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Home > courses > Spring 2004 Quick reference to courses
RUSSIAN:
EAST EUROPEAN AND EURASIAN STUDIES:
Course DescriptionsSlavic 1 & 2 (5 units each) Elementary Russian Comprehensive program for the study of Russian language and culture. Focus on proficiency in all four skills (listening, reading, speaking, writing). Classes conducted primarily in Russian. Daily homework assignments. Grades based on class participation, oral and written assignments, chapter tests, and final. Required Texts: (Available Through Asuc's Cal Textbooks) Slavic 1: Slavic 2: Recommended: Prerequisites: Slavic 2 - Slavic 1 or consent of instructor-in-charge. Slavic 3 & 4 (5 units each) Intermediate Russian Comprehensive program for the study of Russian language and culture. Focus on proficiency in all four skills (listening, reading, speaking, writing). Classes conducted in Russian. Weekly homework assignments. Grades based on class participation, oral and written assignments, chapter tests, and final. Required Texts: (Available Through Asuc's Cal Textbooks) Kagan and Miller, V Puti: Russian Grammar in Context, and workbook/lab manual.
Prerequisites: previous semester or consent of instructor-in-charge. Slavic R5A, Section 1 (4 units) Reading and Composition Course “The Outsider” This course will focus on the figure of the outsider in Russian and English literature. We will consider a variety of outsiders: the provocative anti-hero, the ambivalent rebel, the suicidal ex-soldier, the misunderstood emigre, and the playful non-conformist. We will discuss the categories of insider and outsider, the relationship between the self and society, and questions of perception, point of view, aesthetic vision, narration, and self-reflection. More broadly, we will explore the theme of the outsider in relation to literary constructions of identity and culture. In addition to close reading and discussion, a large part of the course will be dedicated to writing. Throughout the semester, students will work on producing subtle, persuasive, and articulate expository prose. Assignments will consist of frequent short response papers and three longer papers, one of which will be revised. Texts:
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from the Underground. Prerequisites: none. Slavic R5B, Section 1 (4 units) Reading and Composition Course Crisis and Anxiety This course fulfills the “B” portion of the Reading and Composition requirement. This course focuses on developing students' writing skills—the ability to write college-level expository prose that is well-constructed, persuasive, and effective. We will devote much class time to close reading and discussion of literary works. By the end of the semester students should be better able to read critically, analyze texts, and present arguments about them. The course requires a fair amount of reading (60-100 pages per week) and writing several short papers. The idea that the human personality is unstable and fragile rather than unified is often associated with modernity and the twentieth century; metamorphosis, loss of control, personal crisis and anxiety are often evoked in twentieth-century literature and art. However, the exploration of this instability already begins in the brilliant writings of the nineteenth-century authors Pushkin and Gogol, key contributors to the development of psychological prose. In this course we will examine these two writers, and writers of Russia, Europe, and the United States who explore some of these same themes. Readings include:
Aleksandr Pushkin, “The Queen of Spades” Prerequisites: Completion of the “A” portion of the Reading and Composition requirement or equivalent. Slavic R5B, Section 2 (4 units) Reading and Composition Course Madmen, Dreamers and Drunks This course fulfills the “B” portion of the Reading and Composition requirement. This course fulfills the second portion of the undergraduate reading and composition requirement and is geared to help you expand your skills to develop clearer and more effective writing. The emphasis will be on writing as a process, rather than a product to be turned in for a grade. The course will focus on texts that include representations of minds with unconventional relations with the world: irrational, paranoid, intoxicated, in states of mental crisis, or otherwise in an altered state. These texts are authored by writers from a variety of time-periods and national backgrounds, and a number of genres are represented. Your writing will engage themes and problems raised by the selected texts, including: how writers represent madness, and to what purpose; the function of mood-altering substances within the text; how various social pressures may be manifested in the text as madness; the difference between a text that is a literary representation of madness and a text that is a symptom of madness, that is, the product of a disturbed mind; and others. Readings Include:
