SESSION A: May 24-July 2

Home > Courses > Summer 2004

Slavic R5B, Section 1 (4 units)
Instructor: Prof Alan Timberlake

Reading and Composition Course

Topic TBA

Monday-Thursday 1-3, 228 Dwinelle Hall
Course Control Number: 77105

This course satisfies the second half or the “B” portion of the Reading and Composition requirement. A special topic description with texts is forthcoming.

Prerequisites: Completion of the “A” portion of the Reading and Composition requirement or equivalent.

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SESSION B: June 7-August 13

SLAVIC 10 & 20 : THE TEN-WEEK RUSSIAN LANGUAGE PROGRAM
Director: Dr. Arkady Alexeev

Slavic 10: First-year Russian (10 Semester Units)
Textbooks: Lubensky, Ervin & Jarvis, Nachalo When In Russia..., Books I (1997 ed.) and Books II (2nd ed.) with tapes and lab manuals

Slavic 20: Second-year Russian (10 Semester Units)
Textbook: Davis & Oprendek, Making Progress in Russian, with tapes (2nd ed., 1997)

On the first day of classes, students will meet at 9:00 a.m. for Slavic 10 and 20 at the following locations:
Slavic 10: 9-11 a.m., 156 Dwinelle Hall (Recitation section 101)
Slavic 20: 9-11 a.m., 210 Wheeler Hall (Recitation section 101)

Description

The more than decade-old Intensive Russian Program at UC Berkeley attracts students from all over the United States. Dr. Arkady Alexeev, the program director, is a native speaker of Russian who received a Soviet degree equivalent to the Ph.D. in Leningrad followed by an American Ph.D. at U.C. Berkeley in Slavic Linguistics.

Communication is the focus of the Summer Intensive Program. Students are prepared to communicate well in a real Russian environment. The historical Berkeley campus and the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area have much to offer the student of Russian: a sizable Russian population, the San Francisco Russian Center with its cultural activities, Russian churches, Russian bookstores and restaurants, all of which offer students innumerable opportunities for contact with native speakers of Russian. But the Russian Summer Program does not rely on chance contacts. We invite native Russian guest speakers, organize tours of Russian points of interest in San Francisco and the vicinity, and invite students to view Russian exhibits and films. The Intensive Russian Program prepares students for further success in Russian studies.

This year’s program includes first-year intensive and second-year intensive Russian. Both courses consist of small course sections supervised and taught by native Russian speakers and advanced graduate student instructors. The program offers students four hours of intensive classwork every day, including special classes in conversation and oral and written drills and grammar exercises. Daily homework and language laboratory assignments complement instruction. Courses meet Monday-Friday from 9:00 a.m.-12:00 noon and from 1:00-2:00 p.m. Every week the students watch a Russian film or attend a lecture on Russian culture. Each Friday the students and their Russian teachers gather at Berkeley cafes to chat in Russian and enjoy the company of their fellow students in a Russian atmosphere. The Program also organizes a picnic in the picturesque Berkeley hills for all students of Russian.

Registration, Housing, Financial Aid Information

The suggested deadline for registration is mid-May but registration can be accepted with consent of instructor once classes begin.

Students should prepare for a full-time investment as these courses cover 30 weeks of regular instruction over a 10-week session.

Housing costs are additional, and students arrange their own housing through Campus Housing Services.

Financial aid is available for continuing U.C. students from all campuses. Non U.C. students should apply for financial aid through their home campuses. Housing and finanical aid information is available from the Office of Summer Session’s website, http://www.summer.berkeley.edu.

Late enrollment for quarter-system students: accommodations may be made for quarter-system students who are not able to arrive at the beginning of the given course. Contact Dr. Alexeev, the Director of the Russian Program, during the advising period listed below to obtain advance permission to begin once the courses are underway.

Placement Information

Dr. Alexeev will be available to answer questions about placement in courses, course structure, and content during the dates noted below. Students with previous experience with Russian who are unsure of their current skill level should sign up for Slavic 20 and consult with their instructor on the first day about their correct placement level. If necessary, a placement exam will be administered by the director of the course. Slavic 20 is a complete review which will suffice for individuals who’ve studied Russian previously. All other inquiries should be addressed to the offices listed in the next sections. General questions about the Russian program may be addressed to the Slavic Department at the following e-mail address: issa@socrates.berkeley.edu, or by phone at (510) 642-2979.
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Contact the Program Director at arkalexeev@yahoo.com

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SESSION C: June 21-August 13

Eurasian Studies 89 (8 units)
Instructor: The Staff

Monday–Friday 9:00-1:00, 6115 Dwinelle Hall
Course Control Number: 34000

This course provides the equivalent of two semesters of elementary Western Armenian. The course combines attention to grammar, everyday communication, as well as reading, writing and translating of simple texts in Western Armenian. Lessons will consist of drill sessions, lectures and in class discussions in Armenian. Classes will be conducted primarily in Armenian. Through the course students will also expand their general knowledge about Armenia and Armenian culture.

There will be daily homework assignments in written and verbal forms, which will be reviewed and practiced in class.

Text:
K.B. Bardakjian and Robert W. Thomson, A Textbook of Modern Western Armenian (with audio tapes)

Prerequisite: none.

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SESSION D: July 6-August 13

Slavic R5B, Section 1012 (4 units)
The Staff

Reading and Composition Course

Slavic Literature and the Laws of Physics: Discerning, Disrupting, and Reforming the Natural Order in Russian, Polish, and American Literature

Monday–Thursday 1-3, 254 Dwinelle Hall
Course Control Number: 77115

This course presents an assortment of works by Russian greats Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Goncharov, Lermontov, Polish science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem, and American Nathaniel Hawthorne, in which the protagonists grapple with the physical laws controlling them and their environments. The 19th century alternately welcomed and rebelled against the hegemony of science and rationalism in shaping the popular imagination in Europe and the US. The writers examined here offer a range of responses: Dostoevsky's Underground Man attempts to free himself by committing irrational, self-destructive acts designed to expose the incompleteness of the rational law, Tolstoy's Pozdnyshev and Lermontov's Pechorin commit murder to punish Russian society into confronting the prevailing order, either of society or Nature or both. Under the influence of his friend, Shtoltz, Goncharov's tragi-comic hero, Oblomov, fights but ultimately succumbs to inertia, while his American counterparts, the aged and impotent aristocrats of Hawthorne's House of Seven Gables rejuvenate their family line by absorbing the daguerrotypist, a radical young democrat and amateur hypnotist. The course ends with a 20th century work, Stanislaw Lem's Solaris, in which science fails to deliver on its most fundamental promise that all things can be known and defined by rational means.

Attendance is mandatory. The reading load averages 75 pages per night (5 nights a week). Students will write 4 papers of 5-7 pages and 1 final paper of 10-12 pages.

Prerequisites: Sucessful completion of a the first half or the “A” portion of the Reading and Composition requirement.

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