Faculty of Arts & Sciences

Individualized study of the Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian language at the elementary level, conducted as a tutorial. Contact hours with language coach. Emphasis on literacy.

Individualized study of the Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian language at the intermediate level, conducted as a tutorial. Contact hours with language coach. Emphasis on literacy.

Individualized study of the Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian language at the advanced level, conducted as a tutorial. Contact hours with language coach. Emphasis on literacy.

An introductory course in modern Czech language and culture, designed for students without previous knowledge who would like to speak Czech or use the language for reading and research. All four major communicative skills (speaking, listening comprehension, reading, writing) are stressed. Students are exposed to Czech culture through work with film and literature and gain some familiarity with the major differences between literary and spoken Czech as they learn to use the language both as a means of communication and as a tool for reading and research. This year-long full course satisfies the foreign language requirement and prepares students for continued study of Czech in intermediate-level courses and for study or travel abroad in the Czech Republic.

An intermediate course in modern Czech language and culture for students with previous study of the language. Further development of vocabulary and oral expression within a comprehensive review of Czech grammar. All four major communicative skills (speaking, listening comprehension, reading, writing) are stressed as students learn to use the language both as a means of communication and as a tool for reading and research. Systematic study of word formation and other strategies are taught to help free students from excessive dependence on the dictionary and develop confidence in reading. Increased exposure to the differing registers of Czech in its literary and spoken forms. This year-long full course prepares students for continued study of Czech in advanced-level courses and for study or travel abroad in the Czech Republic.

Individualized study of the Czech language at the advanced level. Emphasis on reading with some practice in speaking and writing for professional and academic purposes. Conducted as a tutorial.

An introductory course in modern Polish language and culture, designed for students without previous knowledge who would like to speak Polish or use the language for reading and research. All four major communicative skills (speaking, listening comprehension, reading, writing) are stressed. Students are exposed to Polish culture through reading of prose and poetry as they learn to use the language both as a means of communication and as a tool for reading and research. This year-long full course satisfies the foreign language requirement and prepares students for continued study of Polish in intermediate-level courses and for study or travel abroad in Poland.

An intermediate course in modern Polish language and culture for students with previous study of the language. Further development of vocabulary and oral expression within a comprehensive review of Polish grammar. All four major communicative skills (speaking, listening comprehension, reading, writing) are stressed as students learn to use the language both as a means of communication and as a tool for reading and research. Introduction to Polish literature through fiction and poetry, history and contemporary events, including readings from literary masterpieces from Polish literature from the era of the Renaissance to contemporary times including Jan Kochanowski, Wisla-awa Szymborska, Zbigniew Herbert, Czesla-aw Mila-osz and others. Film clips and newspaper articles will introduce students to a variety of styles of contemporary Polish. Systematic study of word formation and other strategies are taught to help free students from excessive dependence on the dictionary and develop confidence in reading. This year-long full course prepares students for continued study of Polish in advanced-level courses and for study or travel abroad in Poland.

Individualized study of the Polish language at the advanced level. Emphasis on reading with some practice in speaking and writing for professional and academic purposes. Conducted as a tutorial.

An introductory course in modern Russian language and culture, designed for students without previous knowledge of Russian who would like to speak Russian or use the language for reading and research. All four major communicative skills (speaking, listening comprehension, reading, writing) are stressed. Students are introduced to Russian culture and the etiquette of social exchanges, and expand their knowledge of grammar and vocabulary through readings (including stories, biography, and poetry), videos, and class discussions. This year-long full course satisfies the foreign language requirement and prepares students for continued study of Russian in intermediate (B-level) courses and for study or travel abroad in Russian-speaking countries.

An intensive version of Russian A, covering the same material in a single semester. Class meets five days per week with five hours of the main section and three hours of small group speaking practice each week.

Grammar and vocabulary review for students with a Russian-speaking family background. The course covers the entire case system, verb conjugation, aspect, motion constructions, and other essential grammar topics. Emphasis on reading, writing, spelling, and word formation.

Introductory course to Russian language and culture through a selection from the verse and prose works of Russia's greatest poet, Alexander Pushkin (including The Bronze Horseman, excerpts from Eugene Onegin, shorter poems, and prose in The Queen of Spades). This literary and linguistic approach to Elementary Russian has a strong emphasis on reading authentic Russian, but all four major communicative skills (speaking, listening comprehension, reading, writing) are stressed. Covers all of the basics of Russian grammar, including all six cases, verbal conjugation, and verbs of motion.