Lewis Carroll -- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Prerequisites: Completion of the “A” portion of the Reading and Composition requirement or equivalent. Slavic 25B(5 units) Introductory Polish COURSE SEQUENCE BEGINS IN THE FALL . Texts: Prerequisites: Slavic 25A or equivalent. Slavic 26B (5 units) Introductory Czech THE COURSE SEQUENCE BEGINS IN THE FALL . This course continues Czech 26A, with emphasis on developing communicative skills, vocabulary, and grammatical competence. The textbook covers a broad range of communicative situations, the fundamentals of Czech grammar, and basic vocabulary. The course also provides an introduction to Czech culture through films, music, and short readings in Czech including excerpts from Czech poetry and prose, history, social studies, and current events. Daily homework, midterm, final exam. Texts: Prerequisites:Slavic 26A or equivalent. Slavic 27B (5 units) Introductory Serbian/Croatian COURSE SEQUENCE BEGINS IN THE FALL . Continuation of 27A. Integrated language skills, and commentary on the sociolinguistic situation of Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and the former Serbo-Croatian. Regular homework assignments, miderm and final exam. Text: BCS, A grammar of Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian with sociolinguistic commentary on the major differences (ms. available as reader). Prerequisites:: Slavic27A or equivalent. Slavic 28B (5 units) Introductory Bulgarian COURSE SEQUENCE BEGINS IN THE FALL. Practical instruction in the Bulgarian language with a focus on intergrated skills (reading, grammar, conversation). Course offered as staffing permits. Text: Ronelle Alexander & Olga Mladenova, Intensive Bulgarian Prerequisites: Slavic 28A or equivalent. Slavic 39E (3 units) Lower-Division Seminar: Science Fiction L&S Breadth: Arts & Literature This lower-division seminar examines some of the many ways problems of space and time have captured the imaginations of writers and filmmakers over the past hundred years. There is a long and honorable tradition of using tales of travel in space and time as a cover for the writer’s criticisms (sometimes veiled, sometimes quite direct) of his/her local social environment. In the first half of the course, we will pay particular attention to the way the revolutionary aspirations of Soviet (and pre-Soviet) Russia emerged in the form of science fiction. During the seminar’s second half, we will move beyond the geographical confines of Russia to sample a variety of twentieth-century mediations on the joys and perils of time travel. Texts: to be announced. Prerequisites: None. Slavic 46 (3 units) 20th-Century Russian Literature L&S Breadth: Arts & Literature The beginning of the twentieth century was marked by artistic and cultural experiment in all of Europe. In Russia it coincided with major social and political changes brought about by the Revolution in 1917 and its aftermath. Literature played a central role in the process of transfiguring Russian sociey, providing models for the utopian future. In the first half of the course, we will examine the artistic and social experimentation inspired by Russian utopian ideology and its intent to construct a “new man” and “new woman.” We will also examine the later abandonment of the utopian dream and read key texts criticizing Soviet totalitarian society. The readings will include selections from the experimental teens, revolutionary twenties, Stalinist thirties, dissident sixties and seventies, and post-Soviet eighties. There will be two papers and in-class final examination. Texts: Prerequisites: None. Lectures and readings in English. Slavic 101 (1-3 units) Practical Russian Phonetics Designed for advanced students in order to improve their pronunciation of Russian and bring it closer to the native level (superior proficiency level). The course teaches an accepted standard pronunciation of educated Russians and makes wide use of remedial methodology to correct ingrained phonetic mistakes and develop stable articulation habits necessary for correct Russian pronunciation and intonation. The course is based on various types of oral and written exercises, reading of literary texts, dialogues of neutral ad emphatic intonational coloring, and includes extensive use of audio tapes. Workload: 12 lessons over 45 hours of instruction: student work is checked in each lesson by numerous exercises to evaluate performance level and change. Mid-term exam with both oral (reading of text, speaking with teacher) and written parts (transcribing a text). Final consists of oral and written parts also. Texts: Prerequisites: Slavic 4, 14D, or equivalent. Slavic 103B (4 units) Advanced Russian (Part II) This course covers three main aspects of an advanced Russian course: grammar, syntax, and reading. The grammar is reviewed. Syntax deals with practical aspects of simple and compound sentences. Readings introduce mostly contemporary authors. The course is taught in Russian. There are weekly quizzes on grammar, syntax, and reading, one midterm and the final exam. Weekly discussion or conversation section. Grades based on 30% quizzes, 30% midterm, and 40% final. Texts: Prerequisites: Slavic 103A or equivalent. Slavic 105B (4 units) Advanced