Fall 2007
Russian
Language Courses
Introductory
and Survey Courses Taught in English
Freshman
Seminars
Intermediate
and Seminar Courses Taught in English
Advanced
Courses Taught in Russian
Courses
for Russian-Speaking Students
Graduate
Level Courses
Slavic
Courses
Eastern
European
CGS
Courses
RUSS001 Elementary Russian I
001 MWF 10-11AM, TR 10:30-11:30AM
Shardakova M
002 MTWRF 3-4PM Oleinichenko
L
601 MW 6:30-9PM Oleinichenko
L (offered through CGS)
This course develops elementary skills in reading, speaking, understanding and writing the Russian language. We will work with an exciting range of authentic written materials, the Internet, videos and recordings relating to the dynamic scene of Russia today. At the end of the course students will be comfortable with the Russian alphabet and will be able to read simplified literary, ‘commercial’, and other types of texts (signs, menus, short news articles, short stories) and participate in elementary conversations about daily life (who you are, what you do every day, where you are from, likes and dislikes).
RUSS003
Intermediate Russian I
Prior language requirement required. Prerequisite(s): RUSS 002 or placement
exam.
001 MW 11 AM-12PM, TR 10:30-11:30AM
KORSHUNOVA S
002 MTWR 5-6PM OLEINICHENKO
L
601 TR 5-7PM OLEINICHENKO L
(offered through CGS)
This course will develop your ability to use the Russian language in the context of typical everyday situations, including university life, family, shopping, entertainment, etc. Role-playing, skits, short readings from literature and the current press, and video clips will be used to help students improve their language skills. At the end of the semester you will be able to read and write short texts about your daily schedule and interests, to understand brief newspaper articles, films and short literary texts, and to express your opinions in Russian. In combination with RUSS 004, this course prepares students to satisfy the language competency requirement.
RUSS107
Russian Outside the Classroom I
Previous language experience required
CANCELLED
The goal of RUSS 107 is to provide students of Russian language and Russian heritage speakers with formalized opportunities to improve their conversation and comprehension skills while experiencing various aspects of Slavic culture. There will be no weekly assignments or readings, but all students will be expected to contribute at a level equivalent to their Russian-speaking abilities both in class and on the newsletter final project. The course consists of attending 2 out of 3 hrs/week of lunch-time conversation (W/Th 12-1:30) in addition to a tea-drinking hour in the department (F 4-5pm), film viewings, and a single outside cultural event (e.g., concert of Russian music at the Kimmel Center).
RUSS108
Russian Outside the Classroom II
This is a class for those who have already taken RUSS107.
CANCELLED
RUSS311
Advanced Russian Conversation and Composition
Prerequisite(s): RUSS 004 or placement exam. Prior language experience
is required.
001 MWF 12-1PM SHARDAKOVA M
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.
RUSS412
19th Century: Romantics and Realists
Prior language experience required. Taught in Russian.
301 MW 2:00-3:30PM VERKHOLANTSEV J
Russian 412 combines advanced study of the Russian language with an examination of the fundamental literary movements and figures of nineteenth-century Russian literature and culture. Course materials include prosaic and poetic texts by Pushkin, Gogol', Lermontov, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, as well as films and art. Language work will be devoted to writings, syntactical and stylistic analysis, vocabulary, academic speech, and listening comprehension.
Courses for Russian-Speaking Students
RUSS360 Literacy in Russian I
001 MWF 10-11AM KORSHUNOVA S
This course is intended for students who have spoken Russian at home and seek to achieve proficiency in the language. Topics will include an intensive introduction to the Russian writing system and grammar, focusing on exciting materials and examples drawn from classic and contemporary Russian and emigre culture and social life. Students who complete this course in combination with RUSS 361 satisfy the language requirement in Russian. Students should have completed no more than three years of formal schooling in Russian, or the equivalent. Students who have attended Russian school for more than three years may be permitted to enroll with the instructor's permission.
