Fall 2002 Courses
Russian
Fall 2002
Slavic Fall 2002
RUSS
001 - Elementary Russian I
001 Oleinichenko MTWRF 10:00-11:00am, 203 Williams
002 Oleinichenko MTWRF 3:00-4:00pm, 203 Williams
601 Vassilieva MW 5:00-7:00pm, 741 Williams (Offered through College
of General Studies)
This exciting course is based on the daily experiences of a young American in Moscow who interacts with his peers in the vastly changing Russia of the mid-1990s. Situations and culture-based throughout, the course is based on a video-film where all episodes are connected by an engaging plot line. Together with the characters, students learn how to rent an apartment, eat out, go shopping, visit friends in the country, plus all the basics of speaking, reading, writing, and listening.
RUSS
003 - Intermediate Russian I
Prerequisite(s): RUSS 001 and 002 or placement exam.
001 Oleinichenko MTWR 12:00-1:00PM
002
Vaganova MTWR 3:00-4:00PM
601
Zubarev TR 4:00-6:00PM, 203 Williams (Offered through College
of General Studies)
This course will develop your vocabulary and grammar in the context of typical everyday situations, including sight-seeing, university life, shopping, and the doctor's office. Role-playing, skits, short readings from literature and the current press, and video clips will be used to help students reach a solid intermediate level of proficiency in speaking, reading, writing, and listening. In combination with RUSS 004, prepares students for passing the proficiency requirement.
RUSS
022 - Terrorism: Russian Origins - 21c. Methods
001 Todorov MW 3:00-4:30pm, Myerson B3
This
course studies the emergence of terrorism: its origin, conspiratorial
mode of operation and various codes. It examines the stunning originality
of the Russian 19th and 20th century terrorism as a political and cultural
phenomenon, and traces its rapid expansion and influence on the political
life in the West, and on the Balkans. Historical and political approaches
converge in the discussion of several case studies on the background
of intellectual movements like nihilism, anarchism, populism, and others.
The course discusses the idea and the political efficacy of the conspiratorial
mode of action. The constitutional elements and major attributes of
terrorist activism are analyzed as powerful intensifiers of its public-political
effect: ascetic appearance; self-denial, revolutionary aura, underground
mentality, mystification. The course traces the historical genealogy
of terrorism, with a special attention to its striking phenomenology,
which reveals the terrorist act as an end in itself as well as an ultimate
leverage for achieving higher causes.
RUSS 031 - Russian Literature
to the 1870's
001
Steiner TR 3:00-4:30PM, 202 Willams
Major Russian writers in English translation: Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev, early Tolstoy, and early Dostoevsky.
RUSS 105 - Introduction to Russian
Civilization I
Vaganova TR 3:00-4:30PM
How can Russian's past help us to understand Russian today? How do such deeply rooted traditions as autocracy, rebellion, reform, religion and folk ways continue to influence modern Russian society, political thought, and culture? This course will investigate such questions by looking at the roots and development of Russian society. It will examine a wide range of cultural expression that spans the period from the origins of Rus' through the early Nineteenth century. Particular emphasis will be placed on the interconnections between art, architecture, literature, religion, and thought. Attention will also be paid to the myth, ritual, and world-view of the Russian peasantry and its role in modern Russian life. Topics to be addressed include views of national and cultural identity, ethnicities, westernization, the dialog between "high culture" and "folk culture," religion, and the cult of personality. Films will be used occasionally.
RUSS 202 - Tolstoy: National
Identity and Private Life in 19c Russia
001
Platt TR 1:30-3:00pm, 218 Williams
All readings and discussion in English.
The grand problem of Russian national identity and the intimate realm of human sexuality were among the most prominent focuses of Tolstoy's attention throughout his literary career. A large number of his works use military conflict, both that of the Russian imperial expansion in Central Asia and that of the Napoleonic Wars, as a stage for the elaboration of national identity. Many other of his writings seek to make sense of sex and the family in Russia's rapidly modernizing society. In "Tolstoy: National Identity and Private Life in 19th-Century Russia" we will bring critical thought on nationality, gender and modernity to bear on these two topics.
