Art History-Russian [AHIS]
W4661. Avant-Gardes and Postmodernisms in Twentieth-Century Russian Art. 3 pts. Staff
G8671. The Russian Avant-Garde. 3 pts. Staff
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Comparative Literature-Czech [CLCZ]
W4020. Czech Culture before Czechoslovakia. 3 pts. C. Harwood
An interpretive cultural history of the Czechs from earliest times to the founding of the first Czechoslovak republic in 1918. Emphasis on the origins, decline and resurgence of Czech national identity as reflected in the visual arts, architecture, music, historiography, and especially the literature of the Czechs.
W4030. Postwar Czech Literature. 3 pts. C. Harwood
A survey of postwar Czech fiction and drama. Knowledge of Czech not necessary. Parallel reading lists available in translation and in the original.
W4035. The Writers of Prague. 3 pts. C. Harwood
Readings in English. A survey of the Czech, German and German-Jewish literary cultures of Prague from 1910 to 1930. Emphasis on Hašek, Čapek, Kafka, Werfel, and Rilke.
W4038. Prague Spring of '68 In Film and Literature. 3 pts.
The course explores the unique period in Czech film and literature during the 1960's that emerged as a reaction to the imposed socialist realism. The new generation of writers (Kundera, Skvorecky, Havel, Hrabal) in turn had an influence on young emerging film makers, all of whom were part of the Czech new wave.
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Comparative Literature-Polish [CLPL]
W4020. North America in the Mirror of Polish Literature. 3 pts. A. Frajlich-Zajac
The course will consider the reflection of American culture in Polish literature. All aspects of American life will be viewed through the lenses of the Polish writers, bringing into focus their perception of a different political, historical, and esthetic experience.
W4120. The Polish Short Story In a Comparative Context. 3 pts.
The course examines the beginnings of the Polish short story in the 19th century and its development through the late 20th century, including exemplary works of major Polish writers of each period. It is also a consideration of the short story form--its generic features, its theoretical premises, and the way these respond to the stylistic and philosophical imperatives of successive periods.
W6210. Polish Avant-Gardism. 3 pts.
An investigation of avant-gardism in literature and the arts in Poland from the end of the 19th century to WW II. Texts as they originally appeared in journals and first editions, with the goal of developing a feel for the vibrant interdisciplinary modernist culture of pre-Communist Poland.
G6240. Bruno Schulz. 3 pts.
Prerequisites: Knowledge of Polish and/or substantial background in Jewish literature required. A seminar dedicated to the close analysis of all Schulz's extant fiction, criticism, and visual works with attention to his letters and critical writing on Schulz from Polish, Jewish, and other perspectives.
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Comparative Literature-Russian [CLRS]
W4011. Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and the English Novel.
3 pts. L. Knapp.
A close reading of works by Dostoevsky (Netochka Nezvanova;
The Idiot; "A Gentle Creature") and Tolstoy (Childhood, Boyhood, Youth;
"Family Happiness"; Anna Karenina; "The Kreutzer Sonata") in conjunction with
related English novels (Bronte's Jane Eyre, Eliot's Middlemarch, Woolf's Mrs.
Dalloway). No knowledge of Russian is required.
W4012. Russian, French, and American Novels of Adultery. 3 pts. L. Knapp.
Adultery is a driving concern of
the works read. Authors include Pushkin, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Chekhov;
Lafayette, Flaubert; Hawthorne, Chopin. As we study the nineteenth-century
novels that define the novel of adultery as a literary category, as well as
some precursors and later offshoots, we articulate a morphology of the novel
of adultery. We also focus on the narrative technqiues used to represent the
consciousness of the protagonists, in an effort to determine how the subject
matter and the poetics of the novel of adultery interact. No knowledge of
Russian is required; all works read in English.
W4020. Slavic Literary Theory. 3 pts. B. Gasparov
The contributions to modern critical thought of Russian Formalism, Prague Structuralism, East European structural poetics and semiotics of culture. The characteristic features of those movements are examined in comparison with kindred critical developments in the West. Readings in English.
W4029. Women Novelists of the Nineteenth Century In Russia and Elsewhere. 3 pts.
An examination of nineteenth-century novels and novellas by women: the focus will be on Russian writers (Gan, Zhukova, Pavlova, Tur, Vovchok, Khvoshchinskaia, Kovalevskaia), but we will include relevant works by novelists from other traditions (Germaine de Staël, George Sand; Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot; Harriet Beecher Stowe; Olive Shreiner). We will discuss broader issues relating to the theory, form and poetics of the novel, as well as ask questions about the nature of realism, about the politics of literary history and canonization, about the feminine imagination. All works may be read in English. (No knowledge of Russian or French is required.)
G4035. Word and Image In Russian Culture 1720-1920. 3 pts.
Reading knowledge of Russian and some reading ability in French are desirable. Examination of the possible relationships of the verbal and the visual in 18th- and 19th-century Russian literature and culture. Considers the Byzantine heritage, the "symbols and emblems" of the Petrine baroque, the allegories of court culture, the notion of the picturesque, the "visibility" of "classical" Russian literature and turn-of-the-century culture, and the very possibility of illustrating words with images. The course is comparative, placing Russian examples against a European background to explore what is universal and what is specific about the interplay of word and image in Russia.
W4431. Theatricality and Spectacle In the History of Russian Culture. 3 pts.