RUSS401
Russian Poetics
DIST CRS ARTS & LET - CL OF 09 AND PRIOR
LITERATURES OF THE WORLD
CROSS CULTRL ANALYSIS - CL OF '10 & AFTER. Steiner. Prerequisite(s):
RUSS 311. Taught in Russian. Cross-listed: COLL220
402 TR 10:30-12NOON STEINER P
Introduction to the analysis of poetic texts, based on the works of Derzhavin, Tyutchev, Blok, Fet, Mayakovsky, and others.
RUSS468
Post-Soviet Russian Society
DIST CRS SOCIETY - CL OF 09 AND PRIOR
Bourlatskaya. Taught in Russian.
001 TR 1:30-3PM BOURLATSKAYA M
Russian 468 offers an introduction to contemporary Russian society, its historical background and its present political and economic structure. The course will focus on the political, economic and sociological developments in Russia from Perestroika (late 1980s) to Putin. The course will discuss the society's changing values, older and younger generations, political parties and movements, elections, the business community and its relations with the government, common perceptions of Westerners and Western society, and the role of women in the family and at work. Emphasis will be placed on the examination, interpretation and explanation of peoples behavior and their perception of democracy and reforms, facilitating comparison of Western and Russian social experience.
Classes will be conducted entirely in Russian. This advanced Russian-language course is intended primarily for students who have spoken Russian at home and who have gained competency in written Russian.
Introductory and Survey Courses Taught in English
RUSS048
Rise and Fall of Russian Empire
CROSS CULTRL ANALYSIS - CL OF '10 & AFTER
HIST & TRAD SECTOR (ALL CLASSES)
REGISTRATION REQUIRED FOR LEC, REC
401 LEC MW 10-11AM HOLQUIST
402 REC F 10-11AM STAFF
403 REC F 11-12NOON STAFF
404 REC R 4:30-5:30PM STAFF
How and why did Russia become the center of the world's largest empire, a single state encompassing eleven time zones and over a hundred ethnic groups? To answer this question, we will explore the rise of a distinct political culture beginning in medieval Muscovy, its transformation under the impact of a prolonged encounter with European civilization, and the various attempts to re-form Russia from above and below prior to the Revolution of 1917. Main themes include the facade vs. the reality of central authority, the intersection of foreign and domestic issues, the development of a radical intelligentsia, and the tension between empire and nation.
RUSS145
Russian Literature before 1870
All readings and lectures in English. Cross-Cultural Analysis (Class of'10
& and After). Arts and Letters Sector (All Classes).
001 TR 3-4:30PM STEINER P
Major Russian writers in English translation: Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev, early Tolstoy, and early Dostoevsky.
RUSS190
Terrorism: Russian Origins and 21 c. Methods
All readings and lectures in English
Distribution II: History and Tradition - Class of '09 and prior.
001 MW 2-3:30PM TODOROV V
This course studies the emergence of organized terrorism in nineteenth century Russia. It examines the philosophy of the terrorist struggle through its methods, causes, various codes, and manifestoes that defined its nature for the times to come. We critique intellectual movements such as nihilism, anarchism, and populism that inspired terrorism defining the political violence and disorder as beneficial acts. The issue of policing terrorism becomes central when we study a police experiment to infiltrate, delegitimize and ultimately neutralize the terrorist networks in late imperial Russia. The discussions draw on the ideology and political efficacy of the conspiratorial mode of operation, terrorist tactics such as assassination and hostage-taking, the cell structure of the groups and underground incognito of the strikers, their maniacal self-denial, revolutionary asceticism, underground mentality, faceless omnipotence, and other attributes-intensifiers of its mystique. We analyze the technology and phenomenology of terror that generate symmetrical disorganizing threats to any organized form of government and reveal the terrorist act as a sublime end as well as a lever for achieving practical causes. Our study traces the rapid proliferation of terrorism in the twentieth century and its impact on the public life in Western Europe, the Balkans, and America.
