Courses

Seminars

RUSS 001B-002B, 003B. Intensive Russian

Students who start in the 001B-002B sequence must complete and pass 002B in order to receive credit for 001B.
For students who wish to begin Russian in college or did not move beyond an introduction in high school. Designed to impart an active command of the language. Combines the study of grammar with intensive oral practice, work on phonetics, writing, web materials, and readings in literary and expository prose. Conducted primarily in Russian; normally followed by 004B and 011. See the explanatory note on language courses above.
1.5 credits.

RUSS 001B, Fall 2007. Pesenson.
RUSS 002B, Spring 2008. Pesenson.
RUSS 003B, Fall 2007. Forrester.

RUSS 004B. Advanced Intensive Russian

For majors and those interested in reaching advanced levels of proficiency in the language. Advanced conversation, composition, translation, and stylistics. Considerable attention to writing skills, phonetics, and spontaneous speaking. Readings include short stories, poetry, newspapers, and Web sites. Conducted in Russian.
1.5 credits.
Spring 2008. Briker.

RUSS 006A. Russian Conversation

A half-credit course that meets once a week for 1.5 hours. Students will read newspapers, explore the internet and watch videos to prepare for conversation and discussion. Each student will design and complete an individual project based on his or her own interest and goals.
Prerequisite: 004B in current or a previous semester or permission of instructor.
0.5 credit.
Spring 2008. Rojavin.

RUSS 008A. Russian Phonetics (Cross-listed as LING 008A)

This course will enable Russian speakers and non-speakers alike to learn to pronounce Russian fluently. Focused work on individual phonemes and the Russian “articulation foundation” will accompany the study of phonetic rules and intonational constructions. We will devote practical attention to issues in both Russian language acquisition and Linguistics; individual assignments will reflect each student’s experience, interests and goals.
0.5 credit.

RUSS 011. Russian Culture

An interdisciplinary introduction to contemporary Russian culture within a framework of continuing enrichment of vocabulary and developing fluency in speaking and writing Russian. Topics will emphasize high culture and history, with occasional guest presentations by faculty in associated disciplines from Swarthmore and Bryn Mawr. Readings, lectures, papers, and discussions in Russian.
Prerequisite: Russian 004B or the equivalent
Primary distribution course.
1 credit.

RUSS 013. The Russian Novel (Cross-listed as LITR 013R)

The Russian novel represents Russia’s most fundamental contribution to world culture. The course surveys classic authors and experimental works from the 19th and 20th centuries. Students in the course will deepen their understanding of the context for writers including Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. They will gain familiarity with literary movements and genres including romanticism, realism, the psychological novel, the picaresque novel, modernism and the postmodern as they developed in Russia. We will highlight issues including the relationship of Russia to the West, national identity and the complex relationship of literature and politics.
No prerequisite.
Writing Course. 1 credit.
Fall 2007. Pesenson.

RUSS 015. East European Prose in Translation (Cross-listed as LITR 015R)

Novels and stories by the most prominent 20th-century writers of this multifaceted and turbulent region. Analysis of individual works and writers with the purpose of appreciating the religious, linguistic, and historical diversity of Eastern Europe in an era of war, revolution, political dissent, and outstanding cultural and intellectual achievement. Readings, lectures, writing, and discussion in English; qualified students may do some readings in the original language(s). Writing-intensive course limited to 15 students.
Writing Course. 1 credit.
Fall 2007. Forrester.

RUSS 016. History of the Russian Language

An introductory course, studying the origin of the Russian language and its place among the other modern Indo-European and Slavic languages. The uses of philology and linguistics for the ideological and stylistic analysis of literary texts. Satisfies the linguistics requirement for teacher certification.
1 credit.
Not offered 2005-2007.

RUSS 017. First-Year Seminar: The Erotic Imagination: Love and Sex in Russian Literature (Cross-listed as LITR 017R)

Best known for political priorities and philosophical depth, Russian literature has also devoted many works to the eternal concern, love, and sex. We will read significant and provocative works from traditional folk tales through the 20th century to discuss their construction of these most "natural" impulses - and how they imagine the relationship of human attraction to politics and philosophy.
1 credit.
Fall 2006. Forrester.

