Advanced Conversation Practicum

Students in this class will focus on expanding their lexicon and their syntactical repertoire in scholarly and journalistic speech and on preparing scholarly presentations in their area of interest. Main themes will be political, economic, cultural, and social life in Russia, as students approach interesting and sometimes controversial topics concerning contemporary Russian society and culture. Students will read assigned articles from scholarly and popular sources; watch videos on Russian politics, society, and culture; discuss these materials; and write compositions. Grades will be determined according to participation in class discussions, weekly compositions, an oral presentation, and a final oral examination.

Summer 2009, Summer 2010, Summer 2013

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This course will focus on the study of advanced Russian grammar. Daily homework assignments and in-class exercises. Written tests and quizzes.

Summer 2009, Summer 2012

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This course will focus on the use of various syntactical constructions and their meanings; it will also illuminate different functional styles. Students will gain a higher level of proficiency by developing their skills in structuring sentences, word order, and the use of punctuation marks and connective words. They will learn a variety of word combinations, the way word connections function, how word combinations are used in a sentence, and how certain structures are used in discourse. The course will help students to develop their skills in the formation of complex sentences. Students will be given 3 written exams; they will prepare oral and written assignments, 3 essays and presentations based on the texts.

Required text: Ivanova, I.S., Karamysheva, L.M., Kupriianova, T.F., Miroshnikova, M.G. Sintaksis. Prakticheskoe posobie po russkomu iazyku kak inostrannomu. St. Petersburg: Zlatoust.

Summer 2009, Summer 2010

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This course will focus on expanding students’ active vocabulary through the intensive study of Russian synonyms. Special attention will be paid to recent developments in the Russian language and to describing nuances of meaning between seemingly similar words. Daily homework assignments and frequent quizzes.

Summer 2012

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Advanced Composition & Stylistics

The course is designed to develop students' understanding of the grammatical and lexical norms and peculiarities of the functional styles of the modern Russian language. Students will be taught to stylistically evaluate language variant and to classify language mistakes; to distinguish stylistic features of various texts through analysis; they will also acquire skills to produce texts of different styles and genres.

Summer 2010, Summer 2011

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In this course, we focus on different types of texts, e.g. personal diary, essay, non-fiction forms, fictional short stories, literary critics, etc. We explore the relationships between fact and writing, work on various texts, and read different kinds of texts, etc. We read diaries of Dostoyevsky and Gogol, essays of Shklovsky and Merezhkovsky, short stories by Babel, Chekhov, and Tolstaya, scholarly articles by Gumilev, Soloviov, and Rozanov.

Every week is devoted to certain literary genres. During class meetings students participate in improvisation and write their texts on a randomly chosen topic. They prepare written assignments and produce written works in different genres.

Once a week students are invited to practice their skills in a certain genre by participating in a literary salon and in a forum where they discuss and criticize fictional, scholarly and their own writings.

Summer 2011, Summer 2012

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Conversational Russian

This course will provide conversastional practice, focusing on expandning specialized vocabulary and developing fluency. Many discussion topics will be taken from current events.

Summer 2011

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The rich word-formation possibilities of the Russian language allow for formation according to certain models. As a result of word-formation processes, there are many “clusters”—often dozens of words—that are created from one common root. Prefixes and suffixes add nuances of meaning and emotional coloring. Knowledge of word formation will help with comprehension of Russian texts, where authors frequently use neologisms that do not appear in dictionaries. This course will focus on the many ways in which Russian can create new words. Students’ grades will be based on in-class work, homework assignments, two tests, and a final written paper.

Summer 2013

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The course will focus on helping students toward a better understanding of Russian culture through the tool of Russian canned jokes. We will discuss the conceptualization of the world in Russian jokelore (what is taken for granted in Russian jokes and what one need to know to understand them) and give an account of the rules of telling jokes in Russian as well as formal means of introduction of a joke text into discourse. We will pay special attention to the main characters of Russian jokes recognizable by the description of appearance, way of behavior, clothes and other accessories and their “linguistic masks”, which correlate with their “behavior masks”. In addition, we will analyze ways of using jokes in the media (in particular, indirect allusions to jokes). The course grade will be based on student homework, participation in class discussion and a final exam.

