All courses from V91.0001 through V91.0004 meet three times a week. All lower-division Russian language courses are closed to native speakers except Russian Grammar and Composition I and II, V91.0005, V91.0006.

Elementary Russian I

V91.0001  Offered in the fall. 4 points per term.

Intended to give beginners a speaking and reading knowledge of the Russian language. Involves an introduction to the essentials of Russian grammar and the reading of graded texts, with special emphasis on the acquisition of an idiomatic conversational vocabulary. Combines the traditional grammatical approach with a conversational, inductive method.

Elementary Russian II

V91.0002- Offered in the spring. 4 points per term.

Intermediate Russian I

V91.0003  Prerequisite: V91.0002 or equivalent. Offered in the fall. 4 points.

Grammar review, vocabulary building, and drills in spoken Russian.

Intermediate Russian II

V91.0004  Prerequisite: V91.0003 or equivalent. Offered in the spring. 4 points.

Vocabulary building, idiomatic expressions, and drills in spoken Russian.

Russian Grammar and Composition I

V91.0005  Formerly Russian Grammar Review I. Prerequisite: V91.0002 or basic competence in spoken Russian. Offered in the fall. 4 points.

This course is designed for students who speak some Russian at home, but have virtually no reading and writing skills. Completion of this course satisfies the foreign language requirement.

Russian Grammar and Composition II

V91.0006  Formerly Russian Grammar Review II. Prerequisite: V91.0003, V91.0005, or basic competence in reading and writing Russian. Offered in the spring. 4 points.

Completion of this course satisfies the foreign language requirement.

The following advanced Russian courses are offered on a rotation basis:

Russian Film (viewing and discussion of Russian and Soviet films); Russian Press (reading and discussion of newspaper and magazine articles); Readings in Russian Literature (reading and discussion of short stories by Russian and Soviet writers); Soviet and Russian Theatre (reading, viewing, and analysis of Russian dramatic works with background readings on Russian theatre); and Social Issues in Russian Culture (reading and discussion of articles on important social and cultural topics).

Advanced Russian I

V91.0107  Prerequisite: V91.0004,V91.0005, V91.0006 or equivalent. Offered in the fall. 4 points.

Advanced Russian II

V91.0108  Prerequisite: V91.0004, V91.0005, V91.0006 or equivalent. Offered in the spring. 4 points.

Advanced Russian III

V91.0109  Formerly V91.0111. Prerequisite: V91.0004, V91.0005, V91.0006 or equivalent. Offered in the fall. 4 points.

Elementary Czech I and II

V91.0201, 0202  Fryscák. Offered in the fall and spring. 4 points.

Introduction to the basic skills—speaking and reading. Essentials of Czech grammar, reading of graded texts, and conversation on typical everyday subjects. Vocabulary building. Essentials of writing.

Intermediate Czech I and II

V91.0203, 0204  Fryscák. Offered every year. 4 points.

Grammar review. Reading and discussion of selected contemporary texts. Standard literary Czech and the spoken variety of the language. Vocabulary building and development of writing skill.

LITERATURE AND CIVILIZATION COURSES

All courses are conducted in English unless otherwise noted.

Introduction to Russian Literature I

V91.0811  Formerly Russian Literature in Translation I. Offered in the fall. 4 points.

A survey of the Russian literature of the first half of the 19th century, from romanticism to the beginning of realism. The reading list includes major works by Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, and Dostoyevsky. All works are read in translation.

Introduction to Russian Literature II

V91.0812  Formerly Russian Literature in Translation II. No prerequisites. Offered in the spring. 4 points.

A survey of the Russian literature of the second half of the 19th century, as well as selected works from the period between 1900 and 1917. Authors covered include Dostoyevsky, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Chekhov. All works are read in translation.

Gogol

V91.0828  Offered every other year. 4 points.

A critical examination of the great Ukrainian-Russian humorist’s short stories and of his unfinished novel Dead Souls.

Contemporary Central and East European Literature

V91.0832  Borenstein. Offered every other year. 4 points.

An examination of contemporary novels and short stories from Central and Eastern Europe (Poland, the former Czechoslovakia, the former Yugoslavia, Albania, and Hungary), primarily the literature of the last 50 years. The problems of “minor” literature, postmodernism, and the attempt to articulate “authentic” experience are emphasized. Authors read include Kafka, Kundera, Hrabal, Kosinski, Schulz, Gombrowicz, Kristof, Kadare, Kis, Pavic, and Ugresvi. All works are read in translation.

Utopia, Apocalypse, and the Millennium

V91.0833  Borenstein. Offered every other year. 4 points.

