RES-101 Elementary Russian

Fall. Credits: 4

The four-skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) introduction to the Russian Language with the focus on communicative skills development. Major structural topics include pronunciation and intonation, all six cases, basic conjugation patterns, and verbal aspect. By the end of the course the students will be able to initiate and sustain conversation on basic topics, write short compositions, read short authentic texts and comprehend their meaning, develop an understanding of the Russian culture through watching films and listening to songs.

Applies to requirement(s): Humanities; Language
Other Attribute(s): Speaking-Intensive
D. Brooks
Coreq: RES-101L.

RES-102 Elementary Russian

Spring. Credits: 4

Continuation of Russian 101. A four-skills course, with increasing emphasis on reading and writing, that completes the study of basic grammar. Major topics include: predicting conjugation patterns, un-prefixed and prefixed verbs of motion, complex sentences, time expressions, and strategies of vocabulary building. Students watch Russian films, read and discuss authentic texts.

Applies to requirement(s): Humanities; Language
Other Attribute(s): Speaking-Intensive
D. Brooks
Prereq: RES-101. Coreq: RES-102L.

RES-201 Intermediate Russian I

Fall. Credits: 4

In-depth review of grammar topics and expansion of vocabulary with the goal of developing communicative proficiency. Readings include short stories, poetry, and newspaper articles. Students watch Russian films and discuss them orally and in writing. Classes are conducted mostly in Russian.

Applies to requirement(s): Humanities; Language
Other Attribute(s): Speaking-Intensive
D. Brooks
Prereq: RES-101 and RES-102. Coreq: RES-201L.

RES-202 Intermediate Russian II

Not Scheduled for This Year. Credits: 4

Emphasis on increasing active command of grammar while focusing on conversational topics. Readings include poetry, short stories, and magazine and newspaper articles. Students watch and discuss Russian films. Classes are conducted mostly in Russian.

Applies to requirement(s): Humanities; Language
Other Attribute(s): Speaking-Intensive, Writing-Intensive
The department
Prereq: RES-201.

RES-301 Advanced Russian Language: From Reading to Speaking

Not Scheduled for This Year. Credits: 4

This course aims at expansion of students' vocabulary and improvement of both writing and speaking skills. Heritage learners of Russian (those who speak the language) will also benefit from the course. With a strong emphasis on integrating vocabulary in context, this course aims to help students advance their lexicon and grammar, increase fluency, and overcome speaking inhibitions. We will read and discuss a variety of texts including short stories, films, and articles.

Applies to requirement(s): Humanities; Language
Other Attribute(s): Speaking-Intensive
The department
Prereq: RES-202.
Advisory: The course is intended for students who have completed at least four semesters of Russian or the equivalent.

RES-302 Advanced Russian Language II

Not Scheduled for This Year. Credits: 4

This course is a continuation of RES-301 and is a further expansion of students' vocabulary, writing and speaking skills. We will read and discuss a variety of texts including short stories, films, and articles. Heritage learners of Russian (those who speak the language) will also benefit from the course.

Applies to requirement(s): Humanities; Language
Other Attribute(s): Speaking-Intensive
The department
Prereq: RES-301.

RES-309 Literary Translation from Russian: A Seminar Workshop

Not Scheduled for This Year. Credits: 4

Translation practice and theory. Poetry and prose. Participants will undertake a joint project selected by the instructor, as well as texts of their own choosing. Comparative consideration of the work of published translators.

Applies to requirement(s): Humanities; Language
Other Attribute(s): Writing-Intensive
P. Scotto
Prereq: RES-202.
Notes: In addition to the three-hour weekly class time, students are expected to sign up for individual tutorials with the instructor.

RES-210 Great Books: The Literature of Nineteenth-Century Russia

Spring. Credits: 4

In no other culture has literature occupied the central role it enjoyed in nineteenth-century Russia. Political, social, and historical constraints propelled Russian writers into the roles of witness, prophet, and sage. Yet, far from being limited to the vast, dark 'Big Question' novels of legend, Russian literature offers much humor, lyricism, and fantasy. We will focus on the Russian novel as a reaction to western European forms of narrative and consider the recurring pattern of the strong heroine and the weak hero. Authors will include: Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Chekhov.

Applies to requirement(s): Humanities
D. Brooks
Notes: Taught in English

RES-211 Topics in Twentieth-Century Russian Literature

Topics in Twentieth-Century Russian Literature provide students with an intensive study of major writers, themes, and paradigm shifts in Russian literature during this turbulent century.

RES-211MM Topics in Twentieth-Century Russian Literature: 'Diabolic Carnival: Bulgakov's Master and Margarita and Its Contexts'

Not Scheduled for This Year. Credits: 4

Mephistopheles in Moscow? The Gospel retold? At turns both wildly comic and metaphysically profound, Bulgakov's novel has been a cult classic since its unexpected discovery in 1967. This course will consider Bulgakov's masterpiece together with some of its literary, historical, and social contexts. Additional readings from Goethe, Gogol, E.T.A.Hoffman, Akhmatova, and others.

Applies to requirement(s): Humanities
P. Scotto
Notes: Taught in English

RES-213 War and Peace

Not Scheduled for This Year. Credits: 4

We will be engaged in a close reading of a translation of Tolstoy's epic novel War and Peace. Tolstoy's sweeping account of men and women caught up in Russia's desperate struggle to survive against the onslaught of Napoleon's army is often considered among the greatest novels. We will focus on Tolstoy's literary strategies, philosophy, and historical contexts.