Summer 2009

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Russia Between East and West: a Choice of Priorities

Russia's historical and cultural development has been largely dominated by the «Eastern» and the «Western» vectors. Even in the Middle Ages Alexander Nevsky had to make a hard choice between the Catholic West and Mongol Hоrdes. In the 21st century the question has remained pressing for both Russian politicians and the public: what model should be chosen for Russian modernization — the Chinese (Eastern) or European (Western) one.

At the same time, it's extremely popular to think of Russia as a unique type of civilization having her own special design being neither the West nor the East.

This graduate course is to address key problems in Russian history and present an overview of the most important terms and concepts crucial for both developing better understanding of classical historical texts and literature and the current situation.

Summer 2012

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This course deals with various genres of the Russian political discourse including political journalism, political sciences, political slogans, political jokes, programs of political parties, speeches of political leaders, etc. In particular, we will analyze present-day Russian political texts and discuss radical changes in the vocabulary of the modern Russian political and administrative system (names of administrative and political institutions and positions). We will pay special attention to the manipulative ploys used in Russian political discourse. The course grade will be based on student homework, participation in class discussion and a final exam.

Summer 2009

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The Great Patriotic War in Soviet an Post-Soviet Culture

The Great Patriotic War is one of the most important events in the formation of present-day Russia. This course examines forms and types of memory of the war as a cultural phenomenon expressed in literature, art, music, cinema, architecture, and sculpture. Memory of the war has developed under the influence of official government policies, the spiritual transformation of society, external influences, the evolution of artistic styles, and the globalization of historical memory. This course will provide an overview of the war and examine the cultural legacy of “The Great Patriotic War.” Special attention will be given to the artistic legacy of the war, historical and artistic works about the war, the development of architecture and memorials dedicated to the war and its memory, and contemporary forms of memory about the war and its place in Russian culture. Students will participate in “round tables” about each theme and will present projects on related topics.

Summer 2013

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Poets Against the Authorities: from G. Derzhavin to J. Brodsky

Poetry has always played a unique role in the Russian history. Due to the absence of possibilities for legal political life and political action, poets sometimes took the place of politicians. Accordingly, the state authorities always desired to convert Russian poets into their allies, or persecuted them as political enemies (i.e. exiled them, expelled them from the country, imprisoned, and even sent them to death). In 19th Century authoritarian Russia or the 20th Century totalitarian Soviet Union we often find situations that could not be imaginable in ‘normal’ democratic societies: the leaders of the state (such as Alexander I, Nicholas I, and Joseph Stalin) carefully read the particular poetic works of the major Russian poets and carried special resolutions about them; some sessions of the State Council in the Imperial Russia or the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party were completely devoted to recent poetic works and their possible impact on the inner condition of the society and on the foreign state affairs...

In our course we will examine the reasons of this unique attention to the poets and poetry paid by the State. The political views of different Russian poets, as well as their influence on Russian society will be a subject of our special examination. We will explore works and ideas of such poets as Gavriil Derzhavin, Alexander Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov, Fedor Tyutchev, Nikolai Nekrasov, Alexander Blok, Osip Mandelshtam, Anna Akhmatova, Boris Pasternak, Joseph Brodsky. We will examine some cases when the poetry became the major issue of political life: Pushkin ‘southern exile’, the case of his poem Andre Chenier, the Central Committee Resolution on the journals Zvezda and Leningrad (particularly against Anna Akhmatova), Pasternak’s Nobel Prize scandal, or trials around Joseph Brodsky (charged with “parasitism”).