RUSS 021. Dostoevsky (in translation) (Cross-listed as LITR 021R)

Writer, gambler, publicist, and visionary Fedor Dostoevsky is one of the great writers of the modern age. His work influenced Nietzsche, Freud, Woolf, and others and continues to exert a profound influence on thought in our own society to the present. Dostoevsky confronts the “accursed questions” of truth, justice, and free will set against the darkest examples of human suffering: murder, suicide, poverty, addiction, and obsession. Students will consider artistic, philosophical, and social questions through texts from throughout Dostoevsky’s career. Students with Russian may read some or all of the works in the original.
1 credit.
Spring 2008. Pesenson.

RUSS 024. Russian and East European Cinema (Cross-listed as LITR 024R)

This course will introduce students to cinema from the “other Europe.” We will begin with influential Soviet avant-garde cinema and survey the traditions that developed subsequently with selections from Russian, Polish, Caucasian, Czech, Hungarian, Ukrainian and Yugoslav cinema. Screenings will include films by Eisenstein and Tarkovsky, Wajda, Kusturica, and Paradzhanov, among others. Students will hone critical skills in filmic analysis while considering the particular cultural, national and political forces shaping the work of filmmakers in this “other Europe” from the early twentieth to the early twenty-first century.
No prerequisite.

1 credit.
Not offered 2005-2007.

RUSS 033. Terror in Russia: Method, Madness, and Murder (Cross-listed as LITR 033R)

In the nineteenth century the Russian Empire saw a rise of political terrorism sponsored by leftist and anarchist political factions plus a new legal system with juries likely to acquit. After a central role in the 1917 Revolution, political terror underwent further transformation in the twentieth century, turned against Soviet citizens under Stalin and erupting on both sides of the ongoing conflict in Chechnya. Poetry, prose, film and journalism.

1 credit.
Spring 2008. Pesenson.

RUSS 041. War and Peace in Russian Literature and Culture (Cross-listed as LITR 041R)

This exciting new course explores Russian literary and cinematic responses to the ravages of war and revolution, heroic and bloody conflicts that repeatedly devastated the country throughout its long and tumultuous history. We will read a variety of texts dealing with wars in the Middle Ages, the Napoleonic invasion, the Revolution of 1917, the Civil War, World War II and the present-day conflict in Chechnya, and explore how individual writers portrayed the calamity of war and its devastating effect on people’s lives, while expressing hope for ever-elusive peace and prosperity. Works to be read include Tolstoy’s War and Peace, Bulgakov’s White Guard, Grossman’s Life and Fate, Babel’s Red Cavalry, and Akhmatova’s Poem Without a Hero. Films to be screened include Alexander Nevsky, Battleship Potemkin, Ballad of a Soldier, My Name is Ivan, and Prisoner of the Mountains. All readings and discussion will be in English. All films will be screened with English subtitles.
1 credit.
Spring 2007. Pesenson.

RUSS 047. Russian Fairy Tales (Cross-listed as LITR 047R)

Folk beliefs are a colorful and enduring part of Russian culture. This course introduces a wide selection of Russian fairy tales in their esthetic, historical, social and psychological context. We will trace the continuing influence of fairy tales and folk beliefs in literature, music, visual arts, and film. The course also provides a general introduction to study and interpretation of folklore and fairy tales, approaching Russian tales against the background of the Western fairytale tradition (the Grimms, Perrault, Disney, etc.). No fluency in Russian is required, though students with adequate language preparation may do some reading in the original.

Writing Course. 1 credit.
Spring 2008. Forrester.

 

RUSS 066. Antichrist and Apolcalypse in Russian Literature and Culture (Cross-listed as LITR 066R)

The Russians have been famously termed “wanderers in search of God’s truth”. In much of their literature there is a discernable thirst for another life, another world; a clear displeasure at what is. There is an eschatological directedness, an expectation that there will be an end to all that is finite, that a final truth will be revealed, that in the future an extraordinary event will take place. This new course will explore and analyze apocalyptic consciousness in Russian literature and culture from the Middle Ages to the present. Emphasis will be on such themes as the expectation of the end of the world, identity of the Antichrist, and visions of an afterlife. Authors to be read include Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Merezhkovsky, Bely, Solovyov, Bulgakov, Remizov and Blok. All discussions and readings will be in English.
1 credit.
Fall 2005. Pesenson.

