RUSSIAN (RUSS)

194. (MUSC194) Russian Music: Concert Hall to Dance Club. (M) Amico. Russia's history has been one not only of violent wars and turbulent revolutions, but also one of a vibrant cultural creation. In this course we will examine Russian music from an ethnomusicological perspective, in relation to these historical, social and cultural contexts. Our studies will take us from the nineteenth century to the present, and from the elite music of the concert hall, to the various rural sites of music making, up to the contemporary urban dance club. Among the topics to be considered: the relationships between art music and movements in both literature and the visual arts; how music supports, subverts or simply "avoids" contributing to political life; how gender is performed in music; and how globalization, technological advances, and piracy change the ways music is created and used.

SM 203. (LAW 967) LEGAL IMAGINATION: CRIMINALS AND JUSTICE ACROSS LITERATURE. (M)Vinitsky. This class will be taught for both SAS and Penn Law School students: 12 students from each side. This seminar will focus on the legal, moral, religious, social, psychological, and political dimensions of crime, blame, shame, and punishment as discussed in great works of literature. The first part of the course will compare and contrast visions of justice in Eastern and Western Europe and emphases on divine versus human justice. The second part will move to the psychology of the individual person, the criminal. Part three of the course will focus on the state institutions of criminal justice. Readings include Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter, Dickens' Oliver Twist, Tolstoy's Resurrection, Kafka's The Trial, and especially Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment and selection from The Brothers Karamazov.

418. Russian Culture and Society Now. (L) Shardakova. Prerequisite(s): Russian 312 or placement exam. This course continues developing students' advanced skills in Russian, while surveying main social, political and cultural developments in Russia since 1991. In these two turbulent decades Russia has undergone colossal changes ranging from disintegration of the Soviet Empire to the rapid development of new gastronomical tastes and new trends in literature and culture. The course will explore diverse and often conflicting cultural sensibilities in contemporary Russian fiction, poetry, journalism, scholarly writing, performance art, as well as in pop-culture and film. Topics under consideration will include reassessing Russia's luminous cultural heritage as well as traumatic periods in Soviet history; search for identity and the recent drift towards neo-nationalism; gender issues and the contemporary focus on fatherlessness; changing attitudes towards former cultural taboos; dealing with Russia's current political and cultural dilemmas. The course also incorporates two advanced Russian colloquiums with guest appearances of Prof. Kevin Platt and Ilya Vinitsky.

Introductory Russian Language (001-004)

001.(RUSS501) Elementary Russian I. (A) Staff. This course develops elementary skills in reading, speaking, understanding and writing the Russian language. We will work with an exciting range of authentic written materials, the Internet, videos and recordings relating to the dynamic scene of Russia today. At the end of the course students will be comfortable with the Russian alphabet and will be able to read simplified literary, commercial, and other types of texts (signs, menus, short news articles, short stories) and participate in elementary conversations about daily life (who you are, what you do every day, where you are from, likes and dislikes).

002. (RUSS502) Elementary Russian II. (B) Staff. Prerequisite(s): RUSS 001 or equivalent. Continuation of RUSS001. Further work developing basic language skills using exciting authentic materials about life in present-day Russia. At the conclusion of the course, students will be prepared to negotiate most basic communication needs in Russia (getting around town, ordering a meal, buying goods and services, polite conversation about topics of interest) and to comprehend most texts and spoken material at a basic level.

003. (RUSS503) Intermediate Russian I. (A) Staff. Prerequisite(s): RUSS 001 and 002 or placement exam. This course will develop your ability to use the Russian language in the context of typical everyday situations, including university life, family, shopping, entertainment, etc. Role-playing, skits, short readings from literature and the current press, and video clips will be used to help students improve their language skills and their understanding of Russian culture. At the end of the semester you will be able to read and write short texts about your daily schedule and interests, to understand brief newspaper articles, films and short literary texts, and to express your opinions in Russian. In combination with RUSS 004, this course prepares students to satisfy the language competency requirement.

004.(RUSS504) Intermediate Russian II. (B) Staff. Prerequisite(s): RUSS 003 or placement exam. A continuation of RUSS003. This course will further develop your ability to use the Russian language in the context of everyday situations (including relationships, travel and geography, leisure activities) and also through reading and discussion of elementary facts about Russian history, excerpts from classic literature and the contemporary press and film excerpts. At the end of the course you will be able to negotiate most daily situations, to comprehend most spoken and written Russian, to state and defend your point of view. Successful completion of the course prepares students to satisfy the language competency requirement.

SM 107. Russian Outside the Classroom I. (C) Yakubova. Prerequisite(s): At least four semesters of Russian. The goal of RUSS107 is to provide students of Russian language and students who spoke Russian at home with formalized opportunities to improve their conversation and comprehension skills while experiencing various aspects of Russian culture. There will be no weekly assignments or readings, but all students will be expected to contribute at a level equivalent to their Russian-speaking abilities both in class and on the newsletter final project. The course consists of attending regular conversation hours in addition to a tea-drinking hour in the department (F 4-5pm), film viewings, and a single outside cultural event (e.g., a concert of Russian music at the Kimmel Center).