Russian/English/Russian Translation Slavic 105B, being a continuation of Slavic 105A, will have both oral interpretation and written translation represented in it. This time, these two aspects will have equal emphasis in the course. Oral translation (interpretation) will be expanded to cover not only informal casual situations but also formal meetings using the methods of consecutive and simultaneous translation. The latter is an especially highly valued skill. Certified consecutive and simultaneous interpreters are in high demand in conferences and official meetings. The written translation part will build on the material studied in 105A by expanding its scope to include scientific, legal and economic texts. Literary translation, including poetic, will also be studied. Texts: Reader. Prerequisites: Slavic 105A or consent of instructor. Slavic 114 (1-6 units) Advanced Self-Paced Russian for Native Speakers The course is aimed at “heritage speakers” of Russian, i.e., those who grew up speaking Russian in the family or had a limited learning experience, without a native Russian’s full educational and cultural background. The advanced course aims at building a sophisticated vocabulary, developing advanced reading ability, formal knowledge of grammar, and complete writing competency. The course is organized around students’ individual needs and abilities. Classes are held on a weekly basis as arranged during the first week of the semester. The course can be taken for two semesters not to exceed the maximum of 6 units. Prerequisites: advanced speaking and reading ability in Russian; placement test, and consent of instructor. Students with no or rudimentary reading proficiency should consider Slavic 6 (Introductory Russian for Heritage Speakers). advanced speaking and reading ability in Russian; placement test, and consent of instructor. Students with no or rudimentary reading proficiency should consider Slavic 6 (Introductory Russian for Heritage Speakers). Class sections for students are arranged during the first week of classes. Please see the instructor during special office hours during the first week of classes to arrange tutorial schedules. The first week of classes office hours will be posted outside of the Slavic Department office at 6303 Dwinelle Hall and on the Department’s web site. Slavic 115A (4 units) Advanced Polish This part of the Slavic 115 reading series covers excerpts from Polish literature and is conducted in Polish. Students read, comment on, and interpret the original texts from the point of view of content, literary technique and the peculiarities of the language. An overview of grammar is done mainly through exercises assigned from selected chapters of the textbook. Grades based on oral reports, class participation, written assignments and the final exam. Slavic 117B (4 units) Advanced Serbian/Croatian Spoken and written language; advanced grammar review; reading of texts from various authors and cultural sources on Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia; advanced conversation and writing. Grades based on class participation, midterm and final exam Texts: : BCS, A grammar of Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian with sociolinguistic commentary on the major differences (ms. available as reader). Prerequisites: Slavic 117A or equivalent. Slavic 120B (2-3 units) Advanced Russian Conversation and Communication This course focuses on oral communication skills. The goal is to help students develop confidence and begin to feel comfortable conversing in Russian on topics beyond routine social and survival needs. The course is loosely based on the textbook, Let’s Talk About Life! which contains readings, vocabulary lists, speaking activities, and taped interviews on various topics related to life in Russia and the United States. (With special permission from the publisher, all materials from the textbook are included in the handouts. Other supplementary materials can be found on the Web.) We will also supplement the listening (no less important than speaking since communication breaks down completely when comprehension is poor) with documentary and other film clips, songs, newscasts, guest speakers, etc. Speaking activities might include discussing or retelling a reading from the textbook in small groups, giving an oral report, taking part in a focus group, or participating in a debate, among other things. There will be regular home assignments (mostly fluency writing, listening, or reading to prepare for speaking in class the next day and vocabulary-building exercises); both a written vocabulary and an oral speaking test (one-on-one with the instructor) for each of the four chapters covered during the semester; and a final (oral interview). The course may be taken for two or three credits. Those students taking the course for two credits will come to class on Mondays and Wednesdays and do the assignments for those days. Students who choose to take the course for three credits will be expected to attend on Fridays as well. Together they will decide on a project (or projects) for the semester.
