[German, Russian, and East Asian Languages and Literature]

Major Requirements. Students may major in either Russian literature and culture or Russian studies. The department expects students in either field of study to have broad exposure to Russian language and culture, and strongly encourages majors to spend some portion of an academic year in Russia by the end of the junior year.

To fulfill the major in Russian literature and culture, students complete any seven courses from the language sequence and four courses from the literature/culture offerings. Majors may substitute one related course in either political science or history for a literature/culture course.

To fulfill the requirements for Russian studies, students complete eleven courses: five from the language sequence, Political Science 232, History 222, any Russian literature/culture course, and three electives from the offerings in Russian literature/culture or History 221.

Students may petition to have appropriate Short Term unit(s) count toward either major. Students in either field of study have the option of writing a senior thesis or taking a comprehensive examination some time during their last semester (comprehensive examinations are based on the students course work).

Pass/Fail Grading Option. Pass/fail grading may be elected for courses applied toward the major or secondary concentration.

Courses
101–102. Elementary Russian I and II. An introduction to Russian language and culture with an emphasis on communicative skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students also experience the variety and richness of modern Russia through authentic texts including music, film and television excerpts, and selected items from recent newspapers. Conducted in Russian. D. Browne.

125. Modern Russia through Film and Fiction. This course, taught in English, explores Russia in the twentieth century through short fiction, memoir, and film. From avant-garde film explorations of the revolutionary era to the aesthetic and moral quests of post-Stalinist film makers; from women's accounts of life in the thirties to post-Soviet writers' attempts to find new foundations for Russia without communism; from the official optimism of the thirties to the tragic heroism of WWII, this course offers students a chance to learn more about the Soviet experiment, its achievements and costs. J. Costlow. New course beginning 2002-2003.

201–202. Intermediate Russian I and II. A continuation of Russian 101–102 focusing on vocabulary acquisition and greater control of more complex and extended forms of discourse. Greater emphasis is placed on students' creative use of Russian to express themselves orally and in writing. Prerequisite(s): Russian 102. Conducted in Russian. Open to first-year students. T. Sorochenko, J. Costlow.

240. Women and Russia. How have Russian women left their mark on the twentieth century—and how has it shaped their lives? Why are contemporary Russian women—inheritors of a complicated legacy of Soviet "emancipation"—so resistant to Western feminism? What sources of nourishment and challenge do Russian women find in their own cultural traditions? This course examines some of the great works of twentieth-century Russian writing—autobiography, poetry, novellas, and short fiction—and considers central representations of women in film, in order to understand how women have lived through the upheavals of what Anna Akhmatova called the "True Twentieth Century." Conducted in English. Open to first-year students. J. Costlow.

261. Russian Culture. A topical survey of Russian culture as realized in a number of social institutions including the family, the church, the popular media, and the arts. Particular attention is given to texts emphasizing both the real and imagined role the urban environment plays in shaping Russian identity. Conducted in English. Open to first-year students. D. Browne.

270. Nineteenth-Century Russian Literature. An introduction to the nineteenth-century novel and short story, with readings from such authors as Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Chekhov. Conducted in English. Open to first-year students. J. Costlow.

271. Topics in Modern Russian Literature. In the twentieth century, Russian literature has continued its tradition as one of the great world literatures by producing several outstanding and influential authors. However, Russia has experienced violent political upheavals and has been plagued by some of the most tragic abuses of human rights and freedom of speech. The authors discussed share one common fate: the inability to publish their works in the Soviet Union. Some, like Solzhenitsyn and Sinyavsky, were imprisoned and subsequently exiled, while others, like Bulgakov and Pasternak, were silenced in their Motherland. The course traces the effects of censorship through the seventy-four-year reign of the Soviet empire. Conducted in English. Open to first-year students. J. Costlow.

275. Literature and Politics in Russia. Since at least the eighteenth century, literature in Russia has been deeply intertwined with the political. Fiction and poetry have recorded meanings that state censorship outlawed; writers have used memoirs and literary reviews to discuss Russia's "accursed problems"—everything from serfdom and women's rights to anti-Semitism and the war in Afghanistan. This course explores the relationship between writers and the political, focusing on four topics: nineteenth-century radicalism; Russian's imperial presence in the Caucasus and Central Asia; the Bolshevik revolution and the inception of socialist realism; and post-Stalinist dissidence. This course is conducted in English. Open to first-year students. J. Costlow. New course beginning Winter 2002 semester.

