Undergrads: looking for VLPA or I&S Credit?
CZECH 420 SURVEY OF MODERN CZECH LITERATURE AND FILM
SLN 12499 Instructor: Alaniz
Tue,Thu 2:30-4:20 5 credits (VLPA)
Caught between East and West, modernity and tradition, Slav and ?European? identity, the country today known as the Czech Republic has produced some of the most vital, moving and irreverent literature in the world. This course will serve as a general introduction to modern Czech literature and film, focusing mostly on post-1918 works. We will pay special attention to the role 20th-century history and national tragedy have played in Czech culture, as well as how authors deploy humor and sex as a strategy of resistance, survival and celebration. In addition to reading novels and shorter pieces by Karel ?apek, Bohumil Hrabal, Milan Kundera, Ivan Kl?ma and others, we will also watch films by Ji?? Menzel, V?ra Chytilov? and Jan Sv?r?k. The course concludes with a discussion of the current, post-socialist state of Czech literature, film and popular culture.
POLSH 420 POLISH CULTURE AND SOCIETY AFTER THE FALL OF COMMUNISM
SLN 17443 Instructor: Lysak
Tue,Thu 9:30-11:20 5 credits (VLPA)
The lecture aims to discuss the most significant Polish authors of the
period after World War II. The main emphasis will be on writers of the
so-called Columbus Generation, whose literary output has shaped the image
of modern Polish literature. Poems and short prose works of authors such
as Tadeusz Rozewicz, Zbigniew Herbert, Wislawa Szymborska, Czeslaw Milosz
will be discussed. The course will provide a survey of major literary
works from 1945 to 1990, emphasizing their dialogue with national and
European tradition and history. It will deal with essential motives,
poetics, and stylistic trends. The students will develop a systematic
understanding of the crucial concepts of Polish postwar literature. Some
contents of the class will also refer to emigrant experience and
Polish-American writers whose texts were originally written in English
such (e.g., Eva Hoffman and Jerzy Kosinski). Chosen film adaptations of
Polish literature will also be discussed. All readings in English
translation.
RUSS 120 RUSSIAN TRAVEL LITERATURE
SLN 17801 Instructor: Diment
MTWTh 12:30-1:20 5 credits (VLPA)
Next best thing to traveling yourself, and not just to different places but through the centuries. It will span 5 centuries ? 15th-20th ? and feature works by Afanasy Nikitin, Archpriest Avvakum, Alexander Radishchev, Nikolai Karamzin, Ivan Goncharov, Anton Chekhov, and Ilf and Petrov, among others. No prerequisites; all readings and discussions are in English.
RUSS 323 20TH CENTURY RUSSIAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE
Instructor: Alaniz, fulfills “W” requirement, 5 credits (VLPA/I&S)
SLN 17806 Lecture MT Th 10:30-11:20
SLN 17807 Quiz A W 10:30-11:20
SLN 17808 Quiz B W 10:30-11:20
Come take a sweeping tour of the dynamic literary and cultural scene of
20th/21st-century Russia, from the Bolshevik Revolution, Diaspora and
Socialist Realist period, through the purges and post-Stalin ‘Thaw’, to
the Stagnation, Perestroika and Post-Soviet eras! Lectures and discussion
will focus not only on important literary texts of the 20th/21st
centuries, but also on relevant films, music and paintings. Authors
discussed include: Yevgeny Zamyatin, Yury Olesha, Andrei Platonov, Mikhail
Bulgakov, Valentin Katayev, Vladimir Nabokov, Alexander Solzhenitsyn,
Tatyana Tolstaya, Viktor Pelevin and Roman Senchin.
RUSS 324 RUSSIAN FOLK LITERATURE
SLN 17809 Instructor: Henry
Tue,Thu 2:30-4:20, 5 credits (VLPA/I&S)
What is folkore and how is it related to modern culture and experience?
What connection do fairytales and myths have to evolving ideas of Russian
culture and nationality? What is the relationship between traditional
folklore, modern “urban legends” and literature? This class will explore
these ideas through an examination of the Russian folktale, its roots in
ancient, pre-Christian Slavic religious tradition, its connections with
other forms of folklore such as myth and legend, and its transformation in
modern Russian literature. In addition to Russian fairytales, we will be
reading works of Russian literature (Gogol’, Pelevin, Kharms, et al) that
make use of folkloric themes and motifs, and we will look at the study of
folklore as a discipline. No prerequisites
RUSS 542 SEMINAR IN CONTEMPORARY RUSSIAN POETRY
SLN 17813 Instructor: West
Mon,Wed 2:30-4:20, 5 credits
One specific problem or theme in contemporary Russian poetry, seen in its widest possible dimensions. Students must read, in Russian, the literary works involved and become familiar with the social, historical, and philosophical backgrounds that inspire them.
RUSS 570 RESEARCH SEMINAR IN RUSSIAN LITERATURE
SLN 17814 Instructor: Lominadze
Th 2:30-4:20, 5 credits
Themes in Russian literature. Based on individual student interests. This course is taught entirely in Russian. Entry code available to undergrads with advanced knowledge of Russian.