The grade will be determined as follows:
Attendance/participation 15% (The grading percentages for the students who sign up for 3 units may be modified to include the special project/s.) Prerequisites: Sl 4 or consent of instructor. Students may take A and/or B depending on their level of proficiency and goals. Slavic 134A (3 units)
Literature, Art, and Society in 20th-Century Russia: This Course is Cross-Listed with Comparative Literature 155, Section 1 L&S Breadth: Historical Studies OR Arts & Literature The literary avant-garde of the early twentieth century was the most radical expression of European modernism in literature and art. We will be focusing on the four most radical and creative of the avant-garde movements to have swept through Europe between the 1910's and the 1930's: Italian and Russian futurism, dada in Zurich and Berlin, and French surrealism. We will be reading avant-garde poetry, manifestoes, performance texts and plays, experimental fiction and memoirs. We will also be paying some attention to parallel developments in the visual arts and cinema. Topics for discussion include literature and revolutionary politics, tradition and modernity, theoretical metalanguage and its relationship to artistic practice, poetic experimentation, the relationship of sound to meaning, the limits of art, the cult of technology, literature and utopia, and the relationship of writing to theories of the unconscious. Writers include: Filippo Marinetti, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Velimir Khlebnikov, Ilya Zdanevich, Tristan Tzara, Hugo Ball, Richard Huelsenbeck, André Breton, Louis Aragon, René Daumal. Workload: short report, midterm essay, final exam, final paper Prerequisites: All readings will be in English, no prerequisite for attendance Slavic 132 (4 units) Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and the English Novel This Course is Cross-listed with English 125C L&S Breadth: Arts & Literature A close reading of works by Dostoevsky and Tolstoy in conjunction with two English novels. In “The Russian Point of View,” Virginia Woolf notes that whereas an English novelist feels a “constant pressure” to recognize barriers, both ideological and formal, a Russian novelist appears to feel less restraint. The English novelist is “inclined to satire,” the Russian to “compassion,” the English to “scrutiny of society,” and the Russian to “understanding of individuals themselves.” As we read, we will look for both affinities and differences between nineteenth-century English and Russian novels. The course consists of three parts: 1. Coming of Age in Russia and England: We begin with three fictional coming-of-age narratives, written in the first person: Tolstoy’s trilogy, Childhood, Boyhood, Youth; Dostoevsky’s unfinished early novel, Netochka Nezvanova; and Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. These works have a striking number of common morphological and thematic features. 2. Love and Death in the Russian and English Novel: We will read Dostoevsky’s The Idiot, George Eliot’s Middlemarch, and Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. Particular attention will be given to stylistic and formal features of these complex novels and to their treatment of philosophical questions and social issues, especially the status of women. 3. The Russian Point of View: Interior Monologue and Innovations in Poetics. We end with two short stories, Dostoevsky’s “A Gentle Creature” and Tolstoy’s “The Kreutzer Sonata,” which are remarkable for their narrative style, as well as what they say about love and marriage. These stories are used to highlight the contrasts between Dostoevsky and Tolstoy and to help to define the Russian point of view. Workload: close reading of assigned texts, regular attendance, one paper, short assignments, midterm, final exam. No prerequisites. No knowledge of Russian required. All readings are done in English. Slavic 134C (4 units) Dostoevsky L&S Breadth: Philosophy & Values OR Arts & Literature We will read the major works of Fedor Dostoevsky in relation to Russian literature and culture. The main issues that we will consider are the ethical and religious dilemmas of Dostoevsky’s characters and their radical social utopianism. We will also look at his representation of the body and treatment of national identity, class, and gender. These will be discussed against the background of Russian literature’s moral and social role in restructuring public and private life and the reception of Western ideas. A midterm, final paper, and final exam is required. Texts:
Petr Chaadaev, “First Philosophical Letter” Prerequisites: None. Classes and readings in English. Additional option: with concurrent enrollment in 134R (1 unit), a student can write a research paper (10-15 pages) on a topic of choice, supervised by the instructor in individual consultations. Slavic 134F (4 units) Vladimir Nabokov This course is cross-listed with English 166, Section 1 L&S Breadth: Arts & Literature We will study the work of Nabokov as a novelist on two continents over a period of nearly sixty years. The course will be structured chronologically and evenly divided between novels translated from Russian and written in English. After beginning with Nabokov's second novel and two short stories, we will examine the major fiction of his European period, which culminates with the publication in Paris of (most of) The Gift. We will devote a substantial part of the course to a close reading of Lolita. Competing interpretations of Nabokov will be considered, but our emphasis will be on metafiction, the theme of perversity and Nabokov's cultivation of a perverse reader. Since Nabokov was prolific and this course attempts to encompass nearly all phases of his career as a novelist, students should expect to devote a considerable amount of time to reading and should come to class prepared to discuss the assigned texts. Participants in the class should anticipate reading 300 pages per week. Written work will consist of two papers (5 to 10 pages) on topics to be chosen in consultation with the professor. Penalties will be assessed for late papers. The will be a midterm and a final examination. Prerequisites: None. Slavic 134R (1 unit) Research in Russian Literature: Nabokov This course is designed to support a research project coordinated with Slavic 134F "Nabokov" supervised by the instructor. Individual consultation with the instructor. Final research paper of 10-15 pages required. Prerequisites: Enrollment in Slavic 134F; consent of instructor. Slavic 138 (4 units) Studies in Russian and Soviet Film: Eisenstein This course is cross-listed with Film Studies 151, Sec. 3 L&S Breadth: Arts & Literature
This course examines the life and work of Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (1898-1948). As we consider his films within their historical, ideological and theoretical contexts, we will pay particular attention to the political and aesthetic debates that surround Eisenstein in the Soviet Union and to the reception of Eisenstein’s films and theoretical concepts in the West. Satisfies one “context” requirement for Slavic majors and “auteur” requirement for Film majors. Texts: to be announced. Prerequisites: consent of instructor. Students may enroll via Tele-BEARS but the instructor will determine eligibility during the first week of classes. Slavic 148 (4 units) Topics in Russian Cultural History: “Traditional Folk Narrative” L&S Breadth: Studies OR Arts & Literature This course will investigate the rich world of Indo-European fairy tales, especially from Slavic and Eastern European traditions. In order to situate and define the fairy tale, there will be a brief consideration of myths and legends; when appropriate, other relevant genres may also be discussed (e.g., proverb, riddle, incantation). The course will examine major theories about folktales and fairy tales (concerning history, structure, function, ideology) as well as the narratives themselves. By moving between theory and verbal texts, students will gain a better understanding of the fairy tale and test various theoretical models that have been developed. No knowledge of any foreign language is required. There will be a mid-term, a final, and students will be expected to carry out and present an in-depth, original piece of research: this will take the form of presentations to the class, and a final term paper (15-25 pages). Readings will include relevant works by Vladimir Propp, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Stith Thompson, Eleazar Meletinskii, Max Lüthi, Marie-Louise Tenčze, Bengt Holbek, Michčle Simonsen, Isabel Cardigos, Genevičve Calame-Griaule, and others. Some readings will be available in a course reader; other books may be placed on reserve at the library. Prerequisites: None Slavic 158/History 100, Section 6 (4units)