A survey of Russian cultural history focused on the problems of theater and performance, and their place in the system of power in the structure of everyday life. Along with the history of Russian theater, various manisfestions of theatricality, from the 18th century Court Festivals to the Moscow Olympiad of 1980, will be studied. Readings include milestones of Russian drama (plays by Pushkin, Gogol, Ostrovsky, Chekhov, Bulgakov), theater manifestos by Stanislavsky, Meierhold, Evreinov, as well as selected issues in contemporary cultural, architectural and visual theory. All the readings will be in English.
G6110. The Discourse of Self in Russia and the West. 3 pts. R. Stanton
The evolution of self-narrative in Russian literature, including both fiction and non-fiction, in comparison with canonical Western texts. Emphasis on the aesthetic and ethical tensions inherent in the project of self-narration, the ways in which major Russian and Western authors addressed these problems, and parallels between personal and national self-definition.
G6201. Bakhtin. 3 pts. Staff
An examination of the literary and cultural theory of Mikhail Bakhtin.
G6401. Russian Futurism and Its Influence. 3 pts. B. Gasparov
Exploration of the poetics and philosophy of language of the Russian Futurists in comparison with Italian Futurism and other trends in the Russian and Western avant-garde. Examination of the impact of the Russian avant-garde rebellion on literature and aesthetic ideas of the pre-revolutionary and early Soviet period. Prerequisite: reading knowledge of Russian.
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Comparative Literature-Slavic [CLSL]
W4001. Contemporary East European Literature: When the Wall Came Down. 3 pts. Staff
A course focusing on the changes in the literary situation in East European countries that have accompanied and followed the end of communist rule. The reading list includes works by representative authors from Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, the former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Ukraine.
W4003. Central European Drama In the Twentieth Century. 3 pts.
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.
W4005. Constructions of Gender and Sexuality in Russian and East European Writing. 3 pts. Staff
An exploration of the ways gender and sexual identities have been articulated and constructed in a number of Russian and East European literary texts (from the late nineteenth century to the present). The reading list includes representative works from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, and the former Yugoslavia.
W4025. Literature and Ideology: Balkan Modernism. 3 pts. Valentina Izmirlieva
A survey of the twentieth-century literature of Greece, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia, Albania, and Romania (in translation), with a focus upon the role of literature in modern Balkan politics. The course explores “the Balkans” – the cultural entity, the political phenomenon, the ideological construct – from the vantage point of the best modernist and postmodernist texts created in the region. The reading list includes poetry by Constantine Cavafy, novels by Ivo Andric and Ismail Kadare, short-stories by Danilo Kis read in conjunction with his fathers by choice, Jorge Luis Borges and Bruno Schultz, films by two of Europe’s most acclaimed directors of the 1990s: Emir Kusturica and Theo Angelopolus.
W4110. Fiction In Film In East Central Europe. 3 pts.
The course will examine some of the most significant achievements of the Polish, Czech and Hungarian cinema in the communist era and in most cases, their literary antecedents.
W4203x. The History, Literature, and Film of Dissent in East Central Europe. 4 pts. B. Abrams, C. Harwood.
The course is an interdisciplinary investigation of the cultural and political phenomenon of Eastern European
dissent in the 1970s and 1980s, which culminated in the collapse of communism in the region. Using sources ranging from political essays to drama, other fiction, and film, students will explore the development of the region's oppositional movement's ideas and ideals. The actual prefix of the course, for registration purposes, is
HSSL W4203x.
W4995. Central European Jewish Writers. 3 pts.
Examines prose and poetry by writers generally less accessible to the American student written in the major Central European languages: German, Hungarian, Czech and Polish. The problematics of assimilation, the search for identity, political commitment and disillusionment are major themes, along with the defining experience of the century: the Holocaust; but because these writers are often more removed from their Jewishness, their perspective on these events and issues may be different. The influence of Franz Kafka on Central European writers, the post-Communist Jewish revival, defining the Jewish voice in an otherwise disparate body of works.
G6100. Comparative Grammar of Slavic Languages. 3 pts. B. Gasparov
Comprehensive survey of the development of Slavic phonology and grammar, from its reconstructed Proto-Slavic state to modern Slavic languages. General theoretical questions, such as methodological problems of historical reconstruction, the nature of the proto-language, hypotheses concerning the origin and early migrations of the Indo-Europeans and Slavs, would also be discussed. Prerequisites: knowledge of at least one Slavic language; no special linguistic training is required.
G6112. The Tale of Prince Igor's Campaign In the Context of European Medieval Poetry. 3 pts.
Prerequisites: Ability to read one of the five texts in the original. Study of the tale of Prince Igor's Campaign's symbolic language, imagery, and narrative technique in relation to European medieval epic poetry, particularly in comparisonwith Beowulf, Snorri Struluson's Edda, The Song of Roland and the poem of My Cid.
G6120. Sade/Masoch: Literature, Theory, and History. 3 pts. D. Goldfarb
An attempt to recover the pre-psychoanalytic context of the works of the Marquis de Sade and Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, to reassess major currents in the psychological theory of sado-masochism, and to consider works written in the tradition of Sade and Sacher-Masoch in the wake of psychoanalytic theory. Knowledge of French and/or German recommended.
G6127. Marxist Cultural Theory. 3 pts. D. Goldfarb
Is there an inherent relation between the material conditions of social life and the historical prevalence of specific aesthetic forms? If so, what are the mechanisms of mediation between political economy and art of literature? The course will consider how marxist critics have attempted to answer these central questions, with particular interest in the ways in which different strands of marxist theory have reflected other intellectual tendencies, such as positivism, nineteenth-century Russian radicalism, modernism, and postmodernism.
