Professor: Alexis Klimoff; Assistant Professor:
Dan Ungurianu; Visiting Instructor: Elizabeth
Papazian.
Requirements for Concentration: 10 units beyond
introductory language; including 331/332 or equivalent,
135/235, 152/252, plus 3 units in literature at the
300-level.
Senior-Year Requirements: 3 units of advanced
course work except for students returning from a full-year
JYA program in Russia, who may satisfy this requirement with
2 units of 300-level work. Senior thesis (300) is required
only of students who are candidates for departmental
honors.
Recommendations: Study of the language should be
started in the freshman year. Study at an accredited summer
school is strongly urged. JYA in Russia through approved
exchange programs.
A Teaching Certification program is available.
Advisers: The department.
Correlate Sequence in Russian Studies: Four
semesters of the Russian language (or equivalent) and three
additional courses in culture, literature and/or language,
one of which must be at the 300-level.
A survey of modern Russian culture in its historical
context. Topics include cultural and social revolutions, the
Red Avant-Garde, Socialist Realism, the creation of the New
Man, the Great Terror, the totalitarian system and its
collapse, the dissident movement, ethnic identity and ethnic
conflicts, Russian rock and pop music, post-Communist
Russia. Mr. Ungurianu.
Open to all classes. All readings and discussions are in
English.
Three 50-minute periods.
171b. Russia and the Short Story (1)
In this course, having briefly considered the specifics
of the short story as a literary genre, we proceed to read,
discuss and analyze selected short story masterpieces by
Pushkin, Gogoal, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Chekhov and others. The
department.
This course satisfies the Freshman Course
Requirement.
Two 75-minute periods.
II. Intermediate
210a-211b. Intermediate Russian (1)
Review and completion of basics of grammar, and analysis
of more complex grammatical phenomena through the study of
literary texts, historical and newspaper texts, composition,
and discussion. Mr. Ungurianu.
Prerequisite: Russian 105-106 or permission of
instructor.
Four 50-minute periods plus one hour of oral
practice.
231b. Russian Screen and Stage (1)
Aspects of Russian film, drama and performing arts.
Topic for 2000-2001: The Birth of Modern Theater:
Russian Drama and Theatrical Art,
1890s-1930s. Innovation in drama, including works by
Chekhov, Gorky, Blok, Mayakovsky, Bulgakov. Groundbreaking
developments in staging and directing: from the
psychological realism of Stanislavsky's Method to the
avant-garde experimentation of Meyerhold and the
revolutionary spectacles of Agitprop. Mr. Ungurianu.
Prerequisite: Sophomore or above, or one of the following
courses: Russian 135, 152, 165, 169, or Drama 101. All
readings and discussions in English.
Three 50-minute periods.
235a. The Russian Classics: The Great Realists of the
Nineteenth (1)
Century
Individually designed for Russian majors and other
students with some knowledge of Russian. Students in this
course attend the same lectures and discussions as those in
Russian 152, but are required to do part of the work in
Russian.
By permission of instructor.
252b. The Russian Modernists (1)
Individually designed for Russian majors and other
students with some knowledge of Russian. Students in this
course attend the same lectures and discussions as those in
Russian 152, but are required to do part of the work in
Russian.
By permission of instructor.
267a. Culture and Ideology (1)
In Eastern Europe in generaland in Russia in
particularthe intense impact of ideology on culture has been
experienced arguably more than in any other European
societies. The intersections of ideology and culture are
explored in depth, with a specific focus that varies based
on the course.
Topic for 2000/01: The Russian Avant-Garde 1910-1935:
Visual and Literary Art. A historical survey of the
major components of the Russian Avant-Garde movement,
including Futurism, Cubo-Futurism, Alogism, Suprematism, and
Constructivism, with particular attention to the synthesis
of visual and literary concepts. The interaction with
parallel developments in Western Europe is also examined.
Significant use is made of slides, film, and paper
reproductions. In English. Mr. Firtich.
Prerequisite: Sophomore or above, or one of the following
courses: Russian 165 or 169, History 121, or Political
Science 160. Readings and discussions in English.
Two 75-minute periods.
[271b. Focus on Literature] (1)
Aspects of the Russian literary tradition-including
authors, genres, and thematic emphases-and the place of this
tradition in world literature.
Topic for 2000/01: The Short Story: Theory and
Practice. In this course we explore the short story as a
genre, beginning with its possible origins in folk and fairy
tales and continuing through the twentieth century; we
consider both classics of the European tradition (Poe,
Maupassant, O.Henry) and the Russian tradition (Pushkin,
Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Zamiatin,
Zoshchenko, Kharms, Nabokov, Tolstaya). Each week we read
several short stories, with a complementary work (or works)
of criticismon narrative or prose fiction, on prose genres,
on particular authors or storieswith the intent of relating
back to the question of defining the short story as a
category. The critics discussed include Russian literary
theorists such as Propp, Shklovsky, Eikhenbaum, Bakhtin, and
Lotman, as well as non-Russians, such as Todorov, Benjamin,
and Lacan. Ms. Papazian.
Prerequisite: Sophomore or above, or one unit in Russian,
English, or another national literature, including AP
standing. Readings and discussion in English.
Two 75-minute periods.
298. Independent Work (1/2 or
1)
Program to be worked out in consultation with an
instructor. The department.
Prerequisite for all advanced courses: Russian 210-211.
Additional prerequisites indicated where appropriate.
300a or b. Senior Thesis (1)
331a/332b. Advanced Russian (1)
A course designed to increase all aspects of Russian
proficiency. Includes readings on a wide range of topics,
discussion, oral reports, stylistic analysis, written
assignments, and review of persistent grammatical
difficulties. Mr. Klimoff.
351b. Seminar on Russian Culture (1)
Advanced seminar on Russian culture. Designed for majors
and students with sufficient knowledge of Russian.
Topic for 2000-200 1: The Myth of St. Petersburg.
In this course, we explore the myth of the city of St.
Petersburg, the Imperial Russian capital, founded by Peter
the Great in the early eighteenth century as a "window on
Europe." The city has been seen to embody all of the
contradictions of Russia-East and West, imperial grandeur
and the pathos of the little man, nature and civilization,
free will and fate. We consider the semiotics of space in
St. Petersburg through careful reading of selected literary
texts, both prose and poetryPushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky,
Blok, Bely, Akhmatova, Mandelstam, Brodskyand works of
literary/cultural criticism, in particular by Bakhtin and
Lotman. Ms. Papazian.
Readings and discussions in Russian.
Prerequisite: Russian 331 or permission of
instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
373a. Seminar on Russian Literature (1)
Focused analysis of an author, work, theme, genre, or
literary school in the nineteenth or twentieth century. Mr.
Klimoff.
Topic for 2000-2001: Pushkin and the Golden Age of
Russian Poetry. Representative poems by Pushkin,
Lermontov, Tiutchev, and others.
Conducted in Russian.
Prerequisite: Russian 331 or equivalent.
One 3-hour period.
399. Senior Independent Work
(1/2 or 1)
Program to be worked out in consultation with an
instructor. The department.