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

Grammar, reading, composition, and conversation.
5 points

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

Must be taken concurrently with RUSS V1101-V1102. - A. Smyslova
Corequisites: RUSS V1101-V1102 Not offered in 2012-2013.
1 point

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

Drill practice in small groups. Reading, composition, and grammar review.
Prerequisites: RUSS V1102 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 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. This course will be offered in academic year, 2013 - 2014.
Not offered in 2012-2013.
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. - M. Kashper
Prerequisites: Three years of college Russian and the instructor's permission.
4 points

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

This is a language course designed to meet the needs of those foreign learners of Russian as well as heritage speakers who want to further develop their reading, listening, speaking, and writing skills and be introduced to the history of Russia.
Prerequisites: Three years of Russian
3 points

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. Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points

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. - I. Reyfman
Prerequisites: RUSS W4334 or the equivalent or the instructor's permission. Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points

RUSS G 4910x Literary Translation

Workshop in literary translation from Russian into English focusing on the practical problems of the craft. Each student submits a translation of a literary text for group study and criticism. The aim is to produce translations of publishable quality. - Ron Meyer
Prerequisites: Four years of college Russian or the equivalent.
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. - L. Knapp
3 points

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 fasting, 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
Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points

CLRS V 3300y Four Qixotes

The critics who dislike Don Quixote the novel far outnumber those who dislike Don Quixote the character. Some cast doubt on Cervantes as a literary craftsman, questioning the degree of prescience and self-consciousness that seems to make this seventeenth-century work "modern." The Philosopher and writer Miguel de Unamuno is the standard-bearer for those who argue that it is the character of Don Quixote - rather than author's writing style - that has made this work so fruitful. The classic translator of Cervantes into English, Samuel Putman, follows suit, citing the novel's myriad of mistakes and incongruities as evidence that its success is based on Don Quixote's charms. Even the most scathing Cervantes critic, Vladimir Nabokov, who found the novel "cruel and crude." found Don himself sympathetic.
Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points

CLRS V 3301y Angry Young Decade: 1955 - 1965 In Russia, Poland, USA & England

This course will consider the literature and film of Russia, Poland, the USA and England during 1955-1965, focusing specifically on the phenomenon of literary movements of angry young writers rebelling against a stagnant tradition. We will also read various autobiographical accounts from writers who explain, from their insider's view, how the various movements started, how they influenced each other, and why and how they came to an end. The primary goal of this course is to acquaint students with literature they most likely have never encountered, and with films they may never have seen before, but which are essential components in the development of prose and cinema not only in the four countries of our studies, but across borders, oceans, and even decades.
3 points

CLRS W 4190y Race, Ethnicity, and Narrative, in the Russian/Soviet Empire

This course examines the literary construction of ethnic and cultural identity in texts drawn from the literatures of ethnic minorities and non-Slavic nationalities that coexist within the Russian and Soviet imperial space, with attention to the historical and political context in which literary discourses surrounding racial, ethnic, and cultural particularity develop. Organized around three major regions -- the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Russian Far East --readings include canonical "classics" by Aitmatov, Iskander, and Rytkheu as well as less-known texts, both "official" and censored.
Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points

HSSL W 4280x Religion in Russia: Culture, History, Institutions

From Prince Valdimir's Rus' to the Post-Soviet Russia of Vladimir Putin, religion has remained a key factor in the making and remaking of Russian policy and culture. This course will explore how Orthodox Christianity - whether privileged or persecuted - came to dominate the Russian religious scene, while also addressing the share of Islam, Judaism, Catholicism, and other religious traditions in shaping Russian institutions, discourses and lived experiences. Popular religion, cutting across various confessions and producing peculiar hybrids, will be of special interest, and so will be the proliferations of schisms within established religious groups. Students will draw from a variety of primary and secondary sources - chronicles, saints' lives, travel narratives, memoirs, letters, legal documents, icons and other ritual objects, newspaper accounts and photographs, films and fiction texts, as well as a large body of scholarly works - to examine how Russia's religious past and its rewriting into competing "histories" have been used over time as "legacies" shaping the present and the future. Knowledge of Russian is not required, although ability to consult original Russian sources is expected from students who pursue a degree in Russian history or Russian literature and culture.
Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points

RUSS W 4309y Nineteenth -Century Narrative Dilemmas

This course will explore narrative strategies developed by Russian authors as they created a literary tradition that would change the world. Starting with Pushkin's first completed prose work, we will explore how narrative frames, structures, genre, and authorial choices contribute to textual explorations of identity, responsibility, love, violence and revenge. Texts covered will include: Pushkin's "Tales of Belkin," Lermontov's, "Hero of Our Time", Gogol's "The Diary of a Madman,"The Nose," and "The Overcoat," Dostoevsky's "The Double and Demons, Tolstoy's "War and Peace", and Leskov's "The Enchanted Wanderer." No knowledge of Russian required.
Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points

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 3224x Nabokov

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

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

Two years of college Russian or the instructor's permission. 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. A close study in the original of the "scary stories" in Russian literature from the late eighteenth century. Conducted in Russian.
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. Not offered in 2012-2013.
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. - M. Kashper
Prerequisites: Five semesters of classroom Russian or the equivalent and the instructor's permission Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points

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 4014y 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. - K. Lodge
3 points

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 4338y Chteniia po russkoi literature: Voina i mir

The course is devoted to reading and discussing of Tolstoy's masterpiece. Classes are conducted entirely in Russian
Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points