An intermediate course in modern Russian language and culture for students with previous study of the language. Further development of vocabulary and oral expression within a comprehensive review of Russian grammar. All four major communicative skills (speaking, listening comprehension, reading, writing) are stressed as students learn to use the language both as a means of communication and as a tool for reading and research. Systematic study of word formation and other strategies are taught to help free students from excessive dependence on the dictionary and develop confidence in reading. Vocabulary is thematically organized to include such topics as self and family, education, work, human relationships, politics, and national attitudes and is reinforced through film and the reading of classical and contemporary fiction and history. Practice in the etiquette of common social situations (sociolinguistic competence). Computer exercises on selected topics. This year-long full course prepares students for continued study of Russian in advanced-level courses and for study or travel abroad in Russian-speaking countries.

An intensive version of Russian B, covering the same material in a single semester. Class meets five days per week with five hours of the main section and three hours of small group speaking practice each week. Readings may vary.

An intermediate course in Russian language and culture through reading of what is arguably 20th-century Russia's greatest novel, Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. This literary and linguistic approach to Intermediate Russian has a strong emphasis on reading authentic Russian, but all four major communicative skills (speaking, listening comprehension, reading, writing) are stressed as students learn to use the language both as a means of communication and as a tool for reading and research. Further development of vocabulary and oral expression within a comprehensive review of Russian grammar. Systematic study of word formation and other strategies are taught to help free students from excessive dependence on the dictionary and develop confidence in reading. This year-long full course prepares students for continued study of Russian in advanced-level courses and for study or travel abroad in Russian-speaking countries.

Continuing development of speaking and reading proficiency. Vocabulary work emphasizes verbs and verb government as essential to effective communication. Work on word formation to increase reading vocabulary. Texts for reading and discussion include works in prose, poetry, and film. Readings include a satirical tale by Shvartz, poetry of Akhmatova, and a film (Bykov's Scarecrow).

Introduction to the language of Russian newspapers, journals, and historical writing. Basic vocabulary for such areas as current events, including politics, history, economics, military issues, society, and the environment. Systematic study of word formation and other strategies are taught to help free students from excessive dependence on the dictionary and develop confidence in reading. Intended for students who desire a professional level of reading proficiency in the social sciences. Intensive work on morphology and supplementary work on oral comprehension.

Continuing work on vocabulary and grammar centering on verbs and verb government. Readings include works by Chekhov and Dostoevsky, poetry, and film.

Reading and discussion of topics in the areas of history, economics, politics, and current events. Continued work on grammar and vocabulary with written exercises and compositions. TV viewing for comprehension development.

For students who already have experience reading Russian periodicals. Readings in and analysis of current topics and their presentation in the Russian press. Examination of the history of selected periodicals. Viewing of Russian news programs and analysis of language and content.

Reading and discussion of classic and contemporary Russian literature. Continued work on vocabulary expansion and composition. Written exercises for reinforcement. Readings from authors such as Gogol, Chekhov, Bulgakov, Pasternak, Brodsky, and Bitov.

Through readings and film, we explore Russian cultural attitudes and self-images as socio-cultural context. Topics include cultural perceptions of self as nation and as cultural "mentality," the collective vs. the individual, attitudes toward friendship, the family and women, law, crime, prestige and success, and ethnic difference. Concentrates on vocabulary and phrasing, and includes extensive writing practice.

Emphasis on close reading and stylistic analysis of the Russian language with continued development of grammatical, sociolinguistic, strategic, and discourse competencies at an advanced level. Emphasis on reading with considerable practice in speaking, presenting, and writing for professional and academic purposes.

Examines different styles, identifies features in texts of different kinds, and interprets passages in literary texts used for stylistic effect. Writing exercises will focus on neutral style, vocabulary development, and phrasing. Intended for students who need a practical command of style and register in reading, speaking, and writing.

Intended for students who have already taken other department offerings. Reading, discussion, and writing on special topics not addressed in other courses. Conducted as a tutorial. Requires a course proposal to apply; acceptance is not automatic. Applications may be found on the department website under Resources.