SM 108. Russian Outside the Classroom II. (C) Yakubova. Prerequisite(s): At least four semesters of Russian, and RUSS107. This is a half-credit course that consists of a variety of fun and entertaining non-classroom Russian language activities. Students who have taken at least one semester of Russian will take part in: 1. Russian lunch and dinner table; 2. Russian Tea and conversation, featuring cartoons, poetry readings, music listening, news broadcast, games, cooking lessons, and informal visits by guests; 3. The Russian Film Series; 4. field trips to Russian cultural events in the area (symphony, drama, film, etc.); 5. other Russian Program events.

Introductory/Survey Russian Courses (010 - 199)

L/R 048. (HIST048) The Rise and Fall of the Russian Empire, 1552-1917. (C) History & Tradition Sector. All classes. Nathans. How and why did Russia become the center of the world's largest empire, a single state encompassing eleven time zones and over a hundred ethnic groups? To answer this question, we will explore the rise of a distinct political culture beginning in medieval Muscovy, its transformation under the impact of a prolonged encounter with European civilization, and the various attempts to re-form Russia from above and below prior to the Revolution of 1917. Main themes include the facade vs. the reality of central authority, the intersection of foreign and domestic issues, the development of a radical intelligentsia, and the tension between empire and nation.

L/R 049. (HIST049) The Soviet Century, 1917-1991. (B) History & Tradition Sector. All classes. Nathans. Out of an obscure, backward empire, the Soviet Union emerged to become the great political laboratory of the twentieth century. This course will trace the roots of the world's first socialist society and its attempts to recast human relations and human nature itself. Topics include the origins of the Revolution of 1917, the role of ideology in state policy and everyday life, the Soviet Union as the center of world communism, the challenge of ethnic diversity, and the reasons for the USSR's sudden implosion in 1991. Focusing on politics, society, culture, and their interaction, we will examine the rulers (from Lenin to Gorbachev) as well as the ruled (peasants, workers, and intellectuals; Russians and non-Russians). The course will feature discussions of selected texts, including primary sources in translation.

100. (FOLK107) Once Upon a Fairytale: Introduction to Russian Culture. (M) Verkholantsev. The course provides an introduction to Russian culture and society through the prism of fairy tale narratives. We will approach Russian culture by studying how classic tales have been retold in a variety of contexts: folklore, literature, art, music, opera, ballet, film, political propaganda, etc. The appeal of fairy tales is universal. Do they seduce our imagination through magic and the pleasure of escapism, or do they fulfill some important social function, reflecting the national psyche and giving it shape? Are they an escape from reality or a fundamental part of it? The course also provides a general introduction to the study of folklore, fairy tales and mythology from a variety of theoretical and comparative perspectives. We will begin with the study of the classic Russian fairy tales and the examination of the religious background of Russian culture. We will then study how the Russian classic authors in the nineteenth century incorporated and enriched these tales and legends. Finally, we will learn how the genre of fairy tale was used in the twentieth century, both by the Soviet authorities in their efforts to educate the masses, and by critical and dissident voices who turned these "innocent" stories into tools for disguised criticism and satire. Like Russians, we will "read between the lines" of a thought-provoking history of fairy tales, fantastic stories, legends and myths as we will learn about cultural and social values of the society that created them.

125. (CINE125, COML127, GSOC125) The Adultery Novel In and Out of Russia. (C) Arts & Letters Sector. All Classes. Platt. All readings and lectures in English. The course examines a series of 19C and 20C novels (and a few short stories) about adultery, film adaptations of several of these novels, and several original adultery films in their own right. Our reading will teach us about novelistic traditions of the period in question, about the relationship of Russian literature to the European models to which it responded, as well as about adaptation and the implications of filmic vs. literary representation. Course readings may include: Laclos' Dangerous Liaisons, Flaubert's Madame Bovary, Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and other works. Films may include: Frears' Dangerous Liaisons, Vadim's Dangerous Liaisons, Nichols' The Graduate, Mikhalkov's Dark Eyes, and others. Students will apply various critical approaches in order to place adultery into its aesthetic, social and cultural context, including: sociological descriptions of modernity, Marxist examinations of family as a social and economic institution, Freudian/ Psychoanalytic interpretations of family life and transgressive sexuality, and Feminist work on the construction of gender.

In our coursework we will apply various critical approaches in order to place adultery into its social and cultural context, including: sociological descriptions of modernity, Marxist examinations of family as a social and economic institution, Freudian/ Psychoanalytic interpretations of family life and transgresssive sexuality, Feminist work on the construction of gender. In general, we will see the ways in which human identity is tied to gender roles, and the complex relationship tying these matters of the libido and the family to larger issues of social organization.

SM 130. Russian Ghost Stories. (C) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Vinitsky. All readings and lectures in English. In this course, we will read and discuss ghost stories written by some of the most well-known Russian writers. The goal of the course is threefold: to familiarize the students with brilliant and thrilling texts which represent various periods of Russian literature; to examine the artistic features of ghost stories and to explore their ideological implications. With attention to relevant scholarship (Freud, Todorov, Derrida, Greenblatt), we will pose questions about the role of the storyteller in ghost stories, and about horror and the fantastic. We will also ponder gender and class, controversy over sense and sensation, spiritual significance and major changes in attitudes toward the supernatural. We will consider the concept of the apparition as a peculiar cultural myth, which tells us about the "dark side" of the Russian literary imagination and about the historical and political conflicts which have haunted Russian minds in previous centuries.