RUSS W 4339y Chteniia po russkoi literature: Pushkin

A survey of Alexander Pushkin's poetry and prose in the original. Emphasis on the emergence of a new figure of the Poet in Russin in the 1820-1830s. Linguistic analysis of the poetic texts (vocabulary, metrics, versification) will be combined with the study of Russian History and Culture as reflected in Pushkin's writings. - Tatiana Smolyarova
Prerequisites: Three years of college Russian and the instructor's permission.
Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points

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. - F. Miller
Prerequisites: Three years of college Russian or the equivalent Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points

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

The purpose of this course is to acquaint structure with traditional folk beliefs that are part of Russian life today. Readings will include descriptions of character ritual folk beliefs as well as narratives about personal experiences concerning superstition, sorcery and the supernatural. Also included will be folktales that most Russians know and contemporary Russian folk narratives.
Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points

RUSS W 4348x Chteniia po russkoi kul'ture: Advanced Russian Through the Media

This course is designed to meet the needs of advanced students of Russian across several fields - the humanities, social sciences, law, arts, and others - who want to further develop their speech, comprehension, reading, and writing and be introduced to the contemporary Russian media. This addition to our series of courses in Advanced Russian through cultural content provides training for research and professional work in Russian.
Prerequisites: Three years of college Russian or the equivalent
3 points

RUSS W 4349y Chteniia po russkoi kul'ture: Advanced Russian Through Song

This is a content-based language course that is designed to develop students' ability to understand fluent Russian speech and express their opinions on various social and cultural topics in both oral and written form.
Prerequisites: Three Years of College Russian or the equivalent
3 points

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.

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 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. - A. Frajlich-Zajac
Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points

POLI G 4042x 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. - Anna Frajlich-Zajac
3 points

CLCZ G 4049y Twentieth Century Polish Poetry

Students will be able to learn about the Polish literary scene and its dynamics and most of all read and analyze the most representative texts of the particular poets. The main goal of this course will be reading and comprehension of the text in original.
Prerequisites: Reading proficiency in Polish
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.

CLPL W 4300y Unbound and Post Dependent: The Polish Novel After 1989

This seminar is designed to offer an overview of Post-1989 Polish prose. The literary output of what is now called post-dependent literature demonstrates how political transformations influenced social and intellectual movements and transformed the narrative genre itself. The aesthetic and formal developments in Polish prose will be explored as a manifestation of a complex phenomenon bringing the reassesment of national myths, and cultural aspirations. Works by Dorota Maslowska, Andrzej Stasiuk, Pawel Huelle, Olga Tokarczuk, Magdalena Tulli and others will be read and discussed. Knowledge of Polish not required.
Not offered in 2012-2013.
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.

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

Hungarian cinema, like film-making 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 Kadarist period, with special emphasis on the work of such internationally known filmmakers as Miklos Jancso, Karoly Makk, Marta Meszaros, and Istvan Szabo. 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.
Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points

SLLN G 4005x 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. - A. Timberlake
3 points

SLCL W 3001x Slavic Cultures

The history of Slavic peoples - Russians, Czechs, Poles, Serbs, Croats, Ukrainians, Bulgarians - is rife with transformations, some voluntary, some imposed. Against the background of a schematic external history, this course examines how Slavic peoples have responded to and have represented these transformations in various modes: historical writing, hagiography, polemics, drama and fiction, folk poetry, music, visual art, and film. Activity ranges over lecture (for historical background) and discussion (of primary sources).
Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points

RUSS V 3319y Masterpieces of 19th Century Russian Literature

A close study, in the original, of representative works by Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Turgenev, Ostrovsky, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, leskov, and Chekhov.
3 points

CLSL W 4003y 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. - I. Sanders
General Education Requirement: Literature (LIT).
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.
General Education Requirement: Literature (LIT).
3 points

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.
Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points

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

Explores the issue of Yugoslav identity through the representative texts of major Serbian writers, such as Milos Crnjanski, Ivo Andric, Danilo Kis, Milorad Pavic, and Borislav Pekic.
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. - C. Popkin
Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points

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. Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points

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

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.
Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points

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. - C. Harwood
3 points

CLCZ W 4035x The Writers of Prague

A survey of the Czech, German, and German-Jewish literary cultures of Prague from 1910 to 1920. Special attention to Hašek, Čapek, Kafka, Werfel, and Rilke. Parallel reading lists available in English and in the original.
3 points

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. - C. Harwood
Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points

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. - R. Gorup
Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points

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.
Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points

RUSS W 4332y Chteniia po russkoi literature: Turgenev

The course is devoted to reading shorter prose works by Ivan Turgenev. The reading list includes stories from his collection "Sketches of a Hunter" as well as such masterpieces as "The Diary of a Superfluous Man", "First Love", and "Asia." Classes are conducted entirely in Russian
3 points

RUSS W 4339y Chteniia po russkoi literature: Pushkin

Poetry and prose of Pushkin. Readings and discussion in Russian.
Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points

RUSS W 4431y Theatricality and Spectacle in the History of Russian Culture

A survey of Russian Cultural History from the late 17th Century to the present day, focused on the problems of Theater and Performance, their place in the system of power and in the structure of everyday life. Alongside with the history of Russian Theater, various manifestations of theatricality, from the 18th century Court Festivals to the Moscow Olympiad of 1980, will be studied. Readings will include milestones of Russian drama (plays by Pushkin, Gogol, Ostrovski, Chekhov, Bulgakov), theater manifestos by Stanislavski, Meierhold, Evreinov , as well as selected issues in contemporary cultural, architectural and visual theory (works by R. Barthes, M. Carlson, A.Vidler, M. Fried). All readings will be in English.
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
Not offered in 2012-2013.
3 points

CLSL W 4995x Central European Jewish Literature: Assimilation and Its Discontents

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. - I. Sanders
3 points