RUSS193
War and its Representation in Russia, Europe and the US
All readings and lectures in English
HUM & SOC SCI SECTOR (NEW CURR ONLY). Cross-listed: COML150, HIST149
401 TR 10:30AM -12NOON PLATT K
Representations of war are created for as many reasons as wars are fought: to legitimate armed conflict, to critique brutality, to vilify an enemy, to mobilize popular support, to generate national pride, etc. In this course we will examine a series of representations of war drawn from the literature, film, state propaganda, memoirs, visual art, etc. of Russia, Europe and the United States. We will pursue an investigation of these images of conflict and bloodshed in the larger context of the history of military technology, social life, and communications media over the last two centuries. Students will be expected to write two papers, take part in a group presentation on an assigned topic, and take a final exam. The goal of the course will be to gain knowledge of literary history in social and historical context, and to acquire critical skills for analysis of rhetoric and visual representations.
RUSS
197 Madness and Madmen In Russian Culture
All readings and lectures in English
HUM & SOC SCI SECTOR (NEW CURR ONLY). Cross-listed: COML197
401 TR 12-1:30PM VINITSKY I
This course will explore the theme of madness in Russian literature and arts from the medieval period through the October Revolution of 1917. The discussion will include formative masterpieces by Russian writers (Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, and Bulgakov), painters (Repin, Vrubel, Filonov), composers (Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, and Stravinsky), and film-directors (Protazanov, Eisenstein), as well as non-fictional documents such as Russian medical, judicial, political, and philosophical treatises and essays on madness.
RUSS213
Saints and Devils in Russian Literature and Tradition
Arts and Letters Sector (All Classes).
All readings and lectures in English. Cross-listed with COML213
and RELS 218.
401 MW 3:30 - 5PM VERKHOLANTSEV
This course is about Russian literature, which is populated with saints and devils, believers and religious rebels, holy men and sinners. In Russia, where people’s frame of mind had been formed by a mix of Eastern Orthodox Christianity and earlier pagan beliefs, the quest for faith, spirituality and the meaning of life has invariably been connected with religious matters. How can one find the right path in life? Is humility the way to salvation? Should one live for God or for the people? Does God even exist?
In “Saints and Devils,” we will examine Russian literature concerning the holy and the demonic as representations of good and evil, and we will learn about the historic trends that have filled Russia’s national character with religious and supernatural spirit. The founder of Russian absurdist and fantastic writing, Nikolai Gogol will teach us how to triumph over the devil. In Alexander Pushkin’s poetry and Anton Chekhov’s stories we will contemplate Russia’s ambivalent ideal of womanhood: as a poetic Madonna or as a sinful agent of the devil. Immersed in the world of Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov, we will follow the characters in their search of truth, belief and love for people. Leo Tolstoy, who founded his own religion, will teach us his philosophical and moral lessons. Finally, Mikhail Bulgakov will tell us his fantastic and devilish story of the Master and Pontius Pilote and we will see for ourselves that “A man will receive his deserts in accordance with his beliefs.”
In sum, in
the course of this semester we will talk about ancient cultural traditions,
remarkable works of art and the great artists who created them. All readings
and films are in English. Our primary focus will be on works by Pushkin,
Gogol, Lermontov, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Tolstoy, and Bulgakov.
Intermediate and Seminar Courses
RUSS202
Tolstoy
All readings and lectures in English
Distribution III: Arts & Letters - CLASS OF '09 AND PRIOR
Benjamin Franklin Seminars
301 TR 1:30 -3PM VINITSKY I
Readings will include WAR AND PEACE, ANNA KARENINA, and other works in translation; Tolstoy's innovations, his philosophy of history, and his theories of art.
RUSS299
Independent Study
See dept. for section numbers, permission needed from instructor
RUSS399
Supervised Work
See Dept. for section numbers
Permission needed from instructor
SLAV500
History of Literary Theory
All readings and lectures in English . Undergraduates need permission.