Reading will include literary works by Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Chekhov, and Bulgakov, as well as works by some lesser, yet extremely interesting, authors. We will also read excerpts from major treatises regarding spiritualism, including Swedenborg, Kant, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Mme Blavatsky. The course consists of 28 sessions ("nights") and includes film presentations and horrifying slides.

136. (HIST047) Portraits of Russian Society: Art, Fiction, Drama. (M) Humanities & Social Science Sector. Class of 2010 & beyond. Platt. No prior language experience required. This course covers 19C Russian cultural and social history. Each week-long unit is organized around a single medium- length text (novella, play, memoir) which opens up a single scene of social historybirth, death, duel, courtship, tsar, and so on. Each of these main texts is accompanied by a set of supplementary materialspaintings, historical readings, cultural-analytical readings, excerpts from other literary works, etc. The object of the course is to understand the social codes and rituals that informed nineteenth-century Russian life, and to apply this knowledge in interpreting literary texts, other cultural objects, and even historical and social documents (letters, memoranda, etc.). We will attempt to understand social history and literary interpretation as separate disciplinesyet also as disciplines that can inform one another. In short: we will read the social history through the text, and read the text against the social history.

145. Russian Literature to the 1870s. (A) Arts & Letters Sector. All Classes. Steiner. Major Russian writers in English translation: Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev, early Tolstoy, and early Dostoevsky.

155. Russian Literature after 1870s. (B) Arts & Letters Sector. All Classes. Steiner. Major Russian writers in English translation: Tolstoy, Chekhov, Pasternak, Babel, Solzhenitsyn, and others.

165. (CINE165, SLAV165) Russian and East European Film. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Todorov. The purpose of this course is to present the Russian and East European contribution to world cinema in terms of film theory, experimentation with the cinematic language, and social and political reflex. We discuss major themes and issues such as: the invention of montage, the means of visual propaganda and the cinematic component to the communist cultural revolutions, party ideology and practices of social engineering, cinematic response to the emergence of the totalitarian state in Russia and its subsequent installation in Eastern Europe after World War II; repression, resistance and conformity under such a system; legal and illegal desires; the nature of the authoritarian personality, the mind and the body of homo sovieticus; sexual and political transgression; treason and disgrace; public degradation and individual redemption; the profane and the sublime ends of human suffering and humiliation; the unmasking of the official "truth" as a general lie.

190. Terrorism: Russian Origins and 21st Century Methods. (M) Distribution Course in Hist & Tradition. Class of 2009 & prior only. Todorov. This course studies the emergence of organized terrorism in nineteenth-century Russia. It examines the philosophy of the terrorist struggle through its methods, causes, various codes, and manifestoes that defined its nature for the times to come. We critique intellectual movements such as nihilism, anarchism, and populism that inspired terrorism defining the political violence and disorder as beneficial acts. The issue of policing terrorism becomes central when we study a police experiment to infiltrate, delegitimize and ultimately neutralize terrorist networks in late imperial Russia. The discussions draw on the ideology and political efficacy of the conspiratorial mode of operation, terrorist tactics such as assassination and hostage-taking, the cell structure of the groups and underground incognito of the strikers, their maniacal self-denial, revolutionary asceticism, underground mentality, faceless omnipotence, and other attributes-intensifiers of its mystique. We analyze the technology and phenomenology of terror that generate asymmetrical disorganizing threats to any organized form of government and reveal the terrorist act as a sublime end as well as a lever for achieving practical causes. Our study traces the rapid proliferation of terrorism in the twentieth century and its impact on the public life in Western Europe.

The discussions draw on the ideology and political efficacy of the conspiratorial mode of operation, terrorist tactics such as assassination and hostage-taking, the cell structure of the groups and underground incognito of the strikers, their maniacal self-denial, revoluntionary asceticism, underground mentality, faceless omnipotence, and other attributes-intensifiers of its mystique. We analyze the technology and phenomenology of terror that generate symmetrical disorganizing threats to any organized form of government and reveal the terrorist act as a sublime end as well as a lever for achieving practical causes. Our study traces the rapid proliferation of terrorism in the twentieth century and its impact on the public life in Western Europe, the Balkans, and America.

193. (COML150, HIST149) War & Representation. (M) Humanities & Social Science Sector. Class of 2010 & beyond. Platt. Representations of war have been created for as many reasons as wars are fought: to legitimate conflict, to celebrate military glory, to critique brutality, to vilify an enemy, to mobilize popular support, to generate national pride, etc. In this course we will examine a series of representations of war drawn from the literature, film, state propa^ganda, memoirs, visual art, etc. of Russia, Europe and the United States of the twen^tieth century. The course will be conducted largely as a seminar. However, I will also give occasional lectures on specified topics (especially, on the historical groundwork necessary to understand our largely literary readings). A common place of critical dis^cussions of war concerns the impossibility of the adequate representa^tion of exper^ience that in many ways defies understanding or even recall. In this con^nection, we will be developing a vocabulary of aesthetic and psychological terms relevant to the task of reflecting the impossibilities of life and death in wartime. The goal of the course is to acquire knowledge of literary and cultural history in social and historical context, and to acquire critical skills for analysis of rhetorical and visual representations.