Topics in Russian/East European/Eurasian Cultures: This Course is Cross-Listed with History 100, Section 6 L&S Breadth: Historical Studies OR Social and Behavioral Sciences This course will consider the phenomenon of Yugoslavia (1918 - 1991) from two different but closely related standpoints -- that of history and politics, and that of LANGUAGE, literature and culture. Throughout Eastern Europe, but especially in the former Yugoslavia, these two activities have been so interconnected that it is impossible to understand the one without some understanding of the other. Literature and other artistic expression take as their primary topics historical and current politically charged events, and major political actions are often precipitated by, or at least closely tied up with, literary events or figures. The issue of language has also been highly politicized, and much of the ethnic/national conflict between Serbs, Croats, Bosnian Muslims (and even Montenegrins) is connected with the question of whether they all speak the same language or not. In addition to readings from literary and historical sources, the course will include films by and about Yugoslavs. Texts: Prerequisites: None. ALL COURSE READINGS ARE IN ENGLISH. Slavic 158 is a Cultural Topics requirement for majors in the East Europeanor Eurasian cultures track in the Slavic department. Slavic 188(4 units) “Creative Writing and Reading in Russian: Poetry in Focus” L&S Breadth: Arts & Literature The goal of this course is to improve students' writing, reading and speaking skills through the hands-on activities rooted in Russian literature. Immersive participation will present participants with issues central to Russian poetry of the last three centuries in a manner markedly different from customary approaches of critical literary analysis. Discussion topics will include elements of formal poetics (meter and rhyme), important recurrent motifs that sustained the interest of Russian poets for centuries (politics, city, and mermaids), and the interplay of their poetry with other arts such as music, painting, and film. We will read: Poems from the end of the 18th century to the present dayby the central figures of the Pantheon (Pushkin, Mandelstam, Tsvetaeva, Brodsky) as well as the poets who hide at the precious margins of the canon. We will write: Short weekly writing assignments will be the focus of this course. We will write at home and in class, individually and in groups, in Russian and…in Russian. Throughout the semester each student will develop a Poetic Diary and a Personal Portfolio to include five pieces chosen by the student from all those written during the course. We will speak: Every student will deliver at least one oral presentation. We will listen to various examples of Russian music known to have inspired Russian poets or works inspired by their writings. We will watch: The grade will be determined as follows:
Attendance and participation: 40% Slavic 200 (0 units) Graduate Colloquium Reports on current scholarly work by faculty and graduate students. Must be taken on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis. Graduate students must enroll in this course every semester in residence. Slavic 201 (2 or 3 units) Advanced Russian Proficiency Maintenance Russian language maintenance course for graduate students from various disciplines. May be taken for 2-3 credits, with consent of instructor. Focus on advanced conversation, reading, and stylistic patterns. Texts: none Prerequisites:graduate standing or consent of instructor. Slavic 210 (4 units) Comparative Slavic Linguistics Reconstruction of Proto-Slavic grammar and lexicon, chiefly phonology and morphology. The breakup of Common Slavic, the branches of Slavic, and the development of the Common Slavic sound system in the daughter dialects. Development of Proto-Slavic from Indo-European. The Slavic homeland and expansion. Workload includes some quizzes and/or exercises; midterm and final. Texts: Schenker, Alexander M. 1995. The Dawn of Slavic. New Haven: Yale University Press. Prerequisites: Slavic 210. Slavic 230 (4 units) Historical Grammar of Slavic Languages The historical development of the phonological system and its phonetic realization from late Common East Slavic to the modern East Slavic languages. Comparative grammar of standard Russian, Russian dialects, Belorussian, and Ukrainian. Some reading and analysis of texts of different dialects, genres, and periods. Texts: to be announced in class. Prerequisites: Slavic 210. Slavic 231 (4 units) History of the Russian Literary Languages The development of different varieties of the written language(s) used by East Slavs and then Russians from the times of Kievan Rus’ up to the modern period is analysed in its structural and socio-cultural aspects. The linguistic situation of medieval Rus’ sometimes described in terms of bilingualism or diglossia is reconsidered on the basis of a typology of written languages. Special attention is drawn to the educational procedures and their implications for the perception of the different levels of the written and oral languages. The formation