Russian

[For more information about major requirements, see German, Russian, and East Asian Languages and Literature]

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 student’s course work).

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, Staff.

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. 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 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 marred 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. Staff.

273. “Nature” in Russian Culture. Why are “Mother Russia” and the “Rodina” (“Motherland”) so deeply associated with the world of nature? How has the geography of the steppe -- boundless and undifferentiated -- affected the Russian psyche? How have pre-Christian nature religions coexisted with official beliefs in Russia? How have serfdom, collectivization, environmental degradation, and the “spirituality of the village” helped to shape Russian prose, poetry, and film? The course focuses primarily on the twentieth century, exploring the meanings of “nature” in Russian “culture.” Conducted in English. Open to first-year students. J. Costlow.

283. From Chekhov to the Revolution. The early twentieth century is a period of unprecedented experimentation and energy in Russian culture: symbolists, Marxists, god-builders, futurists, and neo-realists envision Russia in crisis, on the eve of momentous political and social changes. Students trace some of those visions in the work of Bely, Bunin, Chekhov, and Gorky, and in Russia’s first generation of great women writers; some attention is given to visual and musical culture and to experimentation in the theater. Texts, lectures, and discussions in English. Students proficient in Russian are encouraged to do some reading in the original. Conducted in English. Open to first-year students. J. Costlow.

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. J. Costlow, Staff.

360. Independent Study. Independent study of individually selected topics. Periodic conferences and papers are required. Permission of the department is required. Students are limited to 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 viewing of contemporary Russian films. Conducted in Russian. Prerequisite(s): Russian 302. 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

s21. A Balkan Tale of Two Cities. After a week-long orientation on campus, students travel to Belgrade, Yugoslavia and Zagreb, Croatia to interview life-long residents about their native cities. The last week of Short Term is spent on campus where the material gathered in the interviews is used to produce both radio and video documentaries about life in Belgrade and Zagreb in the last half of the twentieth century. All participants are expected to participate in a public presentation of the documentaries at the end of Short Term. Conducted in English. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 12. D. Browne.

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 “MacMusic” 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 in English. J. Costlow.

s50. Individual Research. Registration in this unit is granted by the department only after the student has submitted a written proposal for a full-time research project to be completed during the Short Term and has secured the sponsorship of a member of the department to direct the study and evaluate results. Students are limited to one individual research unit. Staff.

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