196. Russian Short Story. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Todorov. This course studies the development of 19th and 20th century Russian literature through one of its most distinct and highly recognized genresthe short story. The readings include great masters of fiction such as Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Solzhenitsyn, and others. The course presents the best works of short fiction and situates them in a literary process that contributes to the history of a larger cultural-political context. Students will learn about the historical formation, poetic virtue, and thematic characteristics of major narrative modes such as romanticism, utopia, realism, modernism, socialist realism, and post-modernism. We critique the strategic use of various devices of literary representation such as irony, absurd, satire, grotesque, anecdote, etc. Some of the main topics and issues include: culture of the duel; the role of chance; the riddle of death; anatomy of madness; imprisonment and survival; the pathologies of St. Petersburg; terror and homo sovieticus.

197. (COML197) Madness and Madmen in Russian Culture. (M) Humanities & Social Science Sector. Class of 2010 & beyond. Vinitsky. All readings and lectures in English. This course will explore the theme of madness in Russian literature and arts from the medieval period through the October Revolution of 1917. The discussion will include formative masterpieces by Russian writers (Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, and Bulgakov), painters (Repin, Vrubel, Filonov), composers (Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, and Stravinsky), and film-directors (Protazanov, Eisenstein), as well as non-fictional documents such as Russian medical, judicial, political, and philosophical treatises and essays on madness.

Intermediate/Seminar Courses (200 - 299)

SM 201. Dostoevsky and His Legacy. (A) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Vinitsky. This course explores the ways Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) portrays the "inner world(s)" of his characters. Dostoevsky's psychological method will be considered against the historical, ideological, and literary contexts of middle to late nineteenth-century Russia. The course consists of three parts External World (the contexts of Dostoevsky), "Inside" Dostoevsky's World (the author's technique and ideas) and The World of Text (close reading of Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov). Students will write three essays on various aspects of Dostoevsky's "spiritual realism."

SM 202. Tolstoy. (B) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Vinitsky. This course consists of three parts. The first, How to read Tolstoy? deals with Tolstoys artistic stimuli, favorite devices, and narrative strategies. The second, Tolstoy at War, explores the authors provocative visions of war, gender, sex, art, social institutions, death, and religion. The emphasis is placed here on the role of a written word in Tolstoys search for truth and power. The third and the largest section is a close reading of Tolstoys masterwork The War and Peace (1863-68) a quintessence of both his artistic method and philosophical insights.

SM 213. (COML213, RELS218) Saints and Devils in Russian Literature. (M) Arts & Letters Sector. All Classes. Verkholantsev. This course is about Russian literature, which is populated with saints and devils, believers and religious rebels, holy men and sinners. In Russia, where peoples frame of mind had been formed by a mix of Eastern Orthodox Christianity and earlier pagan beliefs, the quest for faith, spirituality and the meaning of life has invariably been connected with religious matters. How can one find the right path in life? Is humility the way to salvation? Should one live for God or for the people? Does God even exist? In Saints and Devils, we will examine Russian literature concerning the holy and the demonic as representations of good and evil, and we will learn about the historic trends that have filled Russias national character with religious and supernatural spirit.

Nikolai Gogol will teach us how to triumph over the devil. In Alexander Pushkins poetry and Anton Chekhovs stories we will contemplate Russias ambivalent ideal of womanhood: as a poetic Madonna or as a sinful agent of the devil. Immersed in the world of Dostoevskys The Brothers Karamazov, we will follow the characters in their search of truth, belief and active love for people. Leo Tolstoy, who founded his own religion, will teach us his philosophical and moral lessons. Finally, Mikhail Bulgakov will tell us his fantastic and devilish story of the Master and Pontius Pilate and we will see for ourselves that A man will receive his deserts in accordance with his beliefs.

SM 220. (COML220, HIST220) Russia and the West: Russian Thinkers, Prophets, and Writers on European and American History and Culture. (C) Humanities & Social Science Sector. Class of 2010 & beyond. Vinitsky. All readings and lectures in English. This course will explore the representations of the West in eighteenth- and nineteenth- century Russian literature and philosophy. We will consider the Russian visions of various events and aspects of Western political and social life Revolutions, educational system, public executions, resorts, etc. within the context of Russian intellectual history. We will examine how images of the West reflect Russia's own cultural concerns, anticipations, and biases, as well as aesthetic preoccupations and interests of Russian writers. The discussion will include literary works by Karamzin, Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Leskov, and Tolstoy, as well as non-fictional documents, such as travelers' letters, diaries, and historiosophical treatises of Russian Freemasons, Romantic and Positivist thinkers, and Russian social philosophers of the late Nineteenth century. A basic knowledge of nineteenth-century European history is desirable. The class will consist of lectures, discussion, short writing assignments, and two in-class tests.