G6800. Seminar in Theory: The Ineffable. 3 pts. D. Goldfarb
A consideration of the ways that critics might attempt to address the untranslatable, the indescribable, and the unspeakable. Possible solutions range from the theories of the sublime to critical performance or process, to psychoanalysis and phenomenologies of reading. Readings will include works by Adorno, Longinus, Philostratus the Elder, Kant, Walter Pater, Roman Jakobson, Bakhtin, Maurice Blanchot and others.
G8020-G8021. Directed Research In Slavic Cultures. 3 pts.
Departmental permission.
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Comparative Literature and Society [CPLS]
G6160. The New Post-Coloniality: Overcoming The West. 3 pts. Nepomnyashchy, Armstrong
Postcolonial studies started with a South Asia model. This model needs to be displaced, expanded, and altered with reference to other “colonial” histories and spaces. This seminar will approach such an intersectional project with reference particularly to Eastern Asia and the post-Soviet world. Through the exploration of texts from literature, literary theory, history, and the social sciences, the course addresses relations and representations of power and inequality across space and time. Visit the Center for Comparative Literature and Society for more information.
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Czech [CZCH]
W4003. Introduction to Czech Literature. 3 pts. Staff
G8001-G8003. Directed Research in Czech Literature. 3-4 pts. Staff
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History [HIST]
W3320. History of Ukraine in the Twentieth Century. 3 pts. M. Von Hagen
W3335. A History of Czechoslovakia, 1918-1992. 3 pts. B. Abrams
W3361. History of the Soviet Union. 3 pts. M. Von Hagen
W3863. East Central European Intellectuals and Communism. 3 pts. B. Abrams
W3967. Personality and Society in Nineteenth-Century Thought. 3 pts. R. Wortman
W4343. Imperial Russia, 1801-1917. 3 pts. R. Wortman
G4339. History of Modern Poland. 3 pts. J. Micgiel
G8327. An Introduction to the Literature of East Central European History. 3 pts. B. Abrams
G8364. Colloquium on Soviet Social History. 4 pts. M. Von Hagen
G8445. Legacies of Empire and the Soviet Union. 4 pts.
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History-Political Science [HSPS]
G8445. Legacies of Empire and the Soviet Union. 4 pts. Harriman Institute Faculty.
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Hungarian [HNGR]
W4028. Modern Hungarian Prose Fiction in Translation. 3 pts. I. Sanders
Exploration of themes and styles in 20th-century Hungarian prose fiction. Topics include turn-of-the-century modernism, "populist and urban" literature in the inter-war years, post-1945 reality in fiction, comparative literature memoirs and reportage, late-century minimalist and postmodernist trends.
W4050. The Hungarian New Wave: Cinema in Kádárist Hungary. 3 pts. I. Sanders
G4030. Twentieth-Century Hungarian Poetry in Translation. 3 pts. I. Sanders
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International Affairs [INAF]
U4525. Postwar Politics of East Central Europe. J. Micgiel
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Slavic and General Linguistics [SLLN, CLLN, LING]
Slavic Linguistics:
SLLN G4005. Introduction to Old Church Slavonic. 3 pts. A. Timberlake, V. Izmirlieva
An
abridged course in Old Church Slavonic phonology and morphology, with
some attention to the role of Church Slavonic in shaping the lexicon of
modern Russia.
SLLN G6005. History and Structure of the Old Church Slavonic Language. 3 pts. B. Gasparov, V. Izmirlieva
RUSS G6021. The Structure of Modern Standard Russian. 3 pts. B. Gasparov, A Timberlake
CLSL 6100. Comparative Grammar of Slavic Languages. 3 pts. Staff.
RUSS G6225. History of the Russian Literary Language. 3 pts. B. Gasparov
Prerequisite:
Slavic Linguistics G4005, Introduction to Old Church Slavonic. A survey
of styles and genres of the Russian written language at major epochs in
their development from Kievan Rus through the early twentieth century.
SLLN G8020-G8021. Directed Research in Slavic Linguistics. 3 pts. Staff
General Linguistics:
CLLN W3101. Introduction to Linguistics. 3 pts. B. Gasparov, A. Timberlake.
Parameters of the structure of language: phonology, grammar,
semantics, concepts and methods of theoretical linguistics and their
role in the study of cognitive, communicative and social functions of
language.
CLLN W4108. Language History. 3 pts. Staff.
The
nature and mechanisms of change in language, including the topics of comparative
reconstruction, analogy, semantic change, language in space and time, prehistory
and migration.
CLLN W4204 Linguistic Theory. 3 pts. B. Gasparov
In-depth treatment of the structure and use of language
(especially syntax, semantics and discourse), with attention to theoretical
issues. Discussion of scholarly literature representing various fields of
linguistics
CLLN W4903. Semantics and Generative Transformational Syntax. 3
pts. Staff.
Contemporary approaches to the relation between linguistic meaning
and form, with special emphasis on work within the Chomskian tradition.
Transformational and phrase structure grammar, x-bar syntax, government and
binding, lexical decomposition, logical form, minimalist theory.
LING W4800. Language and Society: Power, Ideology, Identity. 3 pts. A. Berezovenko.
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Polish [POLI]
W4003. History of Polish Literature. 3 pts. Staff
A knowledge of Polish is not required, but students knowing the language are expected to read in the original and are given special assignments. A general survey of Polish literature from the Renaissance to the First World War and the establishment of an independent Polish state. Lectures and assigned readings.