An interdisciplinary introduction to major authors and themes of Slavic history and literature, focusing on relationships between literature, power, history, and myth. Theories of literary interpretation (including Russian Formalism and semiotics) as well as different approaches to placing literature in its social and political contexts. Readings introduce students to major figures in the Slavic literary traditions, including Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Platonov, Kundera, Hrabal, and others.

Fall term introduces students to Gogol's short fiction, read in the original, and explores a range of interpretive approaches. Spring term is devoted to a single topic and provides concentrators with a more intensive reading experience. This year's focus is on the life and short fiction and plays, read in the original, of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov.

For senior concentrators in Slavic Literature and Culture. Students work with a faculty advisor on a senior thesis or capstone project.

Students work with a faculty adviser on a senior thesis.

Introduction to Russian phonetics, phonemics, morphophonemics, and inflectional and derivational morphology. Course goal is to give a deeper understanding and appreciation of the regularities and complexities of Russian through a close study of its sounds and words.

Explores Russian culture of the 20th century, its evolution from the late Imperial to Post-WWII period; looks mainly (but not exclusively) at literature, dance and film, the three arts Russians were particularly proud of bringing to the West. Studies works of verbal, performance and wscreen arts in relation both to their own respective traditions and to each other, the back-and-forth from page to stage to screen. Examines texts, ballets and films in the context of politics, ideology, social and cultural developments. Main art movements to be looked at: Russian prerevolulationary Modernism; early Soviet takes on building a new art for the new life; the monumentalism of the 1930s; the "new simplicity" of the Thaw. Key figures include: Diaghilev, Bely, Stravinsky, Bauer, Vertov, Bulgakov, Prokofiev, Eisenstein, Pasternak, Akhmatova.

Investigates performance and theatricality in imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet contexts, in both art and life, through broad exploration of theoretical underpinnings (classical dramatic theory to contemporary performance studies) and case studies from drama, opera, ballet, film, musicals, performance art, religious ritual and folk festival, monarchy and court, mass spectacles, Cold War competitions and diplomacy, subcultures, and contemporary assertions of new orders.

Introduction to the life and works of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, focusing on reading short fiction and plays in the original. Explores Chekhov's approaches to depicting human character and psychological collisions and discusses main themes and motifs of his works: the search for meaning of life, impasses in communication, understanding of death and disease, generational and social change. Aims to enhance students' reading and interpretive skills and to teach some literary and critical terminology in Russian. Also addresses issues of reception, including film and theater adaptations of Chekhov's plays, and includes practice staging a play excerpt.

Studies Russia's rebels, deviants, martyrs, loners, and losers as emblems of national identity. Stories, films and poems that project Russia's distinctive obsessions with history and religion. Includes Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Leskov, Kharms, Platonov, Nabokov, Petrushevskaya, Prigov; films by Eisenstein, Tarkovsky, Askoldov, Sokurov.

Explores the literary and cultural histories of Russia's two capital cities, their "urban geographies" and representations in visual and performing arts. Includes Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Bely, Zamyatin, Bunin, Bulgakov, Nabokov, Erofeev, Bitov, Tolstaya, Pelevin, Sokurov, Balabanov, Bekmambetov.

A survey of the lyrics, narrative poems, fiction, and critical prose of Russia's "national poet." Close reading of the texts; attention to contemporary cultural issues. Lecture and discussion.

Reading of Dostoevsky's major works, with a view to showing how the problems they contain (social, psychological, political, metaphysical) are inseparable not only from his time but from the distinctive novelistic form he created.

Examines Nabokov's poetry, novels, short stories and essays from Russian, European and American periods. Attention to issues of literary modernism, play, cultural translation and memory in the wake of the Cold War. Additional readings from Chekhov, Proust, Borges, and others.

Readings of 18th- through 20th-century Russian literature, including prose and verse by Karamzin, Pushkin, Sergei Aksakov, Goncharov, Turgenev, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Tolstoy, and Gorky. Discussion focuses on contemporary cultural contexts and on theoretical issues.

Close reading of Gogol's short fiction, read in the original, with special attention to humor and narrative structure. We will also explore contextual issues and possible critical approaches.