Applies to requirement(s): Humanities
P. Scotto
Notes: Taught in English.

RES-215 Dostoevsky and the Problem of Evil: The Brothers Karamazov

Not Scheduled for This Year. Credits: 4

Perhaps no other novelist has delved as deeply into the psychological and metaphysical dimensions of evil as the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky. This course will be devoted to a close reading of Dostoevsky's landmark novel of murderous passion and parricide, The Brothers Karamazov. Why should crime and transgression be a privileged avenue of access into the human interior? How is psychology tied to the metaphysical aspect of human existence? What are the sources of evil--and redemption?

Applies to requirement(s): Humanities
P. Scotto
Notes: Taught in English

RES-226 Philosophical Tales: The Short Fiction of Anton Chekhov

Not Scheduled for This Year. Credits: 4

Explore the short fictions of Anton Chekhov as brilliantly crafted exemplars of the Philosophical Tale, stories that use the resources of short narrative fiction to probe life's deepest questions: "what is the meaning of our lives, how do we face our inevitable death, why is there evil and suffering, what does it mean to be human, how should we live?" How do these stories work? What can fictions do that discursive philosophical essays can't? How do they engage the complexity of the world and of life? We'll also read Chekhov's work in larger tradition of Wisdom Literature, with readings drawn from Biblical, Hassidic, Classical, Folk, and Chinese traditions, as well as from other notable practitioners of the genre (Chesterton, Borges, Poe).

Applies to requirement(s): Humanities
Other Attribute(s): Writing-Intensive
P. Scotto
Notes: Taught in English.

RES-231FA Anna Karenina and Contexts: 'Tolstoy on Love, Death, and Family Life'

Not Scheduled for This Year. Credits: 4

Anna Karenina (1873) is one of a series of important works Tolstoy wrote pondering love, death, the nature of happiness, and the foundations of family life. Our reading of Anna Karenina will be the centerpiece of this course which will also include works ranging from Childhood (1852) to The Kreutzer Sonata (1889), which shocked and repelled readers with its unsparing depictions of human sexuality and murderous jealousy. Film versions of works will be screened.

Applies to requirement(s): Humanities
P. Scotto
Notes: Taught in English

RES-235 The Strange World of Nikolai Gogol

Fall. Credits: 4

Gogol was a strange creature, but genius is always strange." - Vladimir Nabokov. Nikolai Gogol was one of Russia's greatest and most enigmatic writers. Revered by Dostoevsky, he created a literary universe that has lost none of its original power despite the passage of time. This course will trace the development of Gogol's genius from his early Ukrainian stories, through his tales of St. Petersburg, to his comic masterpiece Dead Souls. Special attention will be paid to Gogol's deployment of the comic, fantastic and grotesque to render the reality of tsarist Russia.

Applies to requirement(s): Humanities
D. Brooks
Notes: Taught in English.

RES-240 Contemporary Russian Politics: From Lenin to Putin

Not Scheduled for This Year. Credits: 4

Russia was transformed by communist revolution into a global superpower that challenged the dominant ideologies of liberalism and nationalism. It became a powerful alternative to capitalism. In 1991, this imperial state collapsed and underwent an economic, political, and cultural revolution. What explains the Soviet Union's success for 70 years and its demise in 1991? What sort of country is Russia as it enters the twenty-first century? Is it a democracy? How has Russia's transformation affected ordinary people and Russia's relationship to the West?

Crosslisted as: POLIT-209
Applies to requirement(s): Social Sciences
N. Sabanadze
Notes: Taught in English

RES-244 Topics in Russian and Eurasian History

RES-244ST Topics in Russian and Eurasian History: 'Stalinism in Central Europe'

Not Scheduled for This Year. Credits: 4

This course explores the use of revolutionary terror by the state. More specifically, it examines policies of terror pursued by Communist dictatorships in Hungary and Czechoslovakia during the early years of the Cold War. Who did what to whom, and why? What insights do secret police work and public propaganda, knitted together in macabre show trials, allow us into Stalinist rule, European politics, and maybe ourselves? How did memories of terror shape politics after Stalin's death? Students should deepen their understanding for the discipline of History, improve their reading and writing, and develop a working knowledge of Central European politics at the middle of the twentieth century.

Crosslisted as: JWST-225ST, RES-244ST
Applies to requirement(s): Humanities
J. King

RES-312 Silk Roads: Ancient and Modern Highways Across the Eurasian Continent

Not Scheduled for This Year. Credits: 4

The silk roads were ancient transportation and trade links that wound their way across the Eurasian continent, or by sea through the South China Sea and Indian Ocean, to Europe. They carried silk, glass, jade, and moved religions and literatures across continents. Today, the new silk roads carry oil, gas, drugs, capitalism, and immigrants seeking better lives. We will investigate the parallels between the ancient and modern silk roads and the contemporary strategic, cultural, and economic significance of these new highways, which link China, Central Asia, the Middle East, South Asia, and Europe.

Crosslisted as: POLIT-312
Applies to requirement(s): Social Sciences
The department
Prereq: 8 credits in Politics, International Relations, History, or Russian and Eurasian studies.
Notes: Taught in English

RES-295 Independent Study

Fall and Spring. Credits: 1 - 4

The department
Instructor permission required.

RES-395 Independent Study

Fall and Spring. Credits: 1 - 8

The department
Instructor permission required.