W4030. Post-World War II Polish Literature. 3 pts. Staff
Readings in English translation. Students with a knowledge of Polish are expected to do some work in the original. An introduction to major developments in Polish prose, fiction, poetry, and drama since the end of World War II and the establishment of the present government.
W4031. Professional Polish for Heritage Speakers. 3 pts.
Addresses the need of heritage speakers to speak, read, understand, and write in Polish at the highest level of functional proficiency. It serves students from all departments across the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences.
W4040. Mickiewicz. 3 pts. A. Frajlich-Zajac
The major works of Adam Mickiewicz. Students with sufficient knowledge of Polish are required to do the readings in the original. Parallel reading list for readers and non-readers of Polish.
W4042. Bestsellers of Polish Prose: Literature and Film. 3 pts. A. Frajlich-Zajac
A close study of the twentieth-century Polish novel during the prewar period. Readings from major works of Kuncewiczowa, Choromański, Wittlin, Unilowski, Kurek, Iwaszkiewicz, Gombrowicz, and Schulz. The development of the Polish novel will be examined against the background of new trends in European literature and film, and the use of various narrative devices will be studied. A reading knowledge of Polish is desirable but not required.
W4044. Twentieth-Century Polish Drama and Theater. 3 pts. Staff
A reading knowledge of Polish is desirable but not required. Primarily the plays of such avant-garde dramatists as Witkiewicz, Gombrowicz, Mrożek, and Różewicz, and the theater work of Grotowski.
W4048. Masterpieces of Nineteenth-Century Polish Poetry. 3 pts. A. Frajlich-Zajac
Analysis of the major works of the nineteenth-century poets, including Mickiewicz, Slowacki, Krasiński, Fredro, and Norwid. Parallel reading lists for readers and non-readers of Polish. Students with sufficient knowledge of the language are required to read in the original.
W4050. Contemporary Polish Poetry. 3 pts. A. Frajlich-Zajac
Prerequisite: reading knowledge of Polish. Survey of the major contemporary Polish poets, schools, and genres. Lectures, assigned readings, and class discussion of poems. Additional reading list and anthology selections in English for supplemental reading and for comparison.
W4110. The Polish Novel. 3 pts. D. Goldfarb
A consideration of the evolution of the novel form in Polish literature from the Baroque memoir through the Enlightenment, Positivism, modernism, and the avant-gardists of the Twentieth Century. Reading knowledge of Polish desireable but not required. Papers and discussion in English.
G4111. Polish Drama. 3 pts. D. Goldfarb
A survey of Polish drama from the Renaissance through the radical experiments of the recent period. Current performances in New York will be incorporated in the course. Knowledge of Polish is desirable but not required.
G6020. Renaissance Poetry in Poland: From Latin to Polish. 3 pts. D. Goldfarb
This course focuses specifically on poetry and the development of modern Polish literary language, style, and culture from its Latin and neo-Latin influences. Authors likely to be included are Ioannes Visliciensis (Jan z Wislicy), Hussovianus (Hussowczyk), Dantiscus (Dantyszek), Andrzej Krzycki (Cricius), Sarbevius (Sarbiewski), Biernat of Lublin, Jan Kochanowski (Cochanovius), Mikolaj Rej, Sep-Szarzyński, and others. Prerequisite: a working knowledge of Latin or Polish.
G8001-G8002. Directed Research in Polish Literature. 3-4 pts. Staff
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Political Science [POLS]
W3517. The Politics of Eastern Europe. 3 pts. J. Micgiel
W3531. The Politics of East Central Europe. 3 pts. J. Micgiel
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Russian [RUSS]
W4001. Conversations About Russian Cinema. 3 pts. M. Kashper
Two years of college Russian or the instructor's permission. The course will focus on conversational, stylistic and cultural aspects of the language. Script writing, promotional trailers, film reviews. The course is conducted entirely in Russian.
W4006. Modern Russian Religious Thought. 3 pts. L. Knapp
Knowledge of Russian is not required. The concepts of God, man, nature, history, and culture. Readings from Chaadayev, Khomyakov, Solovyov, Fyodorov, Florensky, Bulgakov, Shestov, Lossky, Frank, and others. The relationship to Eastern Christian thought and Western philosophy.
W4014. Introduction To Russian Poetry and Poetics. 3 pts. Staff
An introduction to Russian poetry, through the study of selected texts of major poets of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, primarily: Pushkin, Lermontov, Pavlova, Tiutchev, Blok, Mandel'shtam, Akhmatova, Tsvetaeva, and Brodsky. Classes devoted to the output of a single poet will be interspersed with classes that draw together the poems of different poets in order to show the reflexivity of the Russian poetic canon. These classes will be organized according either to types of poems or to shared themes. The course will teach the basics of verisification, poetic languages (sounds, tropes), and poetic forms. Classes in English; poetry read in Russian.
W4015. Highlights of Russian Drama from the Eighteenth Century to Chekhov. 3 pts. R. Belknap
Parallel reading lists in English and Russian. Graduate Russian majors must use the Russian. Emphasis on drama as literature, with some attention to Western drama and to Russian theatrical production.
W4016. Twentieth-Century Russian Drama and Theater. 3 pts. R. Belknap
Parallel reading lists in English and Russian. Graduate majors must read in the original. Emphasis on literary texts, the history of literary movements, and on competing theatrical and dramatic theories.
