Department of Russian

Literature Courses 2009-2010

 

Russian Literature Faculty:  Patricia Carden: pjc9 (on leave spring ‘10); Nancy Pollak: np27; Savely Senderovich: ss51 (on leave fall ‘09); Gavriel Shapiro: gs33 (on leave fall’09).

Department Chair: N. Pollak              

Director of Undergraduate Studies: P. Carden (fall), S. Senderovich (spring)

The Russian Department Office is located in 226 Morrill Hall, phone: 255-8350, fax: 255-2044, e-mail: RussianDept@cornell.edu. For updated information you may consult our web site at: http://www.arts.cornell.edu/russian

 

Satisfying the Foreign Language Requirement under Option 1:

Students who qualify may satisfy the language requirement by taking RUSSL 2209 in the fall term or RUSSL 2212 in the spring term. Other RUSSL courses that are taught in Russian may also be used when appropriate.

 

 

*              Note:  Courses marked with an asterisk (*) require a suitable knowledge of the Russian language.       

 

 

*2209     Readings in Russian Prose & Poetry.  3 credits. Fall: TR 11:40–12:55. Readings in Russian; discussion in English. Satisfies language Option 1.   N. Pollak. Prerequisite: For students with 2+ semesters of Russian language (1121/1122 or equivalent). Short stories and lyrics of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including Pushkin, Lermontov, Chekhov, Blok and Akhmatova.  Assignments adjusted for native fluency. May be used as a prerequisite for RUSSL 3300-4400 courses with reading in Russian.

 

*2212     Readings in Twentieth-Century Russian Literature. 3 credits. Spring: TBA. All readings, written assignments, and discussions are in Russian.  Satisfies language Option 1.  G.  Shapiro.  Course designed for students with native background needing another course to satisfy the language requirement.  Goals are to introduce students to twentieth-century Russian literature in the original and to improve their Russian reading and writing skills.  Readings are from twentieth-century masters such as Bunin, Bulgakov, and Nabokov.  May be used as a prerequisite for RUSSL 3300-4400 courses with reading in Russian. 

 

 3335      Gogol. 4 credits.  Spring: TBA. In translation. G. Shapiro. Selected works of Gogol are read closely and viewed in relation to his life and to the literature of his time.

 

3369                Dostoevsky. 4 credits.  Fall: TR 1:25-2:40. In translation. P. Carden. Limited to 40 students.  Course involves close reading of novels and short works by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky’s fiction is in contentious dialogue with the literature and philosophy of the preceding century and opens out to the literature and philosophy of the following century. His critique of European culture, his searching examination of the interior life, and his bold experiments with narrative make his work seminal in world fiction. Readings include Notes From Underground, Crime And Punishment, The Idiot, and Brothers Karamazov. 

 

3393                Honors Essay Tutorial. 8 credits.  Fall and spring: hours to be arranged with instructor. Staff.  Must be taken in two consecutive semesters in senior year.  Credit for the first semester will be awarded    upon completion of second semester.  For information, please see the director of undergraduate studies.

 

*4409     Russian Stylistics. 4 Credits. Spring: TBA. S. Senderovich. Also open to graduate students. Prerequisite: proficiency in Russian or permission of instructor. May be counted toward the 12 credits of Russian literature in the original language for the Russian major. Going beyond normative grammar, this course provides an introduction to idiomatic Russian (morphology, syntax, vocabulary, phraseology) and to colloquial and written genres.  Students develop writing skills through short assignments.

 

*4430      Practice in Translation.  4 credits. Spring: TBA. Prerequisite: proficiency in Russian or permission of instructors. N. Pollak.  Practical workshop in translation: mostly literary texts (prose and poetry), some scholarly works and documents; mostly Russian to English, some English to Russian; development of literary and linguistic skills.

 

*4432      Pushkin. 4 credits. Spring: TBA. Reading in Russian; discussion in English. S. Senderovich. Open to graduate students.  Prerequisite: proficiency in Russian or permission of instructor.  This   course may be counted towards the 12 credits of Russian literature in the original language for the Russian major.  Reading and discussion of selected works by Pushkin: lyrics, narrative poems, and Eugene Onegin. 

 

4492      Supervised Reading in Russian Literature. 1-4 credits each term. Fall or spring: times to be arranged with instructor. Independent study. Staff. Prerequisite: Students must find an advisor and submit a plan before signing up.

 

*4499     The Avant-garde in Russian Literature and the Arts. 4 Credits. Fall, MWF 10:10-11:00, P. Carden.  Prerequisite: proficiency in Russian or permission of instructor.  This course may be counted toward the 12 credits of Russian literature in the original language for the Russian major.  The first decade of the twentieth century was perhaps the richest period ever in Russian literature and the arts.  Beginning with the brilliant experimentation in poetry and prose of Andrei Bely, Blok, Remizov, and others; then continuing with the breakthroughs in painting and sculpture by Malevich, Goncharova, Tatlin, etc.  In the second decade, the rambunctious Futurists take over in literature and establish a compact with theatre and the visual arts in which all the art forms break down the barriers to produce a new kind of art.  During this period Russian artists in every medium were on the cutting edge of the European art scene.  After the Revolution, Russian artists and writers of the avant-garde continued their dominance for a time, including the developing medium of film. We read representative Russian texts by the major authors of the period and investigate developments in the theater and visual arts.

 

*6611      Supervised Reading and Research.  2-4 credits each term.  Fall or spring: times to be arranged with instructor. Staff. Prerequisite: proficiency in Russian or permission of instructor.

 

 

 

 Revised