Summer 2010

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In his brilliant essay The Apotheosis of a Mask Vladimir Nabokov called Gogol’s work “a grotesque and grim nightmare making black holes in the dim pattern of life.” Reading Gogol’s masterpieces, from his earlier Romantic tales to fantastic Petersburg’s short stories, from his eminent comedy An Inspector General to his mysterious novel/poem Dead Souls, students will learn to distinguish the writer’s life and artistic strategies. We will explore Gogol’s work within the broad literary and cultural contexts of his time. Students will write weekly one-page response papers and a final paper.
Readings:
Невский проспект
Нос
Записки сумасшедшего
Шинель
Ревизор
Мертвые души

Secondary literature (articles for discussion)
Б. Эйхенбаум. Как сделана «Шинель» Гоголя
О. Проскурин. Посмертное братство: Как Гоголь стал Пушкиным, а Пушкин — Гоголем

Summer 2009, Summer 2012

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Russia and the USA: from «perestroika» to «reset»

The «image» and the attitude to the USA in Russian political life and public sphere are of utmost importance. A lot of Russia's political processes can be understood only in the context of their proper understanding. Intriguingly, there are two co-existing images of the USA in Russian mass culture - «demonized» and «romanticized».
The course aimed at graduate students is focused on the analysis of Russia's and America's misperception and stereotype formation process in mass culture as well as political manipulations in this field since the Cold War years and up to the present moment.

Great emphasis is going to be placed on the recent years and the latest developments closely connected with the ideas of «reset» in Russian-American relations accompanied by a thorough analysis of contradictions which have arisen in the context of this policy's implementation.

Summer 2012

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Prose Works of the Russian Modernist Poets of the 20th Century

Some major Russian modern poets were at the same time outstanding masters of the Russian prose. Their novels, short stories or memoirs were concerned with the psychological biography of an intellectual (poet, artist, etc.) in the period of crisis and despair (such as wars, revolutions, social catastrophes, the changes of the entire social order). In our course we will focus on the following works: The Noise of Time (Shum vrememi, 1925) by Osip Mandelshtam (the internationally acclaimed critic D. S. Mirsky placed this work ‘on the first place among the most important books of recent times’); Cynics (Tsiniki, 1928), the novel by poet-imaginist Anatoly Mariengof (the Nobel Prize winner Joseph Brodsky treated this novel as ‘one of the most innovative books in Russian Literature), The Goat Song (Kozlinaia pesn’, 1928) by Konstantin Vaginov, a member of OBERIU, the last Soviet avant-garde literary group, ‘The Story’ (Povest’, 1929) and ‘Safe Conduct’ (Okhrannaia gramota, 1931) by Boris Pasternak – the prose works, which in many respects anticipated his famous Doktor Zhivago. We will read the prose of these authors against the background of their innovative poetry.

Students will read about 25-30 pages for each class session. They will compose short papers (4) as well as a final paper.

Summer 2010

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The History of the House of Romanov

This year marks the four-hundredth anniversary of the coming to power of the Romanovs. The course will offer an in-depth analysis of the role the Romanov family from 1613 to 1917. Students will be challenged to see the world through the eyes of the Romanovs, including how they saw their historic mission; how they brought up their children to be ready for ruling; how they created a special circle around the royal family; and how they interacted with the world around them. The Romanov family’s strict rules of conduct and personal myths, legends, and superstitions will be examined. Foreign relations will also be examined in the context of the international positioning of the ruling house: political alliances, dynastic marriages, and their participation in various international projects. Russian internal attitudes toward the Romanovs and the image of the Romanovs in Russian literature, theatre, visual arts, and movies will also be examined.

Summer 2013

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The course centers around the first part of Nabokov’s work, the so-called “Russian Nabokov” (1920-1930). Students will read and analyze the early novels, such as Mashen’ka, Luzhin’s Defense, and Invitation to a Beheading, as well as a selection of the best of Nabokov’s short stories. We will examine Nabokov’s encrypted texts against the background of European literature, film, and art, as well as in the context of Russian and Soviet culture. Students will discuss the writer’s artistic and philosophical games, and his deceptive and intricate prose technique. Students will write weekly short papers and a final paper.