W4025. The Russian Memoir. 3 pts. R. Belknap
A sampling of family, political, travel, prison, literary, theatrical, military, court, religious, and other memoirs from several centuries, with attention to the characteristics of the different subgenres and literary periods; the interplay between the memoir and other literary genres.
W4027. Poetry and Prose of the 1860s. 3 pts. Staff
Readings, lectures, and discussion on the fiction, lyric, drama, and journalism of a crucial decade. A longer reading list is provided for those who cannot read Russian.
W4036. Russian Women in Literature and Culture. 3pts. C. Nepomnyashchy
A knowledge of Russian is not required. A comparative study of Western and Russian feminist thought and practice. Literary and historical documents are studied, with emphasis on women’s social position, their literary image and their contributions to culture.
W4050. Post-Soviet Russian Literature. 3 pts. Staff
Survey of the work of the major writers to have entered Russian literature in the 1980’s and 1990’s. The reading list includes Vladimir Makanin, Mikhail Kuraev, Viktor Pelevin, Viktor Erofeev, Vladimir Sorokin, Tatiana Tolstaia, Liudmila Petrushevskaia, Nina Sadur, Svetlana Vasilenko, Valeriia Narbikova, Nina Iskrenko, Evgenii Kharitonov, and others.
W4056. The Brothers Karamazov. 3pts. R. Belknap
Prerequisite: the ability to read sixty pages of Dostoevsky's Russian per week. A careful reading of the text in the original, with attention to historical, literary, religious, political, psychological, and other questions.
G4075. Survival and Renewal: Russian Poetry of the Soviet Period. 3 pts.
Examines how Russian poetry continued to evolve in the Soviet period even as the government attempted to control all means of literary expression and exploit the popularity of verse as vehicle for party propaganda. Russian Poets of 1930-90.
W4200. Russian Theater Hands On. 3 pts. M. Kashper
The study and staging in the original of a Russian play. Concentrates of exploration of character and style through language, phonetics, detailed textual analysis, and oral presentation.
G4331-G4332. Language Pedagogy Workshop, I and II. 2 pts.
Designed to help graduate students teaching the Russian language understand theories and practices of foreign language teaching. Introduction to the teaching-learning process, specifics of teaching Russian as a less commonly taught language, hands on experience of planning class time, developing class activities, speaking and writing skills at the beginning level, grading, composing quizzes and tests.
G4431y. Reading Practicum. 3 pts.
A close reading of a major work of Russian literature with special attention paid to pronunciation, intonation and style.
W4432. Contrastive Phonetics and Grammar of Russian and English. 3 pts. F. Miller
Prerequisite: four years of college Russian and instructor’s permission. Comparative phonetic, intonational, and morphological structures of Russian and English, with special attention to typical problems for American speakers of Russian.
W4433. Specific Problems in Mastering and Teaching Russian. 3 pts. F. Miller
Prerequisite: four years of college Russian and instructor’s permission. The Russian verb (basic stem system, aspect, locomotion); prefixes; temporal, spatial, and causal relationships; word order; word formation.
W4434. Practical stylistics [in Russian]. 3 pts. Staff
Prerequisite: Four years of college Russian or the equivalent. Practice in the varieties of narrative and expository writing. Development of vocabulary and syntactic structures appropriate for abstract discourse.
W4910. Literary Translation. 3 pts. R. Meyer
Prerequisite: four years of college Russian or the equivalent. Workshop in literary translation from Russian into English focusing on the practical problems of the craft. Each student submits a translation of a literary text for group study and criticism. The aim of the class is to produce translations of publishable quality. May count as a literature course for the M.A. or Ph.D. degree.
W4911y. Introduction to Simultaneous Interpretation: Russian-English. 3 pts. L. Visson
Prerequisites: Three years of college Russian or the equivalent. Enrollment limited. A hands-on introduction to the principles and techniques of simultaneous interpretation. Students will work in the language laboratory, primarily from Russian to English. Background reading on the history, practice, and techniques of simultaneous interpretation will supplement practical work from cassettes and CDs. Students must have a
portable cassette tape recorder.
G6000. Stalin culture. 3 pts. C. Nepomnyashchy
G6009. Gogol. 3 pts. Staff
A close study in the original of the major works.
G6021. Structure of Modern Standard Russian. 3 pts. B. Gasparov
A survey of Russian morphosyntax, with emphasis on modern approaches to the description of Russian grammar.
G6026. Nineteenth-Century Russian Opera: Musical and Literary Discourses. 3 pts. B. Gasparov
Prerequisite: either a reading knowledge of Russian or the ability to read scores. Six Russian operas: Glinka’s Ruslan and Liudmila, Musorgsky’s Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades, and Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tale of the Invisible City of Kitezh are examined as an interplay between trends in Western musical theater and Russian popular musical culture (romances, folk songs, liturgical music). Emphasis on music’s relation to its literary sources and contemporary ideological discourses.
G6032. Russian Modernism (aka Modernist Russian Prose). 3 pts. Staff
A knowledge of Russian is not required. The major writers and trends of Russian modernism, set in cultural context (alongside music, art, and politics), with an emphasis on prose fiction. Garshin,
Kuprin, Andreev, Gorky, Bely, Pasternak, Bunin, Remizov, and others. (Ph.D. students in Russian literature should be prepared to read in the original.)