401 W 9AM-12NOON STEINER W
This course will traverse the history of aesthetics in order to understand the complexities of contemporary literary theory. In a sense, our subject is the fall-out of a paradox, virtuality, in its endless collisions with ideology. The syllabus will include such canonic figures as Plato, Aristotle, Longinus, Augustine, Sidney, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Saussure, Benjamin, Foucault, Baudrillard, Derrida, Said, Irigaray, and Butler (in general, authors found on the Comparative Literature examination list in theory). Course requirements: three short papers (7 pages), and a class presentation.
SLAV399 Independent Study
SLAV503
Intermediate Polish I
Offered through the Penn Language Center
680 MW 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. Warchol K
SLAV532
Intermediate Czech I
Offered through Penn Language Center
680 TR 6:30 p.m.- 8:45 p.m. Stejskal
SLAV590
Elementary Ukrainian I
Offered through Penn Language Center
680 MW 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. Rudnytzky
SLAV592
Intermediate Ukrainian I
Offered through Penn Language Center
CANCELLED
EEUR121 Elementary Hungarian I
TR 6-8PM MIZSEI A
EEUR123 Intermediate Hungarian I
TR 4:30-6PM MIZSEI A
EEUR125 Advanced Hungarian I
680 TBA MIZSEI A
RUSS001
Elementary Russian I
Crosslisted with RUSS-501
601 MW 6:30-9PM OLEINICHENKO L
RUSS003
Intermediate Russian I
Crosslisted with RUSS-503
601 TR 5-7PM OLEINICHENKO L
RUSS196
Russian Short Story
Distribution III: Arts & Letters - class of '09 and prior. Readings
and lectures in English.
601 LEC M 5:30-8:30PM TODOROV V
This course studies the development of 19th and 20th century Russian literature through one of its most distinct and highly recognized genres -- the short story. The readings include great masters of fiction such as Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Solzhenitsyn, and others. The course presents the best works of short fiction and situates them in a literary process that contributes to the history of a larger cultural-political context. Students will learn about the historical formation, poetic virtue, and thematic characteristics of major narrative modes such as romanticism, utopia, realism, modernism, socialist realism, and post-modernism. We critique the strategic use of various devices of literary representation such as irony, absurd, satire, grotesque, anecdote, etc. Some of the main topics and issues include: culture of the duel; the role of chance; the riddle of death; anatomy of madness; imprisonment and survival; the pathologies of St. Petersburg; terror and homo sovieticos.
RUSS426
Chekhov Stage & Screen
Distribution III: Arts & Letters - class of '09 and prior. Cross-listed:
CINE365.
601 T 5:30-8:30p.m. Zubarev
“What’s so funny, Mr. Chekhov?” This question is often asked by critics and directors who still are puzzled with Chekhov’s definition of his four major plays as comedies. Traditionally, all of them are staged and directed as dramas, melodramas, or tragedies.
Should we cry or should we laugh at Chekhovian characters who commit suicide, or are killed, or simply cannot move to a better place of living? Is the laughable synonymous to comedy and the comic? Should any fatal outcome be considered tragic?
All these and other questions will be discussed during the course.
The course is intended to provide the participants with a concept of dramatic genre that will assist them in approaching Chekhov’s plays as comedies.
In addition to reading Chekhov’s works, Russian and western productions and film adaptations of Chekhov’s works will be screened. Among them are, Vanya on 42nd Street with Andre Gregory, and Four Funny Families. Those who are interested will be welcome to perform and/or direct excerpts from Chekhov’s works.
RUSS501 Elementary Russian I
Crosslisted with RUSS001. Permission from the department is required.
601 MW 6:30-9PM OLEINICHENKO L
RUSS503
Intermediate Russian I
Crosslisted with RUSS003. Permission from the department is required.
601 TR 5-7PM OLEINICHENKO L