RUSS 068. Underground Culture of the Soviet Period (Cross-listed as LITR 068R)

This course focuses on political and artistic dissent in Soviet Russia after Stalin. We will consider the significance of crucial events from the period of “Thaw,” the liberal romanticism of the 1960s, the crisis of 1968, ensuing stagnation and new possibilities in the era of perestroika. Students will examine a variety of modes of expression, including underground literature, alternative visual art, bards’ songs, Russian rock and controversial cinema. The course will address the cultural relationship to history, the construction of cultural memory, identity and values in the shadow of totalitarianism.
1 credit.
Not offered 2005-2007.

RUSS 070. Translation Workshop (Cross-listed as LING 070 and LITR 070R)

This workshop in literary translation will concentrate on both translation theory and practice, working in poetry, prose, and drama as well as editing. Students will participate in an associated series of bilingual readings and will produce a substantial portfolio of work. Students taking the course will write a final paper supported by a smaller portfolio of translations. No prerequisites exist, but excellent knowledge of a language other than English (equivalent to a 004B course at Swarthmore or higher) is highly recommended or, failing that, access to at least one very patient speaker of a foreign language.
1 credit.
Fall 2006. Forrester.

RUSS 079. Russian Women Writers (Cross-listed as LITR 079R)

This course balances the picture of Russian literature by concentrating on the female authors whose activities and texts were for a long time excluded from the canon. From the memoirs of the first female president of the Russian Academy of Sciences and a female cavalry officer in the Napoleonic Wars, through the rise of the great prose novel and Modernist poets such as Anna Akhmatova and Marina Tsvetaeva, to the stunning frankness of post-Soviet authors and dramatists such as Arbatova, Petrushevskaia, and Vasilenko. Students with good Russian skills may do part or all of the readings in the original.
1 credit.
Not offered 2005-2007.

RUSS 080. Literature of Dissent (Cross-listed as LITR 080R)

This course will address the central place of dissent in Russian literature, its flowering in reaction to Tsarist and Soviet censorship. The theme leads to some of the most important works of 19th- and 20th-century Russian poetry and prose.
1 credit.
Not offered 2005-2007.

RUSS 091. Special Topics

For senior majors. Study of individual authors, selected themes, or critical problems.
1 credit.
Spring 2007. Forrester.

RUSS 093. Directed Reading

 

RUSS 101. Tolstoy

Novelist, Christian philosopher, pacifist, and educator, the monumental Lev Tolstoy’s thought inspired communities of “Tolstoyans” and influenced Gandhi. Toltoy’s treatment of moral and historical issues in literature continues to move readers to our day. Students in this course will examine Tolstoy’s idea and art in the harmonious Russian style of the original.
2 credits.
Spring 2008. Rojavin.

RUSS 102. Russian Short Story

Counterpoint to the sprawling Russian novel, the short story in Russia possesses a long and distinguished pedigree. Russian writers have used the genre to create polished and brilliant gems demonstrating the possibilities of character development, voice, plot, and the right exposition of ideas in prose. This seminar will explore a selection of examples from the likes of Pushkin, Chekhov, Zoshchenko, Bulgakov, Nabokov, and others.
2 credits.
Not offered 2005-2007.

RUSS 103. Pushkin and Lermontov

This course will acquaint students with two of the seminal figures of 19th-century Russian literature, Aleksandr Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov, looking at their criticism, dramatic works, poetry and prose, as well as their cultural and literary context.
2 credits.
Not offered 2005-2007.

RUSS 104. Dostoevsky

Students will read the works of this compelling visionary in the original Russian. The course will survey key works from Dostoevsky’s oeuvre, examining Dostoevsky’s use of language and his literary style. Dostoevsky’s art and ideas will be discussed in the context of major critical works by Mikhail Bakhtin and others.
2 credits.