G6033. The Road(s) to Socialist Realism. 3 pts. R. Stanton
A
knowledge of Russian is not required. The major writers, movements, and aesthetic debates in Russian prose from 1917-1934, set against the context of politics and culture at large. Special attention to the role of literature in
reflecting and shaping social and political values. (Ph.D. students in Russian literature should be prepared to read in the original.)
G6039. Literature, Politics and Tradition after Stalin. 3 pts. C. Nepomnyashchy, R. Stanton
A
knowledge of Russian is not required. The major writers and trends in
Russian literature from the death of Stalin to the present. Emphasis on
the rethinking of the role of literature in society and on formal
experimentation engendered by relaxation of political controls over
literature. (Ph.D. students in Russian literature should be prepared to read in the original.)
G6104. Old Russian Literature. 3 pts. V. Izmirlieva
A survey of the principal genres of original and translated literature, with class readings and explication of assigned texts.
G6105x. Old Russian Literature II. 3 pts. V. Izmirlieva
Surveys major works of the Russian literary cannon, from the late Muscovite period through the seventeenth century. Emphasis on the rhetoric of empire and Muscovite imperial ideology, the emergence of literary subjectivity and the transformation of medieval genres. No knowledge of Old Church Slavonic is required, but good reading comprehension of Russian is a must.
G6107. Russian Literary Theory and Criticism, I. 3 pts. Staff
A chronological and generic approach to the major writers and movements of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
G6108. Russian Literary Theory and Criticism, II. 3 pts. Staff
A chronological and generic approach to the major writers and movements of the twentieth century.
G6109. Introduction to Russian Folk Literature. 3 pts. F. Miller
An introduction to the principal genres, with assigned and in-class readings.
G6110. Don Juan and Casanova In Russia. 3 pts.
Explores the Russian versions of the Don Juan and Casanova myths through a range of theatrical, lyrical, musical, and critical texts. Topics include: libertinism and decadence; desire, memory and memoirs; sexual/textual seduction; the Russian practice of 'the Don Juan list'; appropriation, inversion, and parody. Works by Casanova, Pushkin, A.K. Tolstoi, Bal'mont, Briusov, Blok, Gumilev, Akhmatova, Amfiteatrov, Zaitsev, Tsveateva, Nabokov, Kazakov, Korkiia.
G6118. The Russian Decameron: Early Russian Prose Fiction. 3 pts. I. Reyfman
A survey of Russian prose fiction in the original from its beginnings to the end of the eighteenth century. Emphasis on the emergence of a new hero/heroine: adventurous, upwardly mobile, and preoccupied with sex. The reading list includes anonymous seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century tales, prose works by Mikhail Chulkov, Nikolai Karamzin, Aleksandr Klushin, and Mikhail Sushkov, as well as eighteenth-century page-turners by Matvei Komarov, and Ivan Novikov.
G6119. Eighteenth-Century Russian Poetry. 3 pts. I. Reyfman
A survey of Russian poetry from the late seventeenth to the early nineteenth century.
G6120. Nineteenth-Century Russian Poetry. 3 pts. R. Gustafson
The major themes and modes of Russian poetry from preromanticism up to “pure art.” Selections from Batiushkov, Zhukovsky, Baratynsky, Yazykov, Lermontov, Tiutchev, Karolina Pavlova, Nekrasov, and Fet.
G6121. Russian Symbolist Poetry. 3 pts. R. Gustafson
A survey of the major poets, with readings and class discussion of representative lyrics and selected essays.
G6140. Phonetics and Poetics. 3 pts.
A survey of methods of formal analysis of speech and poetic prosody and their application to Russian phonetics and verse.
G6150. Studies in Russian Culture [in Russian]. 3 pts. I. Reyfman
The questions of national identity; a consideration of the Slavophile-Westernizer debate from the early eighteenth century to the present.
G6160. Neglected Masterpieces. 3 pts. I. Reyfman
A study in the original of works that rarely receive attention in traditional courses of Russian literature. The list of readings includes works by Krylov, Vladimir Odoevsky, Kozma Prutkov, Leskov, and others.
G6161. Chekhov and the Short Story. 3 pts. C. Popkin
A detailed consideration, in the original, of Chekhov's corpus of short stories, with particular attention to how they work and how they work together. Of special concern will be the relationship of this physician/writer's work to late nineteenth-century scientific discourses and epistemological dilemmas.
G6162. Chekhov and the Drama. 3 pts. C. Popkin
A close reading, in the original, of Chekhov's plays, with particular attention to the interplay of formal innovation and thematic preoccupation.
G6190. Early Russian Drama. 3 pts. I. Reyfman
A survey of Russian drama in the original from its beginnings to the early nineteenth century. The reading list includes Simeon Polotsky, Aleksandr Sumarokov, Mikhail Kheraskov, Denis Fonvizin, Vasilii Kapnist, Aleksandr Griboedov, and Aleksandr Pushkin.
G6200. Tsvetaeva and Others. 3pts. L. Knapp
A close reading of the poetry and prose of Marina Tsvetaeva. We will focus on defining what is unique about Tsvetaeva's poetic voice. To this end, we will read not only Tsvetaeva's work but also relevant texts by the poets whose presence is most palpable in her work (Homer, Sappho, Shakespeare, Pushkin, Briusov, Akmatova, Mandel'shtam, Pasternak, and Rilke).
G6202. Pushkin. 3pts. R. Gustafson
The thematic and structural development of the major verse forms—narrative, dramatic, and lyric.