of various registers of the written language is described as a result of the interaction of rhetorical strategies pertinent for different areas of culture and linguistic material drawn from East Slavic and Church Slavonic sources. A wide range of texts will be discussed with particular stress on the features relevant for their functional value. The emergence of the modern standard language is treated as the unification of usages belonging to different registers of the preceding epoch. Linguistic and social ramifications of the process of standardization will be analyzed and illustrated. The course will be read in Russian, both English and Russian will be used in discussion. There will be one final examination or one final paper of 15-20 pages, the choice between the final examination or the final paper belongs to the students. Slavic 242 (4 units) History of the Eighteenth Century Russian Literature The course encompasses the literary development of the early modern period (from the second half of the seventeenth century to the end of the eighteenth century) treating in an essentially chronological order the main figures of the literary canon (Feofan Prokopovich, Antiokh Kantemir, Trediakovskii, Lomonosov, Sumarokov, Fonvizin, Cathrine the Great, Derzhavin, Radishchev, Karamzin). The process of literary development will be analyzed as an interaction between literature as such and its cultural and social contexts. During the period under discussion, literature was conceptualized as an “European” institution, as an innovation produced by the process of “europeanization” and modernization of the Russian society. Literary activity can be regarded as one of the rhetoric strategies connected with the formation of a new “European” imperial elite, as a social experiment of sorts. The innovative nature of literature turns literary activity into a social adventure, into a search for a future social status of this activity. Due to the fact that literature was perceived as a European innovation any notion of a national literary past was rejected from the start; it was partly substituted by a generalized reception of the West European literary tradition. This rejection, nevertheless, did not exclude the inevitable continuity of the literary process. Attitudes and ideas which had been formed in the preceding epochs left their mark on the reception of West European literary theories and models, on the making of the hierarchy of genres, and on their functioning. This process of reception and radical transformation will be one of the focal topics of the course. Lectures will be read in Russian, readings and discussion will be both in Russian and English. Slavic 245A (4 units) Russian Sentimentailism and Romaticiscm This course will attempt to survey Russian literary activity in the first fourty years of the nineteenth century, during which most of the first great classics of Russian poetry and prose were written. Topics include Karamzin and the introduction of sensibility, Russian romantic theory and poetics, Griboedov's "Woe from Wit," romanticism and the philosophy of history, the poetry and prose of Mikhail Lermontov, and the tentative beginnings of realism in Gogol and the early Dostoevskii. Texts: to be announced. Prerequisites: Graduate standing; consent of instructor. Adequate knowledge of Russian. Slavic 280, Section 1 (4 units) Graduate Literature Seminar: Tsvetaeva The course treats Tsvetaeva’s oeuvre, especially in relation to the works of other poets, from Homer and Sappho to her own time. For each class, we will read selected poems by Tsvetaeva and other relevant texts, from among her prose works, the poetry and prose of other poets, and secondary literature. The course will be divided into thematic units, arranged chronologically:
1) The Nursery and Beyond (Tsvetaeva, Voloshin, Briusov); Workload:Careful reading and preparation of assigned texts; class presentations; memorization of selected poems (to be written down or recited out loud, according to the student’s preference); one short paper and one longer paper. Prerequisites: graduate standing, knowledge of Russian. Qualified undergraduates may enroll with the instructor’s permission. Slavic 280, Section 2 (4 units) Graduate Linguistics Seminar: SPECIAL TOPIC TO BE ANNOUNCED Detailed course description forthcoming. Texts: to be announced Prerequisite: Graduate standing; consent of instructor. Slavic 301 (3 units) Slavic Teaching Methods This course is required of all Graduate Student Instructors of Russian, Bulgarian, Czech, Polish, and Serbian/Croatian. Course to be repeated for credit each semester of employment as graduate student instructor. Course