Ukrainian Literature and Culture [In English]

This course focuses on post-Soviet Ukrainian prose written by the visimdesiatnyky(the 80s generation), which introduced the artist-intellectual as a new protagonist in Ukrainian literature. The course will also introduce students to post-Soviet Ukrainian poetry, drama, and essay writing. Students will be acquainted with the leading writers in Ukraine today and will observe the ways in which these writers adopted aspects of postmodernism in addressing their postcolonial concerns. The course will be complimented by audio and video presentations. Parallel reading list provided for those who read Ukrainian.

HNGR W 4050 The Hungarian New Wave: Cinema in Kadarist Hungary [In English]

Hungarian cinema, like filmmaking in Czechoslovakia, underwent a renaissance in the 1960's, but the Hungarian new wave continued to flourish in the 70's and film remained one of the most important art forms well into the 80's. This course examines the cultural, social and political context of representative Hungarian films of the Kádárist period, with special emphasis on the work of such internationally known filmmakers as Miklós Jancsó, Károly Makk, Márta Mészáros, and István Szabó. In addition to a close analysis of individual films, discussion topics will include the "newness" of the new wave in both form and content (innovations in film language, cinematic impressionism, allegorical-parabolic forms, auteurism, etc.), the influence of Italian, French, German and American cinema, the relationship between film and literature, the role of film in the cultures of Communist Eastern Europe, the state of contemporary Hungarian cinema. The viewing of the films will be augmented by readings on Hungarian cinema, as well as of relevant Hungarian literary works.
3 points

HSSL W 3224y Cities and Civilizations: an Introduction To Eurasian Studies

An introduction to the study of the region formerly occupied by the Russian and Soviet Empires focusing on cities as the space of self-definition, encounter, and tension among constituent peoples. Focus on incorporating and placing in dialogue diverse disciplinary approaches to the study of the city through reading and analysis of historical, literary, and theoretical texts as well as film, music, painting, and architecture.

UKRN W 3320 History of Ukraine In the 20th Century
Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

CPLT W 4203x The History, Literature, and Film of Dissent in East Central Europe

The course is an interdisciplinary investigation of the cultural and political phenomenon of Eastern European dissent in the 1970s and 1980s, which culminated in the collapse of communism in the region. Using sources ranging from political essays to drama, other fiction, and film, students will explore the development of the region's oppositional movement's ideas and ideals. The actual prefix of the course, for registration purposes, is HSSL W4203.

CPLT G 4339 History of Modern Poland.
Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

CPLT W 4343 Imperial Russia, 1801-1917
Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

SLLN G 4005y Introduction to Old Church Slavonic

An introduction to the structure of Old Church Slavonic followed by readings of texts, with attention to the cultural history of Church Slavonic and its texts.

CLSL V 1330y Violent Muse of the Twentieth Century: Representations of Violence in Balkan and Russian Literature

This course examines literary representations of violence in twentieth century Russian and Balkan literature. Within a text, the balance between gore and philosophy, naturalistic details and sparse descriptions can shape our reaction to and cognition of violence. We will look at depictions of different types of violence (including violence resulting from mass-extermination campaigns like the Soviet gulag, violence in warfare, sexual violence, absurdist violence etc.), and consider how literary devices negotiate with violence. Readings include works by Ivo Andric, Nikos Kazantzakis, Aleksander Blok, Andrei Platonov, Varlam Shalamov, Vladimir Sorokin, and others.

CLRS V 3119y The Novel in the US & USSR, 1925-1940: Literature Confronts Social Crisis

Using novels as our primary sources, we will examine the massive social upheavals experienced in the US and USSR during the onslaught of the Great Depression and the rise of High Stalinism. The syllabus includes texts by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Yuri Olesha, William Faulkner, Andrei Platonov, John Dos Passos, Valentine Kataev, John Steinbeck, Mikhail Bulgakov, and Richard Wright, as well as supplementary readings in history and literary theory. All readings in English.
3 points

CLRS V 3224x Nabokov [In English]

This course examines the writing (including major novels, short stories, essays, and memoirs) of the Russian-American author Vladimir Nabokov. Special attention to literary politics and gamesmanship and the author's unique place within both the Russian and Anglo-American literary traditions. Knowledge of Russian not required.