234. (COML235, HIST219, SLAV517) Medieval Russia: Origins of Russian Cultural Identity. (M) Distribution Course in Hist & Tradition. Class of 2009 & prior only. Verkholantsev. This course offers an overview of the cultural history of Rus' from its origins to the eighteenth century, a period which laid the foundation for the Russian Empire. The course takes an interdisciplinary approach to the evolution of the main cultural paradigms of Russian Orthodoxy viewed in a broader European context. Although this course is historical in content, it is also about modern Russia. The legacy of Medieval Rus' is still referenced, often allegorically, in contemporary social and cultural discourse as the Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian societies attempt to reconstruct and reinterpret their histories. In this course, students learn that the study of the medieval cultural and political history explains many aspects of modern Russian society, its culture and mentality.

All readings and films are in English.

SM 260. (HIST413) USSR AFTER STALIN. (M) Distribution Course in Hist & Tradition. Class of 2009 & prior only. Platt & Nathans. How are human behaviors and attitudes shaped in a socialist society? What forms do conformity and dissent take under a revolutionary regime? This course will explore the cultural history of the Soviet Union from the end of the Second World War to the collapse of communism in 1991. We will investigate a variety of strategies of resistance to state power as well as the sources of communisms enduring legitimacy for millions of Soviet citizens. Above all, we will be concerned with the power of the word and image in Soviet public and private life. Assigned texts will include memoirs, manifestos, underground and officially approved fiction & poetry, films, works of art, and secondary literature.

275. (CINE265) Russian History in Film. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Todorov. This course draws on fictional, dramatic and cinematic representations of Russian history based on Russian as well as non-Russian sources and interpretations. The analysis targets major modes of imagining, such as narrating, showing and reenacting historical events, personae and epochs justified by different, historically mutating ideological postulates and forms of national self-consciousness. Common stereotypes of picturing Russia from "foreign" perspectives draw special attention. The discussion involves the following themes and outstanding figures: the mighty autocrats Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, and Catherine the Great; the tragic ruler Boris Godunov; the brazen rebel and royal impostor Pugachev; the notorious Rasputin, his uncanny powers, sex-appeal, and court machinations; Lenin and the October Revolution; images of war; times of construction and times of collapse of the Soviet Colossus.

299. Independent Study. (C) Staff.

Advanced Russian Language Courses

311. (RUSS511) Russian Conversation and Composition. (A) Shardakova. Prerequisite(s): RUSS 004 or placement exam. This course develops students' skills in speaking and writing about topics in Russian literature, contemporary society, politics, and everyday life. Topics include women, work and family; sexuality; the economic situation; environmental problems; and life values. Materials include selected short stories by 19th and 20th century Russian authors, video- clips of interviews, excerpts from films, and articles from the Russian media. Continued work on grammar and vocabulary building.

312. (RUSS512) Russian Conversation and Composition II. (B) Shardakova. Prerequisite(s): RUSS 311. Primary emphasis on speaking, writing, and listening. Development of advanced conversational skills needed to carry a discussion or to deliver a complex narrative. This course will be based on a wide variety of topics from everyday life to the discussion of political and cultural events. Russian culture and history surveyed briefly. Materials include Russian TV broadcast, newspapers, Internet, selected short stories by contemporary Russian writers. Offered each spring.

360.Literacy in Russian for Russian Speakers I. (C) Korshunova. Previous language experience required. This course is intended for students who have spoken Russian at home and seek to achieve proficiency in the language. Topics will include an intensive introduction to the Russian writing system and grammar, focusing on exciting materials and examples drawn from classic and contemporary Russian culture and social life. Students who complete this course in combination with RUSS361 satisfy the Penn Language Requirement.

361. Literacy in Russian for Russian Speakers II. (B) Korshunova. Prerequisite(s): Prerequisites: Russian 360 or at least three and no more than six years of Russian formal schooling, or instructor's permission. This course is a continuation of RUSS360. In some cases, students who did not take RUSS360 but have basic reading and writing skills may be permitted to enroll with the instructor's permission. Students who complete RUSS361 with a passing grade will satisfy the Penn Language Requirement.

399. Supervised Work. (C)

Hours and credits on an individual basis.

Advanced Courses (400 to 425) in History, Literature and Culture. Taught in Russian.

SM 401. (COLL224, COML401) Russian Poetics. (A) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Steiner. Prerequisite(s): RUSS 311. This course is taught in Russian. Introduction to the analysis of poetic texts, based on the works of Batyushkov, Lermontov, Tyutchev, Fet, Mandelshtam, and others.

SM 402. (COLL224, COML402) Pushkin. (B) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Steiner. Prerequisite(s): RUSS 311. This course is taught in Russian. The writer's lyrics, narrative poems, and drama.

412. Nineteenth-Century Russian Literature and Culture: Romantics and Realists. (M) Verkholantsev. Prerequisite(s): RUSS 311 or placement exam. Conducted in Russian. This course continues developing students' advanced skills in Russian, and combines advanced study of the Russian language with an examination of the fundamental literary movements and figures of nineteenth-century Russian literature and culture. Course materials include prosaic and poetic texts by Pushkin, Gogol', Lermontov, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, as well as films and art. Language work will be devoted to writing, syntactical and stylistic analysis, vocabulary, academic speech, and listening comprehension.