Summer 2013

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The goal of the course is to analyze the answers given by outstanding Russian writers of the Imperial period to questions that remain important today: “What is the Russian Empire? What did it bring to Russia and to other nations? What can we expect from it in the future? Will it end, and if so, for what reasons?” These questions provoked different answers from Gavriil Derzhavin, Aleksandr Pushkin, Aleksei Tolstoi; historians and political commentators Nikolai Karamzin and Aleksander Gertsen (Herzen); and prose writers Ivan Goncharov, Nikolai Leskov, and Lev Tolstoi. Their answers range from ecstatic apologies for the Empire, to attempts to find a basis for Russia’s ‘special mission’ as intermediary between West and East, to harsh and devastating criticism. The course will focus on well-known ‘classic’ texts (long poems of Pushkin, Lev Tolstoi’s story “Hadji Murat”) as well as lesser known and even forgotten texts without which, however, it is impossible to understand the problem of ‘Empireness’ in all its complexity (Nikolai Leskov’s “Na kraiu sveta”, Lev Tolstoi’s “Za chto?”, and others). Along with poetry and prose, we will be reading examples of ‘travel literature’ and political writings (which nevertheless also remain brilliant literary texts): Nikolai Karamzin’s ‘Zapiska o drevnei i novoi Rossii’ (excerpts), Gertsen articles on the ‘Polish question’, Pushkin’s ‘Puteshestvie v Arzrum’ and Ivan Goncharov’s ‘Fregat Pallada’ (excerpts). Students will be required to give a class presentation and to write three short papers and a final paper.

Summer 2009

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Second Language Teaching Methodology

This course acquaints students with current theories, models, and practices employed in the field of second/foreign language acquisition while briefly surveying the history of approaches to second/foreign language teaching. Students will also examine major issues in second language classroom research. Students will engage in an on-going discussion about objectives and standards for foreign language teaching, including the national standards, Standards for Foreign Language Learning: Preparing for the 21st Century, and the Proficiency Guidelines of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), types of instruction (i.e., contextualized language instruction, content-based and content-enriched instruction, etc.), learning styles and strategies, individual learner variables (i.e., aptitude, motivation, proficiency, affective filter, etc.), the role of technology in foreign language teaching, assessment of teaching/learning, the role of identity in second/foreign language learning and teaching. The course also incorporates guest talks by Russian language pedagogues and classroom observations. Students will develop techniques for teaching and testing foreign language skills, curriculum development, lesson planning, and material selection. They will also have practical experience through preparing and teaching mini-lessons. By the end of the course participants will prepare their teaching portfolios. Course required for DML candidates. Coursepack.

Summer 2009

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The Civil Rights and Dissident Movement in Russia

This course considers civil rights and dissident movements from the Thaw period to the present. Special attention will be given to analysis of the difficulties and contraditions of the creation of a civil society in Russia.

Summer 2011

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History of Soviet Foreign Policy, 1950s – 1980s

This course is dedicated to one of the most dynamic and contradictory periods in Soviet history, a time that combined in an astounding way criticism of the Stalinist cult of personality and the Krushchev Thaw with processes of re-Stalinization. Foreign policy was equally contradictory: the struggle for disarmament and the search for new principles in relations with the outside world were combined with major crises in foreign policy – in the Caribbean, Czechoslovakia, and Afghanistan, among other places. Cultural life in the Soviet Union was also extraordinary: the culture of the 1960s, the dissident movement, artistic breakthroughs combined with the growth of ideological censorship – all of this formed the unique cultural world of the postwar Soviet generation. The course will examine major political processes of the second half of the twentieth century, in which the USSR played a key role in world politics; it will also provide the background to study the formation of the Russian foreign policy outlook of the 21st century. Students will be required to participate actively in class discussions and comment on assigned readings, to make an in-class presentation, and to write brief assignments and a final exam or paper

Summer 2009

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Operation Successor: Mechanisms of Power in Contemporary Russia

The contradictory nature of democratization and Russia’s peculiar transition from Communism predetermined the formation of certain traits of modern Russian political power. This was particularly evident in the process of presidential succession during which, while the outer appearance of democratic processes was preserved, completely different communicative patterns were established. One of the key problems is the level of trust between power and a society that has gone through profound transformations. The sheer scale of change in Russia is manifested in radical changes in virtually all spheres of political life and the pressing character of the non-political agenda in political discourse. Thus the course will also be devoted to issues in culture, science, and education, as well as to the role of expert commissions in the development of contemporary Russian politics. The course will also focus on the major personalities in Russian politics and their impact on political decision-making. Students will also learn contemporary political vocabulary. Students will be required to participate actively in class discussions and comment on assigned readings, to make an in-class presentation, and to write brief assignments and a final exam or paper.