CLSL W 4003x Central European Drama in the Twentieth Century

Focus will be on the often deceptive modernity of modern Central and East European theater and its reflection of the forces that shaped modern European society. It will be argued that the abstract, experimental drama of the twentieth-century avant-garde tradition seems less vital at the century's end than the mixed forms of Central and East European dramatists.

CLSL W 4003 Contemporary East European Literature: When the Wall Came Down

The changes in the literary situation in East European countries that have accompanied and followed the end of communist rule. Works by representative authors from Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, the former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Ukraine.
Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

CLSL W 4005 Constructions of Gender and Sexuality in Russian and East European Writing

An exploration of the ways gender and sexual identities have been articulated and constructed in a number of Russian and East European literary texts (from the late 19th century to the present). Representative works from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, and the former Yugoslavia.
Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

CLRS W 4011x Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and the English Novel [in English]

A close reading of works by Dostoevsky (Netochka Nezvanova; The Idiot; "A Gentle Creature") and Tolstoy (Childhood, Boyhood, Youth; "Family Happiness"; Anna Karenina; "The Kreutzer Sonata") in conjunction with related English novels (Bronte's Jane Eyre, Eliot's Middlemarch, Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway). No knowledge of Russian is required.

CLRS W 4012y Russian, French, and American Novels of Adultery [In English]

Adultery is a driving concern of the works read. Authors include Pushkin, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Chekhov; Lafayette, Flaubert; Hawthorne, Chopin. As we study the nineteenth-century novels that define the novel of adultery as a literary category, as well as some precursors and later offshoots, we articulate a morphology of the novel of adultery. We also focus on the narrative technqiues used to represent the consciousness of the protagonists, in an effort to determine how the subject matter and the poetics of the novel of adultery interact. No knowledge of Russian is required; all works read in English.

CLRS W 4015x Dostoevsky and Nabokov: Narratives of Transgression and Madness

A close reading of works by Dostoevsky (the Double, Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment. "The Meek One," The Brothers Karamazov) and Nabokov (Despair, Lolita). Paying particular attention to narrative strategies, the course will prepare students to apply their knowledge of Dostoevskian plot, thematics, and literary technique to two novels by the great Dostoevsky-denier Nabokov.
3 points

SLLT W 4015 Ideology, History, Identity: South Slavic Writers From Modernism to Postmodernism and Beyond.

The course explores eight major South Slavic writers, modernists MIlos Crnjanski (1893 - 1977), Ivo Andric (1892 -1975) and Miroslav Krleza (1893 - 1981), and postmodernists Danilo Kis (1935-1989), Milorad Pavic (b.1948), Dubravka Ugresic (b.1949) and David Albahari (b.1948). The outstanding writer Borislav Pekic (1930 - 1992) extends beyond these two literary movements.
Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

CLRS W 4017 Chekhov [English]

A close reading of Chekhov's best work in the genres on which he left an indelible mark (the short story and the drama) on the subjects that left an indelible imprint on him (medical science, the human body, identity, topography, the nature of news, the problem of knowledge, the access to pain, the necessity of dying, the structure of time, the self and the world, the part and the whole) via the modes of inquiry (diagnosis and deposition, expedition and exegesis, library and laboratory, microscopy and materialism, intimacy and invasion) and forms of documentation (the itinerary, the map, the calendar, the photograph, the icon, the Gospel, the Koan, the lie, the love letter, the case history, the obituary, the pseudonym, the script) that marked his era (and ours). No knowledge of Russian required.

CLCZ W 4020 Czech Culture Before Czechoslovakia

An interpretive cultural history of the Czechs from earliest times to the founding of the first Czechoslovak republic in 1918. Emphasis on the origins, decline, and resurgence of Czech national identity as reflected in the visual arts, architecture, music, historiography, and especially the literature of the Czechs.
Prerequisites: Sophomore standing or instructor's permission.
3 points

CLPL W 4020y North America in the Mirror of Polish Literature

The course will consider the reflection of American culture in Polish literature. All aspects of American life will be viewed through the lenses of the Polish writers, bringing into focus their perception of a different political, historical, and esthetic experience.