The development of utopianism in literature, philosophy, and political theory, as well as attempts to put utopian theory into action. What does it mean to posit a perfect world, and what is the relationship between such an ideal world and our less-than-perfect reality? What are the impulses behind antiutopianism? The current resurgence of utopianism and apocalypticism is examined (millenarian “cults,” the millennium bug, etc.). Readings include Plato, More, Bellamy, Dostoyevsky, Marx, Zamyatin, Orwell, Huxley, LeGuin, and Revelation.

Chekhov

V91.0837  Offered every other year. 4 points.

Study of major techniques in Chekhov’s short story writing; analysis of his influence on the development of the Russian and European novella; a close analysis of Chekhov’s drama (Three Sisters, Cherry Orchard, and Uncle Vanya) and its impact on Russian playwrights of the 20th century, as well as its relation to the development of Stanislavsky’s Moscow Art Theatre.

Dostoevsky

V91.0839  Offered every other year. 4 points.

The major philosophical and religious themes of Dostoyevsky as they are reflected in his works. Notes from the Underground, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Brothers Karamazov, and major short stories form the main part of the course. Examines Dostoevsky’s concepts of freedom, history, and Christianity.

Theory of the Avant-Garde, East and West, 1890-1930

V91.0841  Identical to V29.0841 and V41.0730. Offered every other year. 4 points.

Theory and practice of the European avant-garde in art and literature, 1890-1930. General cultural and historical approach to the avant-garde, with close readings of some of its key productions. Topics: cubism, Italian futurism, Russian cubo-futurism, imagism and vorticism, dadaism, constructivism, and surrealism. Stresses aesthetic, historical, and political interconnections between the Russian avant-garde and the West. Readings are in English, but comparative literature majors are encouraged to read works in the original language.

Russian Literature in the Original I

V91.0847  Formerly Modern Russian Literature I. Prerequisite: At least one semester of Advanced Russian or near-native fluency in Russian. Offered every fall. 4 points.

Students read Russian prose and poetry in the original language. Class discussions and papers are also in Russian.

Russian Literature in the Original II

V91.0848  Formerly Modern Russian Literature II. Prerequisite: At least one semester of Advanced Russian or near-native fluency in Russian. Offered every spring. 4 points.

Students read Russian prose and poetry in the original language. Class discussions and papers are also in Russian.

Introduction to Soviet Cinema

V91.0850  Iampolski. Offered every year. 4 points.

An examination of the history of Russian cinema from its beginnings. The main focus is on landmarks of cinematic art and on the cultural specificity of Russian cinema. The survey also includes questions of cinema and politics

(cinema as a propaganda tool), and cinema and the market. Artists discussed include Eisenstein, Vertov, Pudovkin, Kuleshov, Barnet, Shub, Kozintsev, Trauberg, and Tarkovsky. Topics include cinema and revolution, the cinema of the Russian avant-garde and constructivism, cinema and totalitarianism, and socialist realism in film.

Soviet and Post-Soviet Literature

V91.0852  Borenstein. Offered every other year. 4 points.

This course is an introduction to Russian 20th-century fiction, concentrating on the two periods of greatest cultural ferment: 1920s modernism and late/post-Soviet postmodernism. After the 1917 revolution, Bolshevik ideology held that the Old World would be utterly destroyed, to be replaced by a new society populated by New Soviet Men. The experience of Russia in the 20th century can be viewed as the failed attempt to put radical theory into everyday practice, a grand scheme of social engineering that would inevitably be reflected in the country’s literature.

Legacies of Serfdom and Slavery in Russian and American Literature

V91.0854  Lounsbery. Offered every other year. 4 points.

Readings and discussions address how American slaves and Russian serfs wrote and were written about in the two countries’ literary traditions. Topics include both the ways in which subjugated people attempted to represent themselves to the dominant culture and the difficulties that members of the dominant culture confronted in writing about people whose experiences were largely inaccessible to them. Particular attention is paid to how categories such as “slave,” “peasant,” “white,” and “black” have changed over time and to how unfree people worked to turn perceived-as cultural lacks into aesthetic advantages.

INDEPENDENT STUDY COURSES

Open only to students majoring in the department.

Internship

V91.0980

Native speakers of Russian may obtain internship credit by working with Russian language students and assisting language instructors. See the director of undergraduate studies for further details. Internship in other organizations requires description of duties and approval by the director of undergraduate studies.

Independent Study

V91.0997, 0998

A maximum of 8 points of independent study may be counted toward an undergraduate major (not toward a minor). Before registering, students must submit a one-page typed description of the proposed project to the director of undergraduate studies and the proposed professor.

Students should also note the courses Russia Between East and West, V55.0510, and Russia Since 1917, V55.0528, offered in the World Cultures sequence of the Morse Academic Plan. With the permission of the director of undergraduate studies, these courses can count toward major/minor.