on practical teaching methods, grading, testing, and design of supplementary course materials. Required of all graduate student instructors in Slavic. Must be taken on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis. Slavic 310 (2 units) Internship in the Teaching of Literature/Linguistics Weekly meetings with the instructor of the designated course. Discussion of course aims, syllabus preparation, lecture and assignment planning, grading and related matters. Students may prepare a representative portion of the work for such a course (e.g. lecture outline and assignments for a course segment) and may participate in presentation of the material and in evaluation of samples of student work. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisites: Slavic graduate student status and consent of instructor. Eurasian Studies Courses Eurasian Studies 289, Section 1 (2-4 units) Studies in the Languages of the Caucasus and Central Asia: “Georgian Language and Culture” (a) Beginning course, for students with no previous knowledge of Georgian. The course will cover. The course will cover the alphabet, vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation and all four skills. Texts: to be announced. (b) Continuing Georgian, for students who have previous experience or basic knowledge of the Georgian language. The course will cover grammar, conversation and writing on the intermediate level. The course will be focusing on the topic of how closely the language relates to the traditional culture. Readings will include historical and ethnographic texts, literary pieces, and folk tales and poetry. For additional information about this course please consult: http://idrive.Berkeley.edu/shorena/web/index.html. Tentative Texts: Cherchi, Marcello. Georgian. Munich: LINCOM Europa. ISBN 3 89586 119 7;Hewitt, George. Georgian Reader with Texts,Translation and Vocabulary. London: SOAS. ISBN 0728602520 Eurasian Studies 289, Section 2 (2-4 units) Studies in the Languages of the Caucasus and Central Asia: Uzbek Beginning course in Uzbek, with instruction in all four skills. Intermediate Uzbek, with instruction in all four skills. Continuing students of Uzbek should contact the Slavic Department in advance if possible, and attend a planning meeting to be scheduled during the first week of the semester, in which the pace, coverage, and level of intermediate Uzbek will be determined. Both courses are open to undergraduates. Texts: to be announced. Prerequisites: Consent of instructor. Eurasian Studies 289, Section 2 (2-4 units) Studies in the Languages of the Caucasus and Central Asia: “Beginning Armenian” For more information contact the instructor. Email: hasmig@forhumans.com Detailed description with workload forthcoming. Texts: to be announced. Prerequisites: First half of Beginning Armenian from Fall 2003; consent of instructor. East European Studies Courses: HUNGARIAN LANGUAGE East European Studies 1B (3 or 4 units) Elementary Hungarian The course can be taken for either 3 or 4 units; the additional unit involves language laboratory work and additional written reading assignments. COURSE SEQUENCE BEGINS IN THE FALL The beginning course aims at developing the fundamentals of language proficiency through conversational practice, and oral and written assignments. Its most important goal is to provide the students with the requisite vocabulary and grammatical structures to carry on an idiomatic conversation in a variety of situations. It offers selections from Hungarian poetry and folk songs to help students gain a better understanding of Hungarian culture. Frequent oral and written assignments will be given; there will be a midterm and a final exam. Text: Zsuzsa Pontifex, Teach Yourself Hungarian Prerequisites: East European Studies 1A or consent of instructor. East European Studies 100 (2 units) Advanced Hungarian Readings The purpose of this class is to further develop the students' level of proficiency of Hungarian in speech as well as in writing. A major component of the curriculum is based on student presentation of a topic chosen by each student in the class. Each student is to give two oral presentations during the semester. Materials for reading are selected by the instructor as well as by the students for home reading. Workload will include a reasonable amount of reading and writing assignments. Midterm and final exams, and the student's attendance and participation will provide the basis for grading. Texts: photocopied materials chosen by the instructor and by the students. Prerequisites: East European Studies 1A-lB or consent of instructor. |
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