301–302. Advanced Russian I and II. This sequence completes the essentials of contemporary colloquial Russian. Students read short unabridged texts in both literary and journalistic styles, and write one- and two-page papers on a variety of topics. Conducted in Russian. Prerequisite(s): Russian 202. Open to first-year students. D. Browne.

306. Advanced Russian Culture and Language. This course develops oral fluency and aural acuity as well as reading and writing skills through directed and spontaneous classroom activities and individual and collaborative written assignments. Conversations and compositions are based on literary and nonliterary texts, feature films, and documentary films. Prerequisite(s): Russian 202. Open to first-year students. T. Sorochenko.

314. "Nature" in Russian Culture. How does a given culture understand and represent its relationship to the specific geography of its place in the world? This course explores the cultural landscape of Russia, through a broad range of literary works, visual images, and ethnographic studies. Students explore some of the following issues: the relationship between geography and national identity; the political uses of cultural landscape; the interaction of agriculture, official religion, and traditional belief in peasant culture; and the role of class and revolutionary reimaginings of nature in the Soviet era. Conducted in English. Prerequisite(s): one course in Russian literature or Environmental Studies 212. This course is the same as Environmental Studies 314. J. Costlow.

360. Independent Study. Students, in consultation with a faculty advisor, individually design and plan a course of study or research not offered in the curriculum. Course work includes a reflective component, evaluation, and completion of an agreed-upon product. Sponsorship by a faculty member in the program/department, a course prospectus, and permission of the chair is required. Students may register for no more than one independent study per semester. Staff.

365. Special Topics. Designed for the small seminar group of students who may have particular interests in areas of study that go beyond the regular course offerings. Periodic conferences and papers are required. Conducted in Russian. Written permission of the instructor is required. Staff.

401–402. Contemporary Russian I and II. The course is designed to perfect students' ability to understand and speak contemporary, idiomatic Russian. Included are readings from Aksyonov, Dovlatov, Shukshin, and Baranskaya and viewings of contemporary Russian films. Conducted in Russian. Prerequisite(s): Russian 302. T. Sorochenko, Staff.

457, 458. Senior Thesis. Open only to senior majors, with departmental permission. Students register for Russian 457 in the fall semester and for Russian 458 in the winter semester. Before registering for 457 or 458 a student must present to the department an acceptable plan, including an outline and a tentative bibliography, after discussion with a department member. Majors writing an honors thesis register for both Russian 457 and 458. Staff.

Short Term Units
s22. Tolstoy's War and Peace. An intensive reading of the novel as fiction and history. Supplementary readings include basic criticism, history, memoirs, letters, and other primary documents. The novel is read in English. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 15. Staff.

s23. Russian Language and Culture in Russia. Language study with Russian instructors in Oryol. Excursions to points of historical and cultural interest, and the opportunity to become familiar with Russian life through home stays. Open to students with no previous knowledge of Russian. Enrollment limited to 12. J. Costlow.

s24. Rock: The Triumph of Vulgarity. "America has perfected the rites of vulgar Romantic pantheism. It gives them to an astonished world. And the music of its ritual is rock" (Robert Pattison, The Triumph of Vulgarity). Through individual and collaborative work, students in this unit test Pattison's hypothesis that the aesthetic of rock is that of vulgar Romanticism triumphant. They also examine the nature of rock in the non-English-speaking world: is rock the "McMusic" of the late twentieth century? Materials for the unit include texts, documentaries, fiction films, and ear-splitting rock and roll. Knowledge of a foreign language and culture is desirable, but not a requirement. Open to first-year students. D. Browne.

s26. Russian and Soviet Film. From the early years of the Soviet avant-garde to the post-Stalinist era of covert critique, Russian film of the twentieth century offers an intriguing and important perspective on Soviet and post-Soviet life. This unit explores the avant-garde cinema of Eisenstein and Pudovkin, the propaganda films of the 1930s, the representation of World War II in Soviet film, the aesthetic and moral quests of post-Stalinist filmmakers, and new directions in filmmaking of the last decade. Films in Russian and other Soviet languages, with subtitles. All reading and writing is in English. J. Costlow.

s50. Independent Study. Students, in consultation with a faculty advisor, individually design and plan a course of study or research not offered in the curriculum. Course work includes a reflective component, evaluation, and completion of an agreed-upon product. Sponsorship by a faculty member in the program/department, a course prospectus, and permission of the chair is required. Students may register for no more than one independent study during a Short Term. Staff.

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Last Modified: 3/18/02 by mkm