Spring 2013 COURSES! Looking for an elective? Check out our list of exciting courses with NO PREREQUISITES for Spring 2013! The courses listed below require no prior knowledge of Russian or any other Slavic language. All that's required is your own interest and enthusiasm for learning more about the rich cultural and literary traditions of the Slavic peoples.

RUSS V3221. Literature and Revolution (20th century).
Prof. Emma Lieber. TR 1:10 - 2:25
Knowledge of Russian not required. Survey of Russian literature from symbolism to the culture of high Stalinism and post-Socialist realism of the 1960s and 1970s, including major works by Bely, Blok, Olesha, Babel, Bulgakov, Platonov, Zoshchenko, Kharms, Kataev, Pasternak, and Erofeev. Literature viewed in a multi-media context featuring music, avant-garde and post-avant-garde visual art, and film.

RUSS V3222. Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.
Prof. Liza Knapp. MW 10:10 - 11:25
Two epic novels, Tolstoy's War and Peace and Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, will be read along with selected shorter works. Other works by Tolstoy include his early Sebastopol Sketches, which changed the way war is represented in literature; Confession, which describes his spiritual crisis; the late stories "Kreutzer Sonata" and "Hadji Murad"; and essays on capital punishment and a visit to a slaughterhouse. Other works by Dostoevsky include his fictionalized account of life in Siberian prison camp, The House of the Dead; Notes from the Underground, his philosophical novella on free will, determinism, and love; "A Gentle Creature," a short story on the same themes; and selected essays from Diary of a Writer. The focus will be on close reading of the texts. Our aim will be to develop strategies for appreciating the structure and form, the powerful ideas, the engaging storylines, and the human interest in the writings of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. No knowledge of Russian is required.

CLRS V3301. Angry Young Decade: 1955 - 1965 In Russia, Poland, USA & England
Prof. Ross Ufberg. TR 10:10 - 11:25
This course will consider the literature and film of Russia, Poland, the USA and England during 1955-1965, focusing specifically on the phenomenon of literary movements of angry young writers rebelling against a stagnant tradition. We will also read various autobiographical accounts from writers who explain, from their insider's view, how the various movements started, how they influenced each other, and why and how they came to an end. The primary goal of this course is to acquaint students with literature they most likely have never encountered, and with films they may never have seen before, but which are essential components in the development of prose and cinema not only in the four countries of our studies, but across borders, oceans, and even decades.

CLSL W4003. Central European Drama in the Twentieth Century
Prof. Ivan Sanders. TR 6:10 - 7:25.
Focus will be on the often deceptive modernity of modern Central and East European theater and its reflection of the forces that shaped modern European society. It will be argued that the abstract, experimental drama of the twentieth-century avant-garde tradition seems less vital at the century's end than the mixed forms of Central and East European dramatists.General Education Requirement: Literature (LIT).

SLLT W4015. Ideology, History, Identity: South Slavic Writers from Modernism to Postmodernism and Beyond.
Prof. Radmila Gorup. MW 10:10 - 11:25.
Explores the issue of Yugoslav identity through the representative texts of major Serbian writers, such as Milos Crnjanski, Ivo Andric, Danilo Kis, Milorad Pavic, and Borislav Pekic.

CLCZ W4030. Post-War Czech Literature.
Prof. Christopher Harwood. TR 2:40 - 3:55.
A survey of postwar Czech fiction and drama. Knowledge of Czech not necessary. Parallel reading lists available in translation and in the original.

RUSS W4676. Russian Art between East and West: The Search for National Identity.
Prof. Elizabeth Valkenier. TR 10:10 - 11:25.
Aims to be more than a basic survey that starts with icons and ends with the early modernists. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, it aims to highlight how the various cultural transmissions interacted to produce, by the 1910s, an original national art that made an innovative contribution to world art. It discusses the development of art not only in terms of formal, aesthetic analysis, but also in the matrix of changing society, patronage system, economic life and quest for national identity. Several guest speakers will discuss the East-West problematic in their related fields-for example, in literature and ballet.

UKRN W4054. Creating Identity in Contemporary Ukrainian Culture.
Prof. Mark Andryczyk. TR 1:10 - 2:25.
This course presents and examines post-Soviet Ukrainian Culture. Students will learn about the significant achievement, names, events, scandals, and polemics in contemporary Ukrainian culture and will see how they have contributed to Ukraine's post-Soviet identity.

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