Summer 2009

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Russia from the 9th through 21st Centuries: In Search of Identity

This course surveys Russian cultural and social history from the middle ages to the present, while exploring Russia’s distinctive cultural identity and its representation in literature and art. Russia’s cultural self-reflection is shown as a dialectical process embracing evolutionary and revolutionary stages, periods of continuity and rupture. The chief objective of the course is to understand Russia’s changing cultural self-perspective against the changing socio-historical context. As the course proceeds from one historical period to another, we will witness and try to explain why some facets of Russian cultural identity remain intact (immune to the changing historical and social conditions), while others are rendered obsolete. Among issues discussed are: Russia’s missionary ambition, its positioning itself vis-à-vis other countries and cultures, the tension between patriotic and dissident tendencies, and the changing cultural codes and rituals. The course materials draw on chronicles and folk tales, homilies, epistolary texts, philosophical treatises, literary works, memoires, literary criticism and journalism, trade treaties, manifestos, historical readings, paintings, cultural-analytical readings, films, opera and ballet.

Summer 2010

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The Caucasus in Russian Culture

For over two hundred years, the Caucasus has occupied a unique place in the political and cultural life of the Russian empire, Soviet Union, and Russian Federation. Wars, ethnic cleansing, and mass deportations have occurred here. This course aims to demonstrate the complexity of the “Caucasus question” and examine its many echoes in Russian culture from Romanticism through Postmodernism. The course’s core readings include works by the greatest authors of the past two centuries (Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy, Mandelshtam, Pasternak) and also works by lesser-known but important writers (Marlinskii, Polonskii, Makanin). The course will also examine several films on the Caucasus theme, from Nikoloz Shengelaya’s Eliso (1928) through Aleksei Uchitel’s Captive (2008).

Summer 2013

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Russian Formalism: Theory, Literature, Cinema

The Russian Formalism is definitely one of the most renowned intellectual trends of the 20th century Russia. A famous British scholar Terry Eagleton claimed that the theory of literature started in 1917 when a young Russian formalist Viktor Shklovsly published his pioneering essay Art as Device. Students will read and discuss the most acclaimed works (critical essays, academic articles, and short fiction) by Viktor Shklovsky, Boris Eikhenbaum, Yury Tynianov, and Lidia Ginzburg to explore connections between Russian formalism and Russian Modernism (in arts, literature, and cinema.) The lectures and discussions will be widely supplemented by clips from movies made by formalist authors. Students will write weekly one-page response papers and a final paper.

Readings:
Виктор Шкловский.

Искусство как прием.
Письмо о России и в Россию.
Zoo, или Письма не о любви.
Рецензия на эту книгу (с. 380).
Об историческом романе и о Юрии Тынянове (глава о «Подпоручике Киже»).

Борис Эйхенбаум.

Как сделана «Шинель» Гоголя.
Из книги «Мой временник» (По мостам и проспектам: Из автобиографии ).
Проблемы киностилистики
О Викторе Шкловском.

Юрий Тынянов.

Литературное сегодня.
Литературный факт.
Об основах кино.
Либретто фильма «Шинель».
Подпоручик Киже (повесть)

Лидия Гинзбург.
Из записных книжек (записи 1920-х годов).

Movies:

Шинель (Сценарий Ю. Тынянова)
3-я Мещанская (Сценарий Виктора Шкловского и А. Роома)
Поручик Киже (Сценарий Ю. Тынянова. Музыка С. Прокофьева)

Summer 2012

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Russian Avant-Garde Poetry: Theory and Practice