A survey-style course that recreates several major moments of intersection between Polish and Jewish literatures. Both of these categories can be understood as placeholders for larger constellations of culture: from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to the Ashkenazic Pale. Starting with the medieval ghetto, the presence/absence of Polish Jews in Polish cultural memory forms one line of inquiry; Polin as a present/absent homeland in Jewish thought from the 16th through 21st centuries forms another. These two cultures have been intertwined for longer than they have been considered separately; we read them in order to place them once again in dialogue.

Examines Russian-Ukrainian literary relations from 1798 to 1905, with special focus on canon formation, ethnic, national and imperial identity, and the interrelation of literature, society, and ideology. Topics include Decembrist historicism, Romantic poetics and folklore, Slavophilism and populism, literature as subversion (kotljarevshchyna), the uses of translation, the reception of major writers (Gogol, Shevchenko, and others), and the imperial attempt to suppress "Ukrainophilism."

Focus on Ukrainian avant-garde literature and film, in the context of modernism, socialist realism, the impact of Stalinism, the famine (Holodomor), WWII and the Holocaust, late Sovietism and dissent, Crimea and the Tatars, collapse of the USSR and independence, varieties of post-modernism, and the present conflict with Russia. Also forays into visual art.

Examines main currents in Ukrainian intellectual and cultural expression from the eve of the Russian Revolution, through the formation and dissolution of the USSR, to the "Orange Revolution" (2004). Topics include populism vs. modernism, nationalism vs. socialism, Literary Discussion of the 1920s, Stalinism, Glasnost, linguistic, and national identity. Focus on literature, film (Dovzhenko, Paradzhanov, Illienko), and theater (Kurbas); guest lectures on music and art.

Overview of the major artistic and intellectual trends and close reading of key works by the major writers: Malczewski, Mickiewicz, Slowacki, Krasinski, and others. Focus also on the central role of Romanticism in Polish culture.

A survey of the history of the Symbolist movement in Russia with emphasis on close reading of poetry by its major figures.

The major themes and modes of Russian poetry from pre-Romanticism to "pure art." Selections from Zhukovsky, Batiushkov, Baratynsky, Yazykov, Lermontov, Tiutchev, Nekrasov, Fet, and others.

A course for students who want to read one of the great novels of the 19th century in the original Russian. To be tailored for students with different levels of Russian fluency.

Examines key works of Russian prose and drama between the turn of the twentieth century and the onset of the Second World War through the lens of the era's revolutionary upheavals. Special attention to questions of imagining and representing historical cataclysms as existential catastrophes that lay bare utopian aspirations and cultural anxieties about the possibilities of artistic innovation and esthetic tradition in times of trouble. Shorter works by Bely, Soloviev, Sologub, Gippius, Pilniak, Babel, Shklovsky, Zoshchenko, Trotsky, Platonov, Bulgakov, Olesha, Vsev. Ivanov, Erdman, Krzhizhanovsky.

A survey of major authors and key questions in 18th-century Russian literature: (r)evolutions in literary language; syllabo-tonic reform; style and genre systems; the status of literature in the Imperial state, etc. Studies Prokopovich, Trediakovsky, Lomonosov, Sumarokov, Fonvizin, Derzhavin, Bogdanovich, Karamzin.

A study of literary production, dissemination, and reception in selected periods of Russian literature from the Middle Ages to the present. Readings in social theory, cultural studies, literary criticism, and imaginative literature.

Reconstructs a historical context for the literary/visual aesthetic of the Austro-Hungarian grotesque. Focuses on the period 1867-1918, while also mapping psychoanalysis and the subconscious onto later, surrealist incarnations of the grotesque in the twentieth century. Special attention paid to the role of Jewish culture and other margins of empire. How are the history, theory, and affect of the grotesque determined by spatial and/or social peripherality? How is the nascent sense of identity of small nations and minor literatures informed in turn by the grotesque? Text include: Andric, Csath, Freud, Hasek, Kafka, Musil, von Rezzori, Roth, Sacher-Masoch, Schnitzler, Schulz, Svevo.

Introduction to the structure and history of Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian.

A survey of the major poets: Kotljarevs'kyj, Hulak and the pre-Romantics, Shevchenko, Kulish, Rudans'kyj, Franko, and Lesja Ukrajinka.