Not offered 2005-2007 .

RUSS 105. Literature of the Soviet Period

This course treats the literature associated with one of the most remarkable social experiments in human history. Students will examine the relation of literature to ideology and social reality based on a selection of works reflecting the avant-garde experimentation of the 1920s, the official doctrine of Socialist Realism, underground and émigré literature, and/or literature addressing the historical situation and the legacy of Stalinism.
2 credits.
Not offered 2005-2007.

RUSS 106. Russian Drama

2 credits.
Not offered 2005-2007.

RUSS 107. Russian Lyric Poetry

2 credits.
Not offered 2005-2007.

RUSS 108. Russian Modernism

The period spanning roughly 1890-1925 is often referred to as the Silver Age of Russian literature. This course will survey the rich achievements of Russian culture in the fin-de-siècle, with opportunities to study particular topics more deeply according to students’ interests and preferences.
2 credits.
Fall 2007. Forrester.

RUSS 109. Chekhov

Readings from Chekhov’s dramatic works and stories, with attention to the rich body of scholarship on the author in Russian and in English.
2 credits.
Not offered 2005-2007.

RUSS 110. Bulgakov

Doctor, dramatist and dissident, Mikhail Bulgakov is one of the most significant prose authors of the Soviet period. His writings embody scrupulous honesty, recognition of moral complexity, deeply thoughtful awareness of political, religious and philosophical traditions, and the life affirming force of humor. We will read from his short stories, feuilletons and dramatic works, ending the semester with his masterpiece, Master i Margarita, arguably the most fun novel of the 20th century.
2 credits.
Not offered 2005-2007.

RUSS 111. Tsvetaeva and Mayakovsky

Poetic, dramatic and prose works of the “hysterical poets,” Marina Tsvetaeva and Vladimir Mayakovsky, two of the greatest Russian writers of the 20th century. Focus on their volcanic poetic development, interactions, and creative responses to gender, decadence, revolution, civil war, emigration and Soviet repression.
2 credits.
Not offered 2005-2007.

RUSS 112. The Acmeists

Several great Russian 20th-century poets led the group called “Acmeists” for their emphasis on verbal clarity, specificity of imagery, and attitude of “nostalgia for world culture.” Nikolai Gumilev was shot in 1921 for supposed participation in a monarchist plot. Osip Mandel’shtam spent years in “internal exile” for overly honest writing and died in a camp in 1938. Anna Akhmatova, perhaps the most translated Russian poet into English, witnessed all the horrors of Stalinism but survived to mentor a new generation of poets in the 1960s. The course will concentrate on these three poets, with attention to their literary and cultural context.
2 credits.
Not offered 2005-2007.

RUSS 113. Russian Cinema

Examples from Soviet avant-garde, High Stalinist, Thaw Era, Perestroika and Post-Soviet Cinema, considering the role of film as both ideology and entertainment.
2 credits.
Not offered 2005-2007.

RUSS 114. Folklore in Russian Literature

Folklore is both an enormous field of human culture, and a rich source of literary plots, genres, ideas and materials for writers, scholars, and theorists of all directions. In this course we will read works of Russian literature in which folklore plays a significant role, as well as exploring several of the areas of Russian folklore that have most influenced literature.
2 credits.
Not offered 2005-2007.

RUSS 115. The Petersburg Myth in Russian Culture

This course will examine the importance of St. Petersburg in Russian history, society, and culture. It will investigate ways in which themes and developments that are crucial for an understanding of Russia as a whole have been played over the course of the city's vibrant, and often turbulent, 300-year existence. Themes to be covered include discourse of East versus West in defining Russian national identity (St. Petersburg as Russia's "Window onto Europe," St. Petersburg's rivalry with Moscow); reform and modernization in Russian history (St. Petersburg as "the most abstract and intentional city on earth" [Dostoevsky]); death and suffering in Russian history (St. Petersburg as an "apocalyptic city" doomed to pay for its murderous origins); and the relationship between center and periphery in the Russian and Soviet context (St. Petersburg as a "cosmopolitan province," St. Petersburg as contemporary Russia's "cultural capital").