CLSL W 4020 Slavic Literary Theory

The contributions to modern critical thought of Russian Formalism, Prague Structuralism, East European structural poetics, and the semiotics of culture. The characteristic features of those movements are examined in comparison with kindred critical developments in the West. Readings in English.
Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

HNGR W 4020 Exposing Naked Reality: Modern Hungarian Prose is Translation

This course introduces students to representative examples of an essentially robust, reality-bound, socially aware literature. In modern Hungarian prose fiction, the tradition of nineteenth-century "anecdotal realism" remained strong and was further enlivened by various forms of naturalism. Even turn-of-the century and early twentieth-century modernist fiction is characterized by strong narrative focus, psychological realism, and an emphasis on social conditions and local color. During the tumultuous decades of the century, social, political, national issues preoccupied even aesthetics-conscious experimenters and ivory-tower dwellers. Among the topics discussed will be "populist" and "urban" literature in the interwar years, post-1945 reality in fiction, literary memoirs and reportage, as well as late-century minimalist and postmodern trends.
3 points

CLSS W 4025y Literature and Ideology: Balkan Modernism [In English]

A survey of the 20th-century literature of Greece, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia, Albania, and Romania (in translation), with a focus on the role of literature in modern Balkan politics. Explores "the Balkans"--the cultural entity, the political phenomenon, the ideological construct--from the vantage point of the best modernist and postmodernist texts created in the region. Readings include poetry by Constantine Cavafy, novels by Ivo Andric and Ismail Kadare, short stories by Danilo Kis, read in conjunction with his fathers by choice, Jorge Luis Borges and Bruno Schultz, and films by two of Europe's most acclaimed directors of 1990s, Emir Kusturica and Theo Angelopolus.

CLSS G 4027y Within Empires: Literatures of the South Slavs from the Beginning to Realism [in English]

Readings and discussion of the most important literary texts from Serbia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, and Macedonia from the beginning of South Slavic literacy to the 19th century. Topics include religion, literature, art, architechture, and music; empires and wars, issues of history and identity. Major figures include: Vuk Stefanović-Karadžić, Petar Petrović Njegoš, Ivan Mažuranić, Hristo Botev and others. The course is intended for both non-native speakers and native speakers of South Slavic Languages; no knowledge of South Slavic languages required.

CLSS G 4028x In the Shadow of Empires: Literatures of the South Slavs from Realism to Today [in English]

Readings and discussion of the most important literary works of South Slavic writers from the second half of the 19th century to the present. Major writers include: Ivan Cankar, Miroslav Krleza, Ivo Andric, Milos Crnjanski, Mesa Selimovic, Danilo Kis, Dubravaka Ugresic, David Albahari, and others. Knowledge of South Slavic languages not required.

CLRS W 4029x Women Novelists of the Nineteenth Century in Russia and Elsewhere [In English]

An examination of nineteenth-century novels and novellas by women: the focus will be on Russian writers (Gan, Zhukova, Pavlova, Tur, Vovchok, Khvoshchinskaia, Kovalevskaia), but we will include relevant works by novelists from other traditions (Germaine de Staël, George Sand; Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot; Harriet Beecher Stowe; Olive Shreiner). We will discuss broader issues relating to the theory, form, and poetics of the novel, as well as ask questions about the nature of realism, about the politics of literary history and canonization, about the feminine imagination. All works may be read in English. (No knowledge of Russian or French is required.)

CLCZ W 4030y Postwar Czech Literature [in English]

A survey of postwar Czech fiction and drama. Knowledge of Czech not necessary. Parallel reading lists available in translation and in the original.

CLSL W 4030 Orthodoxy, Text, Ritual

A general introduction to the medieval literature of Slavia Orthodoxa, focusing on the relation between medieval text and ritual context. Close readings of selected works agaisnt a broad cultural background. Attention to ritual time and space and ritual performance, Eastern Orthodox monasticism and the cult of saints, manuscript vs. printed culture, orthodoxy vs. heteropraxis. Readings are in English (with a parallel list in the OCS for the most daring).