Primary readings will include Tolstoy's classic novel War and Peace and a selection of shorter works. The goals of the course will include: comprehension of Tolstoy's vision of social body, the human body and the relation between the two.
RUSS 203 - Chekhov on
Stage and Screen
001
Zubarev TR 1:30- 3:00pm, 203 Williams
Chekhov was one of the great innovators in drama and prose in the 20th century. This new course investigates the uniqueness of his art by focusing on the relationship between the comic and tragic in his plays and stories. Consideration will be given to Russian and western productions and film adaptations of his works, including a new screen adaptation of Uncle Vanya - "Uncle Vanya on 42nd Street." Performance theory and strategies for directing and reading Chekhov will also be addressed.
RUSS 225 - Russian History
in Film
Todorov MW 4:30 - 6:00PM
This course draws on the fictional, drama and cinematic representation of the Russian history based on Russian as well as non Russian sources and interpretations. The analysis targets major modes of imagining, such as narrating, showing and reenacting historical events, personae and epochs justified by different, historically mutating ideological postulates and forms of national self-consciousness. Common stereotypes of picturing Russia from "foreign" perspectives draw special attention. The discussion involves the following themes and outstanding figures: the mighty autocrats Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, and Catherine the Great; the tragic ruler Boris Godunov; the brazen rebel and royal impostor Pugachov; the notorious Rasputin, his uncanny powers, sex-appeal, and court machinations; Lenin and the October Revolution; images of war; the times of construction and the times of collapse of the Soviet Colossus.
RUSS 299 - Independent Study
Staff
RUSS 311 - Russian Conversation
and Composition I
Prerequsite(s): RUSS 004 or placement exam. Prior language experience
is required.
Vaganova, time TBA
This course develops students' skills in speaking and writing about topics in Russian literature, contemporary society, politics, and everyday life. Topics include women, work and family; sexuality; the economic situation; environmental problems; and life values. Materials include selected short stories by 19th and 20th century Russian authors, video-clips of interviews, excerpts from films, and articles from the Russian media. Continued work on grammar and vocabulary building.
RUSS
399 - Supervised work
Staff
RUSS 401 - Russian Poetics
(A) Distribution III: May be counted as a Distributional course in Arts
& Letters. Prerequisite(s): RUSS 312.
001:
Steiner TR 1:30 - 3:00pm, 216 Williams
Introduction to the analysis of poetic texts, based on the works of Derzhavin, Tyutchev, Blok, Fet, Mayakovsky, and others.
RUSS 405 - 19c Dreams to 20c
Angst: Readings in the Russian Short Story
001: Bourlatskaya TR 10:30 - 12:00pm, 328 Benn.
Prerequisite(s): RUSS 312 or placement exam.
Russian writers have always been concerned about the role of literature in society and in the lives of its readers. This new course examines the Russian short story from the 19th century to the present day in the context of social and cultural movements. How has the short story reflected the realities of Russian life? Selected stories by Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Leskov, Chekhov, Rasputin, Tokareva, Petrushevskaya, Pelevin, and Vasilenko will serve as the basis for analysis and discussion. All reading and discussions are in Russian.
SLAV
106- Cybermonks and Hypertexts
301
Romanchuk TR 3:00 - 4:30 pm, DRLB 3C6
All readings and discussion in English
Did the medieval readers of the Eastern Roman Empire invent hypertext? Are bestsellers in the form of dictionaries, crossword puzzles, hourglasses, tarot decks and menus as post-modern as mtv2 or as pre-modern as the 2nd Sophistic? Reading the delirious and delicious novels, plays and stories of Milorad Pavic forward and backward, in books and on cd-rom, you will rediscover the startlingly contemporary reading habits of the medieval monk and the late antique origins of the most up-to-date "hyperfiction."
SLAV 399 - Independent Study
Staff
SLAV 503 - Intermediate Polish I
Prerequisite(s): SLAV 501 - 502 or placement.
Sachs TR 6:30-8:30PM
Emphasis on vocabulary building, conversation and reading skills. Grammar review.
SLAV 532 - Intermediate Czech I Prerequisite(s): SLAV 531 or placement.
Stejskal TR 6:30-8:00PM
Emphasis on vocabulary building, conversation and reading skills. Grammar review.