History of Prague and Bohemian culture from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century, including Kosmas's Chronicle of the Czechs, the medieval court of Charles IV, Jan Hus and the Hussite war, Renaissance learning under Rudolf II, Baroque literature and art, and the changing fates of Prague Jewish culture. Special emphasis on the development of Czech literature and the Czech literary language.

Close reading of major works of poetry and prose in the original Czech, with attention to the larger cultural currents of Central European modernism. Prose by Capek, Hasek, Vancura, Olbracht, Salda; poetry by Nezval, Halas, Holan, Orten, Kolar, and others.

This seminar reviews the standard texts and topics of pre-Revoluationary Russian intellectual history. Course readings include works by Chaadaev, Herzen, Belinsky, Chernyshevsky, Pisarev, Bakunin, Solovyov, and others.The seminar also considers methodological problems and how approaches to writing Russian intellectual history have evolved from the last half of the twentieth century to the post-Soviet era.

Seminar on post-1989 Russian literature, film, and culture, and on the challenges and pleasures of studying contemporary cultural processes. Includes Brodsky, Medvedev, Pelevin, Petrushevskaya, Prigov, Shvarts, Sorokin; German, Muratova, Sokurov. Combines individual research proposals with designing an undergraduate course.

Year-long bi-weekly interdisciplinary seminar on the production of social, cultural, and political space in Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. Physical and urban space will receive particular attention. Includes individual and collaborative work with digital tools for research, analysis, and presentation. Key questions: How can diverse mapping practices (geographical, scholarly and disciplinary, discursive, artistic) illuminate Eurasian cultural politics? How can we analyze cultural space as a dynamic product of cultural activity, as well as a framework for the evolution and transmission of beliefs, behaviors, memories, and values?

The Culture of Medieval Rus': Art, Architecture, Ritual, Literature.

Examines poetry, prose and visual arts together with cultural theory. Explores issues of innovation and cultural memory, art and politics, bilingualism and exile. Works by Mayakovsky, Malevich, Mandelshtam, Tsvetaeva, Babel, Shklovsky, Nabokov, Vertov, and Eisenstein.

Examines Russian culture from the 1950s to the present socialist realism to postcommunism. Topics: Socialist realist film, literature of the Gulag, writers' trials, non-conformist art and rethinking of history, utopia and kitsch. Works by Brodsky, Shalamov, Nabokov, Sinyavsky-Tertz, Tarkovsky, Muratova, and others.

Examines how poems create self-images for poets working in and after Russian modernism, including Khlebnikov, Vvedenskii, Mandel'shtam, Tsvetaeva, Barkova, Brodsky, Sedakova, Shvarts, Dragomoshchenko. Relies on literary and psychoanalytic theories of identity.

Poems, films, visual artifacts, and music alongside theories of loss. Focuses on non-narrative forms, with examples from Pushkin, Baratynsky, Fet, Brodsky, Shvarts; Tarkovsky, Shemiakin, Sokurov; Silvestrov, Sebald.

Examines Kievan and early Ukrainian literature. Topics include the system of genres of Kievan literature, the Renaissance and interaction with Polish literature, the confraternities, Vyshens'kyj, the Baroque, the Mohyla Academy, Skovoroda.

A survey of Ukrainian prose focusing on the avant-garde of the 1920s-1940s (Khvyl'ovyj, Johansen, Domontovych, Kosach) and the most recent period (Andijevs'ka, Andrukhovych, Izdryk and others).

Introduction to graduate study in Slavic. Selected topics in literary analysis, history, and theory.

An introductory course in modern Ukrainian language and culture, designed for students without previous knowledge who would like to speak Ukrainian or use the language for reading and research. All four major communicative skills (speaking, listening comprehension, reading, writing) are stressed. Students are exposed to Ukrainian culture through work with prose and poetry as they learn to use the language both as a means of communication and as a tool for reading and research. This year-long full course satisfies the foreign language requirement and prepares students for continued study of Ukrainian in intermediate-level courses and for study or travel abroad in Ukraine.

Individualized study of the Ukrainian language at the Intermediate level. Emphasis on reading with some practice in speaking and writing for professional and academic purposes. Conducted as a tutorial.

Individualized study of the Ukrainian language at Advanced level. Emphasis on reading with some practice in speaking and writing for professional and academic purposes. Conducted as a tutorial.