Almost all twentieth-century Russian poets familiar to Western readers – Akhmatova, Mandelshtam, Mayakovsky, Khlebnikov, Pasternak, Zabolotsky, Kharms, and others – belonged to that broad literary movement in the first decades of the previous century generally called the avant-garde or avantgardism; however, these poets are usually studied in isolation, without their broader literary context. Yet in order to understand the essence of their poetic experiments and achievements, and thus to evaluate their significance, it is necessary to examine their work within historical context, as a part of the activity of certain literary groups and schools. This course will examine the work of great poets of the 1910s to 1930s within this context. We will focus on literary groups including Acmeism (and the Guild of Poets), Futurism (and LEF), Constructivism (LTsK), Centrifuge, and OBERIU. We will examine the relationship of the literary practice of these great twentieth-century poets and their esthetic reflections, particularly those expressed in the declarations and manifestos put out by each group. We will also examine great critical responses to these groups and directions, such as Viktor Zhirmunsky’s article “Preodolevshie simvolizm”, Kornei Chukovsky’s articles on Futurism, and others. We will attempt to understand what traits of “group aesthetics” were of greatest significance for the work of these poets, and which ones they ‘overcame’ in the process of literary evolution, opening the field for further development and poetic renewal. There will be a class presentation, three short papers, and a final paper.

Summer 2009

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The History of Civilizations in Eurasia

A consideration of Russia's place in and relationship with Central Asia and the Caucasus. The course will include an analysis of the historical development of non-Russian peoples in these areas and their encournters with the Russian empire.

Summer 2011

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This course offers a fundamentally new reading of the central works of the Russian poet Aleksandr Pushkin (1799-1837) and reexamines his literary evolution. The course will examine Pushkin’s works in the context of European literature, culture, and political events. We will consider Pushkin as a Russian and a European writer and political thinker. Much attention will be given to comparative analyses of Pushkin’s works and their European (and sometimes American) intellectual sources. Course readings will include Pushkin’s “canon” and also his lesser-known works such as diaries, critical articles, and travelogues.

Summer 2013

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Russian Folk Culture: Its Sources, Traditions, and Art

Russian folk culture is important for understanding the country and its people and explains much about today’s Russia. This course will examine the roots of Russian folk culture, types of traditional homes, the Russian folk calendar and life cycle, family and wedding traditions, folk art, and folklore and its “cultural heroes.” Students will not only learn about folk culture, but will learn to make representative items, such as dolls and combs, prepare long-popular Russian dishes, perform ritual songs, and play games that were played in Russian villages. Assignments will include a final project and presentation.

Summer 2013

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Analysis of the most significant reforms in Russian history helps to penetrate into the logic of modern Russian modernization. The starting point of the course is Peter the Great and his reforms, which resulted in the creation of a new type of state, new mode of life, new world outlook and relations with other countries. Peter’s reforms brought Russia to a different quality of existence and history but at the same time highlighted the limitations of such modernization.

The history of the 18th century is marked by a set of reforms undertaken by Catherine the Second. A special place in the course is reserved for analyses of the reforms aimed at the abolition of serfdom – starting with the first timid attempts to “modernize” it up to the decision for complete abolition. Given the importance of the “peasant issue” in Russia, Stolipin’s reforms, which proved to be way ahead of their time, are of great interest and importance. The Soviet epoch is to be explored through analysis of Stalin’s modernization, Khrushchev’s reforms and various attempts to make the Soviet economy more efficient in the 1960’s. The closing theme of the course is the analysis of the modern attempts to modernize Russia. Together with reforms themselves the course is focused on the most prominent Russian reformers as well as the feedback on their policy coming from the grass-roots level.

Summer 2010

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The Russian Fairy Tale: Fools, Villains, Magic Helpers and Their Use in Soviet Culture)

This seminar introduces students to the structural classification of Russian fairy tales and then focuses on the techniques Russian writers and filmmakers of different ideological persuasions and different periods of Soviet history use to harness the fairy tale's narratives, stylistics, and protagonists for the purpose of promoting or undermining Soviet values and mentalities.

Summer 2011

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From the Soviet Music Industry to Russian Show-Business

The existence of popular music in the USSR presents a peculiar case that begins with the all-mighty Union of composers, the state recording monopoly 'Melodiia', ideological guidance from the communist party and komsomol, and strict control in the media. Over the transitional period of perestroika and glasnost this was transformed into a version of western-style media, presenting some rather unique showbusiness elements, but in a heavily mutated form, containing some rather unique elements - both in musical styles and management. Social, economic and culturological aspects of the Russian pop industry will be illustrated by portraits of typical well-known performers, their songs and videos. Issues covered in the course will include piracy, censorship and musical media policy. Students will write frequent short essays on related topics of their preference.