G6204. Reading Turgenev. 3 pts. C. Popkin
A close study, in the original, of a number of Turgenev's works, major and "minor," with an eye to the methodological problems inherent in characterizing an author's oeuvre. We will consider the ways he has been read and situated in the tradition in an effort to identify--or generate--productive modes of reading Turgenev.
G6213. Mandelshtam: The Poet and His Language. 3 pts. B. Gasparov
Examination of various aspects of Mandelshtam’s oeuvre, with special attention to his development, from his early relations to post-symbolism to his gradual incorporation of the ideas and discourses of the post-revolutionary epoch.
G6214. Tolstoy. 3pts. R. Gustafson
The thematic and structural development of Tolstoy’s fiction and its relationship to his moral and aesthetic principles.
G6215. Tolstoy's War and Peace. 3 pts.
A close reading of Tolstoy's War and Peace in the original, along with related works of fiction, criticism, and philosophy. Our aim is to penetrate the stylistic, generic, philosophical, and human complexities of this novel.
G6216. Dostoevsky. 3 pts. R. Belknap
A knowledge of Russian is not required. The major works, their structure, implications, and background.
G6217. Pasternak. 3 pts. B. Gasparov
A comprehensive examination of various genres of Pasternak’s writings and their relations to the poet’s aesthetics, philosophical, and religious views.
G6219. Sinyavsky. 3pts. C. Nepomnyashchy
Prerequisite: a reading knowledge of Russian. Examination of the literary and theoretical works of Andrei Sinyavsky, with particular attention to those works the writer published under the pseudonym Abram Terts.
G6225. History of the Russian Literary Language. 3 pts. B. Gasparov
Prerequisite: Slavic Linguistics G4005, Introduction to Old Church Slavonic. A survey of styles and genres of the Russian written language at major epochs in their development from Kievan Rus through the early twentieth century.
G6431. Russian Women Novelists and the Rise of the Russian Novel. 3 pts.
A close reading of novels and novellas written by Russian women in the nineteenth-century, with attention to broader questions of the theory, form and poetics of the novel, of the politics of literary history, of the feminie imagination. Works by Gan, Pavlova, Tur, Khvoschinskaya, Vovchok, Kovalevskaya, and others, with some attention to the novels of their feminine counterparts in England and France and of their masculine counterparts in Russia.
G6330. Between 1812 and 1848: Russian Romanticism and Its European Contexts. B. Gasparov
A study of Russian Romanticism in the context of its Western European counterparts.
G6501. Acmeism. 3 pts. V. Izmirlieva
A survey of Acmeist aesthetics and a study in the original of major works of the Russian Acmeists: Innokentii Annenskii, Nikolai Gumilev, Anna Akhmatova, Osip Mandelshtam, Mikhail Kuzmin, and Vladislav Khodasevich.
G6505. Post-Stalin Soviet and Russian Contemporary Culture. 3 pts. Staff
The interplay between literature within contemporary Soviet and post-Soviet Russian society as reflected in works of fiction and film of the period. The psychology of Stalinism, the search for personal integrity in the face of a corrupt modern society, materialism versus spirituality in the modern world, and other related topics.
G6512. Utopian Fiction In Russia and Europe. 3 pts.
The development of Utopian fiction in Russia and Europe. Plato, More, Dostoevsky, Zamyatin, Platonov, and Marx.
G6515. Russian Literature and Culture in the Silver Age. 3pts. Staff
G6601. Vladimir Solovyov: Poet and Philosopher. 3 pts. Staff
A study of the relationship between the major literary and philosophical texts, with reference to the relevant psychological, aesthetic and theological issues. Attention to the biographical and historical context and significance.
G8001. Proseminar In Literary Studies. 3 pts.
Required of all candidates for the M.A. degree in Russian, Czech, Ukraine, and Polish literature. Introduction to the theory and practice of literary criticism.
G8036-G8037. Directed Research in Old Russian Literature and Folklore. 3 pts. Staff
G8038-G8039. Directed Research in Russian Literature of the Nineteenth Century. 3 pts. Staff
G8040-G8041. Directed Research in Russian Literature of the Twentieth Century. 3 pts. Staff
G8042-G8043. Directed Research in the Modern Period. 3 pts. Staff
G8044-G8045. Directed Research in Russian Literature of the Eighteenth Century. 3 pts. Staff
G9000. Master’s Research Instruction. 3 pts. Staff
Prerequisite: Russian G8001. Required for all M.A. candidates in the Slavic Languages department. Instruction in the preparation of the master’s essay.
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Serbo-Croatian (Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian) [SRCR]
W4015. Belgrade Writers: From Modernism to Postmodernism and Beyond. 3 pts. R. Gorup
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.
W4040. Linguistic and Ethnic Conflicts in the Former Yugoslavia. 3 pts. R. Gorup
The course surveys the history of literacy in the area of the former Yugoslavia, the codification of Serbo-Croatian, and the problems of the implementation of the standard. Linguistic conflicts in the area foreshadowed ethnic conflicts and the dissolution of the country. The course material is presented within the context of sociolinguistics and sociology of language.
W4100. Central Europe and the Orient in the Works of Yugoslav Writers. 3 pts. R. Gorup
Explores the topic through the analysis of the works of Vladan Desnica, Miroslav Krleza, Ivo Andric, and Mesa Selimovic. Parallel reading lists are available in English and Serbian/Croatian.
G8001-G8002. Directed Research in Serbo-Croatian Literature, I and II. 3-4 pts. R. Gorup
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Slavic Cultures [SLCL]
W4001. Slavic Peoples, Their Languages and Cultures. 3 pts. Staff
A
survey of Slavic peoples, their languages and cultures, followed by a
concentration on the history, economic and social organization, culture
and civilization of Kievan Rus and its interaction with the outside
world.