413. Twentieth-Century Russian Literature, Film and Culture: Utopia, Revolution and Dissent. (M)Staff. Prerequisite(s): RUSS 311 or placement exam. This course is taught in Russian. This course continues developing students' advanced skills in Russian, and introduces students to major movements and figures of twentieth-century Russian literature and culture. We will read the works of modern Russian writers, and watch and discuss feature films. The course will introduce the first Soviet films and works of the poets of the Silver Age and beginning of the Soviet era as well as the works from later periods up to the Perestroika and Glasnost periods (the late 1980s).

SM 416. Business and Democracy in the New Russia. (M) Bourlatskaya. Prerequisite(s): RUSS 312, 314 or placement exam. This course is taught in Russian. This course continues developing students' advanced skills in Russian, and is designed to familiarize students with contemporary Russian society, its historical background and its present political and economic structure, and to develop functional proficiency in speaking, writing, reading and listening. The course will focus on a variety of issues central to Russian society since the fall of the Soviet Union, including changing values, political parties and movements, the business climate and businessmen, various nationalities within Russia, women in the family and at work. Course materials will include interviews, articles, essays by leading Russian journalists and statesmen, and contemporary Russian movies.

417. Modernism: Literature, Music and Visual Art. (J) Shardakova. Prerequisite(s): RUSS311 or placement exam. This course is taught in Russian. This course continues developing students' advanced skills in Russian, while closely studying a representative selection of texts from the modernist period. The course will explore central issues of the period, such as the relationship between literature and revolution, reconceptualizations of society, history and the self. Of particular interest will be authors' experimentation in form and language in order to present afresh the experience of life. Textual study is combined with a general overview of the period, including reference to parallel trends in the visual arts, architecture and music, as well as contemporary intellectual movements. Principal writers studied will include Belyi, Sologub, Remizov, Andreev, Artsybashev, Gorky, Zamiatin, Pilnyak, Platonov, Zoshchenko, Babel, Olesha, and Kharms.

SM 419. Russian Song and Folklore. (M) Verkholantsev. This course is taught in Russian. This course continues developing students' advanced skills in Russian. Song and, in particular, folk song is an essential and exciting component of Russian culture and social life, and an important language learning tool. The course offers a general introduction to the history of Russian folklore, song and musical culture. Students will explore the historical trajectory of Russian song and its various genres (from folk to the modern Estrada), examine the poetic and literary principles of song, discuss its aesthetic properties, and analyze the educational, community-building and ideological roles of song in Russian society.

420. Contemporary Russia Through Film. (C) Taught in Russian. This course continues developing students' advanced skills in Russian and offers intensive study of Russian film, arguably the most powerful medium for reflecting changes in modern society. This course will examine Russia's transition to democracy and market economy through the eyes of its most creative and controversial cinematographers. The course will focus on the often agonizing process of changing values and attitudes as the country moves from Soviet to Post-Soviet society. Russian films with English subtitles will be supplemented by readings from contemporary

Russian media sources. The course provides an excellent visual introduction to the problems of contemporary Russia society.

Advanced Courses Taught in English (426 -449)

SM 426. (CINE365) Chekhov: Stage & Screen. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Zubarev. Forms a part of the CGS Masters in Liberal Arts Program. Whats so funny, Mr. Chekhov? This question is often asked by critics and directors who still are puzzled with Chekhovs definition of his four major plays as comedies. Traditionally, all of them are staged and directed as dramas, melodramas, or tragedies. Should we cry or should we laugh at Chekhovian characters who commit suicide, or are killed, or simply cannot move to a better place of living? Is the laughable synonymous to comedy and the comic? Should any fatal outcome be considered tragic? All these and other questions will be discussed during the course. The course is intended to provide the participants with a concept of dramatic genre that will assist them in approaching Chekhovs plays as comedies. In addition to reading Chekhovs works, Russian and western productions and film adaptations of Chekhovs works will be screened. Among them are, Vanya on 42nd Street with Andre Gregory, and Four Funny Families. Those who are interested will be welcome to perform and/or direct excerpts from Chekhovs works.

SM 430. (CINE365) Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Film. (M) Distribution Course in Hist & Tradition. Class of 2009 & prior only. Todorov. Forms a part of the CGS Masters in Liberal Arts Program. This course studies the cinematic representation of civil wars, ethnic conflicts, nationalistic doctrines, and genocidal policies. The focus is on the violent developments that took place in Russia and on the Balkans after the collapse of the Soviet Bloc and were conditioned by the new geopolitical dynamics that the fall of communism had already created. We study media broadcasts, documentaries, feature films representing the Eastern, as well as the Western perspective. The films include masterpieces such as "Time of the Gypsies", "Underground", "Prisoner of the Mountains", "Before the Rain", "Behind Enemy Lines", and others.

SM 432. (CINE365, COML196) Fate & Chance in Literature and Film. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Zubarev. All readings and lectures in English. Forms a part of the CGS Masters in Liberal Arts Program. Be a winner manage all your situations and dont let a pure chance to govern your life! With a chain of literary characters as a vivid illustration, you will explore a mysterious world of fate and chance and learn about various interpretations of the forces ruling human life. Slavic and Greek mythology, as well as folklore and modern literary works of Russian and Western writers and cinematographers will assist you in your journey to the world of supernatural. Screenings will include Zeffirellis and Luhrmans Romeo and Juliet. In Fate and Chance in Literature and Film, we will explore these two interrelated concepts in comparative perspective over a broad historical range. Analysis will be informed by classical and contemporary theoretical tools (from Aristotle to Upenns own Prof. Aron Kastenelinboigen). Our investigations will lead ultimately to analytical insight into major works of the Western literary, dramatic and filmic canon.