CLRS W 4032x Emancipation of Self in (Early 20th Century) Russia and the European Modern

A survey of the conceptual commonalities in 20th century Russia and Western European literature, art, architecture, theater, and music. Emphasis will be on the views of the Self, the relationship between matter and psyche, and reality and appearance, discussed in the context of Russian Symbolism, analytical psychology, and the Modern.
3 points

CLCZ W 4035x Writers of Prague [in English]

No knowledge of Czech required. A survey of the Czech, German, and German-Jewish literary cultures of Prague from 1910 to 1930. Emphasis on Hasek, Capek, Kafka, Werfel, and Rilke.

CLCZ W 4038y Prague Spring of '68 in Film and Literature [In English]

The course explores the unique period in Czech film and literature during the 1960s that emerged as a reaction to the imposed socialist realism. The new generation of writers (Kundera, Skvorecky, Havel, Hrabal) in turn had an influence on young emerging film makers, all of whom were part of the Czech new wave.

CLSS W 4100x Central Europe and the Orient in the Works of Yugoslav Writers [In English]

The course addresses the confrontation between East and West in the works of Vla Desnica, Miroslav Krleza, Mesa Semilovic, and Ivo Andric. Discussion will target problems inherent in shaping national and individual identity, as well as the trauma caused by occupation and colonization among the South Slavs.

CLPL W 4120 The Polish Short Story in a Comparative Context

The course examines the beginnings of the Polish short story in the 19th century and its development through the late 20th century, including exemplary works of major Polish writers of each period. It is also a consideration of the short story form--its generic features, its theoretical premises, and the way these respond to the stylistic and philosophical imperatives of successive periods.
3 points

CLRS W 4431x Theatricality and Spectacle in the History of Russian Culture [In English]

The course explores the notion of theatricality, its contradictory definitions, and its possible applications to Cultural Studies. It considers the place of both public spectacle and theatrical Event in Russian culture, traditionally considered theatrical as such. The study of public spectacles from 18th-century Court festivities, through 1920s Revolutionary festivals to the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games and the recent celebration of 300 years of Saint-Petersburg. In our exploration of Russian theater a special emphasis will be put on those figures that have been most influential for 20th-century theater and film in the West (Stanislavski, Meyerhold, Diaghilev, Evreinov, etc.). All the readings will be in English.

CLSL W 4900 Seminar In Theory: the Ineffable

A consideration of the ways that critics might attempt to address the untranslatable, the indescribable, and the unspeakable. Possible solutions range from the theories of the sublime to critical performance or process, to psychoanalysis and phenomenologies of reading. Works by Adorno, Longinus, Philostratus the Elder, Kant, Walter Pater, Roman Jakobson, Bakhtin, Maurice Blanchot, and others.
Not offered in 2009-2010.
3 points

CLSL W 4975x Soviet and Post-Soviet, Colonial and Post Colonial Film

The course will discuss how film making has been used as a vehicle of power and control in the Soviet Union and in post-Soviet space since 1991. A body of selected films by Soviet and post-Soviet directors that exemplify the function of film making as a tool of appropriation of the colonized, their cultural and political subordination by the Soviet center will be examined in terms of post-colonial theories. The course will also focus on the often over looked work of Ukrainian, Georgian, Belarusian, Armenian, etc. national film schools and how they participated in the communist project of fostering a as well as resisted it by generating, in hidden and, since 1991, overt and increasingly assertive ways, their own counter-narratives. - Y. Shevchuk
3 points

CLSL W 4995y Central European Jewish Writers

Examines prose and poetry by writers generally less accessible to the American student written in the major Central European languages: German, Hungarian, Czech, and Polish. The problematics of assimilation, the search for identity, political commitment and disillusionment are major themes, along with the defining experience of the century: the Holocaust; but because these writers are often more removed from their Jewishness, their perspective on these events and issues may be different. The influence of Franz Kafka on Central European writers, the post-Communist Jewish revival, defining the Jewish voice in an otherwise disparate body of works.