Summer 2012

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Pushkin in Russian Culture

This course attempts to answer the question of how Aleksandr Pushkin became, in Apollon Grigorev's formulation, "our everything." Why, over the last two hundred years, have groups of every possible aesthetic and political position claimed Pushkin as their own, and how have they interpreted his image and his works? Students will read some of Pushkin's key works but focus mainly on what various cultural figures have said about him over the last two centuries.

Summer 2011

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The course will examine the history of Russian cinema from the silent era to the 21st century. The study of cinema in prerevolutionary Russia, the Soviet Union, and the post-Soviet epoch will include topics such as technological and cultural developments and exploration of significant directors and genres of these periods. Students will watch films that belong to popular culture, as well as films outside the mainstream. Special emphasis will be given to comedy, the genre that survived during the Stalin and Brezhnev eras. Films of world-renowned directors Eisenstein, Aleksandrov, Tarkovsky, Aleksei German, and others will be screened. The course incorporates readings of literary works—e.g., Zoshchenko, Chekhov, Yuri German—that reflect the content of the films, as well as detailed analyses of the cinematic works. The course includes two films screenings weekly, four essays, a journal, and a final paper.

Summer 2009, Summer 2013

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Russian Intelligentsia in Soviet Cinema

This course is designed as a study of the concept of the Russian Intelligentsia in Soviet cinema. Films will be examined in the cultural context from a historical, ideological, and an aesthetic perspective to present the main images regarding this subject in the Soviet cinema. The films will show the ways and the transformations of the Russian intelligentsia from the Decembrists, nihilists, and Chekhov’s nobles in the 19th century to the Soviet intelligentsia after the Revolution up to the Khrushchev and Brezhnev eras. Students will investigate the role of cinema as a mechanism of the construction of the national collective consciousness.

By the end of the course, students will be able to use methods of textual and contextual film analysis. The course incorporates readings of the literary works and detailed analyses of the cinematic works—students will read excerpts from literary works by Turgenev, Goncharov, Chekhov, Bulgakov, Aksenov and critical essays by Gasparov, Firsov, and others. The course includes two film screenings weekly, five essays and a final paper.

Summer 2012

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Russian Literature on the Screen

The course will investigate the relationship between two arts: literature and film. Literary works have always attracted filmmakers. The recent popularity of TV miniseries based on classical works of Russian literature has heated debates on the issues of fidelity and the supposed inferiority of film to literature. We will discuss the limits of artistic freedom in adapting literary original to the screen, cinematic means of the transformation of text into visual narrative, and different approaches to film adaptation analysis. We will examine attempts of Russian filmmakers throughout the history of the Russian/Soviet cinema to adapt various literary genres to the screen: poems, short stories, novels and drama. The course will incorporate readings of the original works of literature and detailed analysis of the cinematic adaptation. In addition to class meetings, weekly screenings will be required.

Summer 2010

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Russia and the CIS Countries, 1991-2010

The Commonwealth of Independent States, a group of newly independent states brought into being by the collapse of the Soviet Union, has an extremely significant influence not only on domestic but also on foreign policy of Russia. At the same time, Russia is their major neighbor holding the key to their own development and success. Today CIS countries are getting deeper and deeper plunged into the competition among major global actors: Russia, the USA, the EU, Turkey and China are all seeking for their own ways to secure influence in these states. This competition for influence is a drastic change of the framework of the whole system of world politics as well as the concept of global and regional leadership. The system is characterized by rising tension and contradictions among the major blocks and alliances. The course looks at not only various political and economic issues, but also major cultural aspects and patterns of communication.

Summer 2010

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Culture Shock: RUssian Culture of the 21st Century

An in-depth examination of Russian popular culture, literature, and cinema of the 21st century.