434. Media and Terrorism. (M) Distribution Course in Hist & Tradition. Class of 2009 & prior only. Todorov. Forms a part of the CGS Masters in Liberal Arts Program. This course draws on fictional, cinematic and mass-media representation of terrorism based on Russian as well as Western examples. We study how the magnitude of the political impact of terrorism relates to the historically changing means of production of its striking iconology. The course exposes students to major modes of imagining, narrating, showing, reenacting terrorism and forging its mystique. We examine the emergence of organized terrorism in nineteenth-century Russia as an original political-cultural phenomenon. We trace its rapid expansion and influence on the public life in the West, and on the Balkans. Historical, political, and aesthetic approaches converge in a discussion of several case studies related to intellectual and spiritual movements such as nihilism, anarchism, populism, religious fundamentalism, and others. The public appearance of the terrorist activism and its major attributes are viewed as powerful intensifiers of its political effect: self-denial, ascetic aura, and stratagem of mystification, underground mentality, and martyrdom. The pedagogical goal of this course is to promote and cultivate critical view and analytical skills that will enable students to deal with different historical as well as cultural modes of (self-)representation of terrorism. Students are expected to learn and be able to deal with a large body of historical-factual and creative-interpreted information.

436. (CINE365) The Russian Avant-Garde: Film, Art and Theater of the Russian Revolution. (M)Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Todorov. Forms a part of the CGS Masters in Liberal Arts Program. This course examines cutting edge trends and artistic experimentation in Russian film, theater, visual arts, and architecture in the context of the October Revolution (1917). Themes include: inventing the Kino-eye; reflexology, bio-mechanics and performance theory; staging the revolution; proletarian culture and sexuality; social engineering of the new man; bodies and machines; cosmism, rocketry and the emergence of the Soviet outer-space doctrine; city planning and constructivist design of the new social condensers; Lenin's mummy and the communist psyche; the Mausoleum and symbolic system of the Red Square.

Courses in Literature, Culture, and History for Russian Speakers (450 - 499)

460. Post-Soviet Russia in Film. (C) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Bourlatskaya. Prerequisite(s): RUSS 361 or equivalent competence. Taught in Russian. This course is intended for students who have spoken Russian at home and seek to improve their capabilities in formal and professional uses of the Russian language. Film is arguably the most powerful medium for reflecting changes in modern society. This course will examine Russia's transition to democracy and market economy through the eyes of its most creative and controversial cinematographers. The course will focus on the often agonizing process of changing values and attitudes as the country moves from Soviet to Post-Soviet society. Russian films with English subtitles will be supplemented by readings from contemporary Russian media sources. The course provides an excellent visual introduction to the problems of contemporary Russia society.

SM 461. 20th Century Russian Literature: Fiction and Reality. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. staff. Classes will be conducted entirely in Russian. This advanced Russian-language course is intended primarily for students who have spoken Russian at home and who have gained competency in written Russian. This course is intended for students who have spoken Russian at home and seek to improve their capabilities in formal and professional uses of the Russian language. Russian 461 introduces the major movements and figures of twentieth-century Russian literature and culture, works of modern Russian writers, and feature films. In studying the poetry of Mayakovsky, Block, and Pasternak, students will become familiar with the important literary movements of the Silver Age. The reality of the Soviet era will be examined in the works of Zamyatin, Babel, and Zoshchenko. There will be a brief survey of the development of Soviet cinema, including films of Eisenstein, Tarkovsky, and Mikhalkov. Literary trends in the later Soviet period will be seen in war stories, prison-camp literature, village prose, and the writings of female authors of that time.

SM 464. Russian Humor. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Korshunova. Prerequisite(s): Russian 360 or at least five years of Russian formal schooling, or consent of instructor. This course is intended for students who have spoken Russian at home and seek to improve their capabilities in formal and professional uses of the Russian language. One of the most fascinating and most difficult things for a student of foreign culture is to understand national humor, as it is presented in various stories and films, jokes and shows. To an extent, humor is a gateway to national mentality. In the present course we will examine Russian cultural history, from the sixteenth through the twenty-first centuries, through the vehicle of Russian humor. How does Russian humor depend on religion and history? What was considered funny in various cultural trends? What are the peculiarities of Russian humorist tradition? Students will be familiarized with different Russian theories of humor (Bakhtin, Likhachev, Panchenko, Tynianov, etc.) and, of course, with a variety of works by Russian kings of humor Pushkin and Gogol, Chekhov and Zoshchenko, Bulgakov and Ilf and Petrov, Erofeev and Kibirov, etc. Class lectures will be supplemented by frequent video and musical presentations ranging from contemporary cartoons to high comedies and from comic songs (Chaliapins The Flea) to the music of Shostakovich (The Nose).