W4120. Exploring East European Identities through Literature and Film. 3 pts. Staff
An
advanced introduction to East European literature and culture through a
discussion of the articulations of East European identity-shaping
experiences in several major twentieth-century films and literary
texts. Readings include Joseph Roth, Stanislaw Wyspiański, Bruno
Schulz, and Danilo Kiš. Readings in English.
G8020-G8021. Directed Research in Slavic Cultures. 3 pts. Staff
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Slavic Literatures [SLLT]
W4001. Contemporary East European Literature 4 pts. Staff
Knowledge of language is not required. A seminar focusing on the
changes in the literary situation in East European countries that have
accompanied and followed the end of the Communist rule. The reading
list includes works by representative authors from Poland, the Czech
Republlic, Slovakia, Hungary, the former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and
Ukraine.
W4003. Central European Drama. 3 pts. I. Sanders
The
aim of this course is to focus on the (often deceptive) modernity of
the modern Central European (i.e., Austrian, Swiss, Hungarian, Polish,
Czech) theater. Rrepresentative turn-of-the century, early
twentieth-century, as well as post-1945 plays will be examined.
W4030. Orthodoxy, Text, Ritual: The Slavic Middle Ages. 3 pts. V. Izmirlieva
A
general introduction to the medieval literature of Slavia Orthodoxa,
focusing on the relation between medieval text and ritual context.
Close reading of selected works against a broad cultural background.
Attention to ritual time and space and ritual performance, Eastern
Orthodox monasticism and the cult of saints, manuscript vs. printed
culture, orthodoxy vs. heteropraxis. Readings are in English (with a
parallel reading list in the OCS for the most daring).
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Ukrainian [UKRN]
W4021. Introduction to Ukrainian Literature and Culture: Beginnings through the Nineteenth Century. 3 pts. Staff
This course examines the history of the shaping of a distinct Ukrainian literary and cultural tradition and introduces the major figures of the national canon. Some examples from other arts (opera, film, etc.) are also used during the course. Taught in English, but some familiarity with at least one Slavic language is required.
W4022. Introduction to Ukrainian Literature and Culture: The Twentieth Century. 3 pts. Staff
This course examines the turbulent history of Ukrainian literature and culture in the twentieth century, through the abortive renaissance of the 1920s, the short-lived thaw of the 1960s and some contemporary controversies. Some examples from other arts (film, theater, painting) are also used during the course. Taught in English, but some familiarity with at least one Slavic language is required.
G4030. The Missing Link: Cinema and the Emergence of Modern Ukraine. 3 pts.
This course discusses the influence of cinema on the formation of modern Ukrainian identity. An overview of Ukrainian cinema history will be followed by analyses of major Ukrainian Soviet and post-Soviet films and the tension between their Ukrainian and Soviet aspects. Special emphasis on the most recent Ukrainian cinema and its quest to liberate itself from the legacies of the Soviet empire.
W4040. Twentieth-Century Ukrainian Prose. 3 pts. Staff
Prerequisite: a reading knowledge of Ukrainian or fluency in another Slavic language. Survey of the major works from the turn of the century through the 1990’s with a brief overview of nineteenth-century Ukrainian prose and its connection to later developments.
W4058. The Ukrainian Cultural Renaissance: 1917-1934. 3 pts. Staff
A course focusing on the literary and cultural politics in Ukraine during the period of relative liberalization and the national revival in 1917-1934. The reading list includes fiction, poetry, drama, films, manifestoes and theoretical and polemical writings by Mykola Khvyl’ovyi, Valerian Pidmohyl’nyi, Mykola Kulish, Mykhail’ Semenko, Pavlo Tychyna, Mykola Zerov, Maksym Ryl’s’kyi, Oleksandr Dovzhenko, Les’ Kurbas and others.
W4060. Cultural Currents and Their Political Context in Twentieth-Century Ukraine. 3 pts. Staff
Prerequisite: a reading knowledge of Ukrainian or fluency in another Slavic language. A survey of the major cultural currents in twentieth-century Ukraine in the context of contemporary political developments, with emphasis on five separate fields: literature, film, theater, music, and art. All readings in English; a knowledge of Ukrainian not required.
W4070. Twentieth-Century Ukrainian Drama. 3 pts. Staff
Prerequisite: a reading knowledge of Ukrainian or fluency in another Slavic language. The main developments in Ukrainian drama from the turn of the century to the present. A discussion of the authors and their works within the context of the various styles active in Ukrainian literature and against the background of the stylistic movements and events in the literature of the West.
W4100. Literatures and Identities In Post-Soviet Ukraine. 3 pts.
The course seeks the connection between literary production and identity construction in present-day Ukraine. Major literary trends and the most representative texts since 1991 are studied, with emphasis on cultural hybridity, bilingualism, and decentralization. Readings include works by Yuri Andrukhovych, Yuri Vynnychuk, Oksana Zabuzhko, Solomea Pavlychko and others.
G8001-G8002. Directed Research in Ukrainian Literature, I and II. 3-4 pts. Staff
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Pedagogy [PEDG]
G4000. Practicum in Foreign Language Pedagogy. 3 pts. P. Aquilina
Registration is by permission of foreign language departments only. Designed to offer training in foreign language pedagogy to teaching assistants (TAs) in the foreign language departments.
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