Professors Decker (chair), Costlow, and Sweet; Associate Professors Browne, Strong (on leave, fall semester), and Yang; Assistant Professors Wender and Zou; Instructor Miao; Lecturers Neu-Sokol (on leave, winter semester), Ofuji, and Pesenson

Students of German, Russian, and East Asian languages gain particular insight into peoples whose lives are in the process of unprecedented change. The curricula in Chinese, Japanese, German, and Russian emphasize the interconnections of society, culture, and language. They assert the vitality of traditions challenged and invigorated by change, and the importance of attaining fluency not just in language but in the nuances of cultural understanding. The department offers majors in Chinese, German, Japanese, and Russian language and literature.

Secondary Concentration. A secondary concentration can be pursued in all languages offered. Application for a secondary concentration should be made to the chair of the department. A secondary concentration requires a minimum of seven courses in the given language (or six courses and a designated Short Term unit). At least one of the seven courses must involve a study of literature or culture (taught either in the language or in translation), but only one course in translation may be counted toward the concentration. A student may petition to have up to three comparable courses, completed at other institutions either in the United States or abroad, apply toward the secondary concentration.

All students, and especially majors, are strongly encouraged to spend an extended period of time abroad prior to graduation. Opportunities to do so include participation in the Bates Fall Semester Abroad programs in Austria, China, Japan, Germany, and Russia; junior year or junior semester abroad programs; summer sessions; and the various off-campus Short Term units sponsored by the department.

Entering students are assigned to the appropriate level in language courses according to the following criteria: their performance on a SAT II or Advanced Placement Test of the College Entrance Examination Board taken in secondary school, relative proficiency based on length of previous study, and/or after consultation with an appropriate member of the department.

Foreign Literatures and Cultures in Translation. While the department emphasizes the importance of acquiring the fluency needed to study literature and culture in the original, many courses are offered in translation. See listings under individual languages for detailed descriptions of these courses.

CHI 207. Masterworks of Chinese Literature in Translation.
CHI 209. Modern China through Film and Fiction.
CHI 210. Masculinity and Criminality in Chinese Literature and Cinema.
CHI 261. Self and Society in Chinese Culture: Classics and Folk Tales
AS/CI 330. Chinese Culture and Agrarian Society.
CHI s30. Chinese Calligraphy and Etymology.

GER 230. Individual and Society.
GER 290. Nietzsche, Kafka, Goethe.
GER s24. Monsters: Imagining the Other.
GER s25. The German Cinema.

AS/JA 125. Japanese Literature and Society.
JPN 208. Modern Japanese Literature: Texts and Context.
AS/JA 210. Heterogeneous Japan.
JPN 240. Japanese Literature: A Survey.
JA/WS 255. Modern Japanese Women's Literature.
ES/JA 290. Nature in East Asian Literature.
ES/JA 320. Haiku and Nature in Japan.
JPN s25. Haiku Poetry.
JPN s26. Japanese Popular Culture.

RUSS 105. Fantasy and Realism in Russian Literature.
RUSS 125. Modern Russia through Fiction and Film.
RUSS 240. Women and Russia.
RUSS 261. Russian Culture.
RUSS 270. Nineteenth-Century Russian Literature.
RUSS 271. Topics in Modern Russian Literature.
RUSS 275. Literature and Politics in Russia.
RUSS 276. Dostoevsky and the Culture of Crisis.
ES/RU 314. "Nature" in Russian Culture.
RUSS s22. Tolstoy's War and Peace.
RUSS s24. Rock: The Triumph of Vulgarity.
RUSS s26. Russian and Soviet Film.

General Education. Any one Short Term unit from the Department of German, Russian, and East Asian Languages and Literatures may be used as an option for the fifth humanities course. First-Year Seminars 247, 278 and 280 may count toward the humanities requirement.

Chinese

Japanese

German

Russian

Other Foreign Languages

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Last Modified: 8/6/03 by Tins