465. History of Russian Song: Singing in the Snow. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Verkholantsev. Prerequisite(s): RUSS 361 or equivalent competence. This course is intended for students who have spoken Russian at home and seek to improve their capabilities in formal and professional uses of the Russian language. Song is an essential and exciting component of Russian culture and social life, and an important language learning tool. The course offers a general introduction to the history of Russian song. Students will explore the historical trajectory of Russian song and its various genres (from folk to the modern Estrada), examine the poetic and literary principles of song, discuss its aesthetic properties, and analyze the educational, community-building and ideological roles of song in Russian society. Among the wide-ranging topics and genres that we will discuss and work with are lyrics of folk songs, romances, Soviet and patriotic songs, Anti-Soviet songs, Russian/Soviet anthems, bard song, film and theater songs, childrens songs, Soviet and Russian Rock and Pop.

467. Classic Russian Literature Today. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Verkholantsev. Prerequisite(s): RUSS 361 or equivalent competence. This course is intended for students who have spoken Russian at home and seek to improve their capabilities in formal and professional uses of the Russian language. A study of classic Russian literature in the original. Readings will consist of some of the greatest works of 19th and 20th-century authors, such as Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Bulgakov. Students will examine various forms and genres of literature, learn basic techniques of literary criticism, and explore the way literature is translated into film and other media. An additional focus of the course will be on examining the uses and interpretations of classic literature and elitist culture in contemporary Russian society. Observing the interplay of the "high" and "low" in Russian cultural tradition, students will develop methodology of cultural analysis.

468. Post-Soviet Russian Society: People, Business, Democracy. (M) Distribution Course in Society. Class of 2009 & prior only. Bourlatskaya. This course is intended for students who have spoken Russian at home and seek to improve their capabilities in formal and professional uses of the Russian language. It offers an introduction to contemporary Russian society, its historical background and its present political and economic structure. The course will focus on the political, economic and sociological developments in Russia from Perestroika (late 1980s) to Putin. The course will discuss the society's changing values, older and younger generations, political parties and movements, elections, the business community and its relations with the government, common perceptions of Westerners and Western society, and the role of women in the family and at work. Emphasis will be placed on the examination, interpretation and explanation of peoples behavior and their perception of democracy and reforms, facilitating comparison of Western and Russian social experience. Classes will be conducted entirely in Russian. This advanced Russian-language course is intended primarily for students who have spoken Russian at home and who have gained competency in written Russian.

SM 469. Russian Utopia in Literature, Film, and Politics. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Korshunova. Prerequisite(s): Russian 360 or at least five years of Russian formal schooling, or consent of the instructor. This course is intended for students who have spoken Russian at home and seek to improve their capabilities in formal and professional uses of the Russian language. In this course we will undertake a fascinating journey to the Dreamland of Russian culture. Students will read and discuss Russian utopian imagination as presented in a variety of literary texts, paintings, musical works, films, as well as philosophical texts and economic theories. Topics for discussion will include Russian fairy tales and legends, religious prophesies and communist projects, history and imagination, technological and patriarchal utopias.

Graduate Courses

SM 508. Advanced Russian for Business. (M) Bourlatskaya. Prerequisite(s): At least one RUSS400-level course. This advanced language course focuses on developing effective oral and written communication skills for working in a Russian-speaking business environment. Students will discuss major aspects of Russian business today and learn about various Russian companies using material from the current Russian business press. In addition, students will be engaged in a number of creative projects, such as business negotiation simulations, and simulation of creating a company in Russia.

SM 544. (COML541) Haunted House: Russian Realism in European Context. (M) Vinitsky. In this class we will examine works of major Russian Realist writers, painters, and composers considering them within Western ideological contexts of the 1850-1880s: positivism, materialism, behaviorism, spiritualism, etc. We will focus on Russian Realists ideological and aesthetic struggle against Romantic values and on an unpredicted result of this struggle -- a final spectralization of social and political realities they claimed to mirror in their works. Paradoxically, Russian Realism contributed to the creation of the image of Russia as a house haunted by numerous apparitions: nihilism and revolution, afflicted peasants and perfidious Jews, secret societies and religious sects. The spectropoetics (Derrida) of Russian Realism will be examined through works of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Leskov, Chekhov, as well as paintings by Ilya Repin and operas by Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky. Requirements include one oral presentation, mid-term theoretical survey essay, and a final paper. Relevant theories include M.H. Abrams, Brookes, Levine, Greenblatt, Castle, and Derrida.

In this class we will examine works of major Russian Realist writers, painters, and composers considering them within Western ideological contexts of the 1850-1880s: positivism, materialism, behaviorism, spiritualism, etc. We will focus on Russian Realists ideological and aesthetic struggle against Romantic values and on an unpredicted result of this struggle -- a final spectralization of social and political realities they claimed to mirror in their works. Paradoxically, Russian Realism contributed to the creation of the image of Russia as a house haunted by numerous apparitions: nihilism and revolution, afflicted peasants and perfidious Jews, secret societies and religious sects. The spectropoetics (Derrida) of Russian Realism will be examined through works of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Leskov, Chekhov, as well as paintings by Ilya Repin and operas by Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky. Requirements include one oral presentation, mid-term theoretical survey essay, and a final paper. Relevant theories include M.H. Abrams, Brookes, Levine, Greenblatt, Castle, and Derrida.