Summer 2011

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Text, Context, Intertext: Readings and New Media in the 21st Century

The goal of this course is to develop students’ skills in reading and interpreting contemporary texts in the post-Soviet era. Students will learn how to comprehend the background of the text, to grasp the meaning of the context, and to distinguish intertexts. Students will work with different kinds of new media texts including online news, social media excerpts, tweets, forums, YouTube videos, etc. They will read articles and essays of Shenderovich, Novodvorskaya, and Rubinshtein, and short stories of Tolstaya, Pelevin, and Prilepin. In class, students will get practice in examining and interpreting readings and participate in the discussion of texts, whether assigned or found by the students themselves. They will prepare written assignments and produce various texts, ranging from essays to short fan fiction stories.

Summer 2013

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Russia & International Organizations in the 21st Century

The course focuses on the analysis of one of Russia’s most complex foreign policy issues – Russia's search for its place in the system of contemporary international relations. Russia’s loss of “Great Power” status after the collapse of the Soviet Union brought about a serious crisis in Russia's foreign affairs practices, and international relations in the 21st century are shaped by a different set of challenges. Reactions to outside organizations are colored by nostalgia about the past and a struggle within Russia's political elite about the country’s place in world politics. This course will include a thorough exploration of major documents, analytical papers, and various expert opinions, as well as an in-depth study of public opinion and political rhetoric.

Summer 2013

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Rock Music in Russia and the USSR

This course will trace the emergence and development of rock and roll music - initially an exotic American influence which later grew into bona fide Russian genre - in the Soviet Union and, subsequently, the Russian Federation. As in the west, the musical developments in rock went hand in hand with ever-changing youth cults, social trends and cultural shocks: from the 'styliagi' of the 50s to Beatlemania and the Russian hippy movement of the 60s and 70s, to protest-driven 'Russian rock' of the 80s and the current contradictory situation. Lectures will be accompanied by audio and video recordings, as well as selected feature films. Course assignments will include essays on Soviet and Russian rock acts and oral reports.

Summer 2012

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Intertextuality in Post-Soviet Russian Culture

This course aims to improves students' cultural literacy by examining key phrases, texts, films, current events, names, jokes and other concepts of the last twenty years that are frequently referenced by Russians.

Summer 2011

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The course is designed as a close reading of the most acclaimed of Tolstoy’s works – his novel Anna Karenina. The novel was written and published in separate chapters during 1875 - 1877, and readers remained in suspense, as they did not know what would happen next with heroes. Students will be repeating the experience of Tolstoy’s first readers during their six weeks of study. Tolstoy’s work is an encyclopedia of the Russian culture of the second half of the 19th century. It makes our course completely interdisciplinary: we will discuss social, historical, philosophical, religious, cultural or legal issues, relevant for Lev Tolstoy as well as for his heroes. Such topics as family, marriage, wedding, women’s emancipation, and children’s education will be the themes of our class discussion. Students must be prepared to read about 30 pages for each class session, to actively participate in class discussion, and to write weekly short papers. Students will compose their final paper and present it during the mini-conference by the end of the course.

Summer 2010

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Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment

A seminar devoted to Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment. Students will learn about the novel's background and creation, engage in a close reading of the text, place the novel in the context of Dostoevsky's other works and related topics in 19th-century Russian and West European thought, and explore echoes of Dostoevsky's ideas and later works.

Summer 2011

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M. Bulgakov's Master and Margarita

This course will be designed as a close reading of the famous “demonic” novel by Mikhail Bulgakov. We will discuss the unique structure and philosophy of the novel, as well as its political background and the novel’s artistic genealogy (literary, musical, religious, and philosophical sources).Class lectures will be supplemented by frequent slide, video, and musical presentations.

Students have to write weekly short papers, and a final paper.

Summer 2009, Summer 2012

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This course consists of a thesis written in Russian, for which an advisor will be assigned, and is a requirement for MA candidates. The course can only be taken for the completion of the master’s thesis and may be taken only once.

Summer 2009, Summer 2010, Summer 2011, Summer 2012, Summer 2013

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This research paper is a requirement for DML candidates during their summer of application.

Summer 2009, Summer 2010, Summer 2011, Summer 2012, Summer 2013

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