Winter 2023 Class Schedule
Winter 2023 class Schedule
Winter 2023 course descriptions
POLISH 208-2 – Intermediate Polish: Lanaguage and Culture
Winter Quarter of Intermediate Polish is the second part in a three-quarter sequence designed to continue working on the Polish language and contemporary Polish culture. In this course, students will continue to develop the skills of speaking, listening, writing, and reading through a variety of communicative and content-based activities. Emphasis will be placed on practical communication so that students should be able to function in a variety of authentic situations at an intermediate level by the end of the year. As a complement to the linguistic side of the course, students will gain a greater familiarity with Polish history and culture through varied means, including readings of literary works, articles from contemporary Polish newspapers, and movies.
RUSSIAN 101-2 – Elementary Russian
Welcome to continuing Elementary Russian! Elementary Russian 101-2 is the second part in a three-quarter sequence designed to introduce students to the Russian language and contemporary Russian culture. In this course, students will continue to develop the fundamentals of speaking, listening, writing, and reading through a variety of communicative and content-based activities. Emphasis will be placed on practical communication so that students should be able to function at a basic level in several authentic situations by the end of the year.
RUSSIAN 102-2 – Intermediate Russian
This is the second part in a three-quarter sequence focusing on the Russian language and contemporary Russian culture. Students will continue to develop speaking, listening, writing, and reading skills through a variety of communicative and content-based activities. Emphasis will be placed on practical communication.
RUSSIAN 302-2 – Advanced Russian in Conversations
This course is the second part of a three-quarter sequence focusing on communication, cultural understanding, connections of Russian language and culture with other disciplines (such as history and sociology), and comparisons of Russian and American culture and language. It is a combined third- and fourth-year all skills language and culture class. This course includes topics in grammar, a focus on developing discussion and conversational skills and writing, and readings from a range of contemporary Russian writers. It is taught in Russian and is intended for students who have completed the SLAVIC 302 series and/or the SLAVIC 102 series.
RUSSIAN 359-0 – Grossman, Zhizn' i sud'ba
This advance undergraduate/graduate course explores in detail the epic novel "Life and Fate" (1961, first published 1980), written by Vasily Grossman. Readings in Russian, discussion in Russian and English. The course will be conducted as а seminar.
SLAVIC 222-0/LING 222-0 – Language, Politics, and Identity
In LING 222/SLAVIC 222 Language, Politics, and Identity (co-listed classes) students will examine and analyze political and identity issues in terms of the languages and dialects of the Balkans (particularly: Albanian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Macedonian, Romani, and Serbian). Topics to be covered include: linguistic nationalism, language laws, rights of minority languages, language discrimination, language and religion, alphabet issues, language and dialect as ethnic identity, standard language, and others. This course will introduce the student to some of the key issues that have plagued the Balkans in the past and continue to shape its future. This course fulfills either an Area IV, Historical Studies, Distribution Requirement or Area V, Ethics and Values, Distribution Requirement, students may choose with Distribution Requirement.
SLAVIC 255-0/COMP_LIT 211-0 – What is Lyric Poetry?
What is Lyric Poetry? What are its roots, and what are its possibilities today? How does it stand in relation to the countless other varieties of rhymed and/or rhythmic language—hymns, pop songs, advertising slogans, campaign mottoes, bumper stickers, and so on—that surround us in our daily life? How does it represent and respond to the world around us and its many histories? We will explore these and other questions by way of examining lyrics past and present, in multiple traditions, from psalms and hymns to epitaphs, elegies, songs, and love poems, both in English originals and in translation. We will pay particular attention to the meanings of poetic form, the nature of poetic translation, and the social and cultural functions of lyric poems.
SLAVIC 310-0 – Tolstoy: War and Peace
Through a close reading of War and Peace, we will try to appreciate why it is usually considered the world's greatest novel. What do Tolstoy's incomparably realistic descriptions of thought processes show us about the human mind and its relation to the body? How do the stories we tell and the processes of our own memories distort reality, and how can we correct for these distortions? Is history a matter of big decisions made at decisive moments or of the countless small decisions and happenings we barely notice? Does life have a meaning, and if so, how can we learn it? These are among the questions we will consider as we examine how this profound psychological and philosophical novel works.
SLAVIC 390-0 – From Sarmatians to Drag Queens
This course examines the rich and dynamic past two centuries of Poland's multi-ethnic, -linguistic, and -religious literary traditions. Central to our course is the question of performance and identity—we will examine how the concept of Polishness changed over time and how various literary figures helped shaped that definition. We will read poems, novels, short stories, and plays on such topics as Polish romanticism and realism, the Young Poland movement, the interwar avant-garde, Polish-Jewish relations, wartime and Holocaust writings, and postwar and queer literature. Readings are offered in English translation and original Polish. Discussion in class is in English, no prior knowledge of Polish is necessary. Optional Polish language discussion and assignments for advanced language speakers possible.
SLAVIC 438 – Russian Modernist Prose
This course is a general survey of Russian Prose of the early 20th century, with emphasis on Modernist works in the context of Formalist Theory. Readings are in Russian (or in both Russian and English translation where available) and include major works and short stories by Ivan Bunin, Maxim Gorky, Fedor Sologub, Andrei Platonov, Boris Pilniak, Mikhail Bulgakov, and others.