Course Descriptions

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Russian Studies

RUSS 101 - Elementary Russian I

A structured introduction to the basics of the Russian sound system and grammar, as well as speaking, reading, writing, and comprehension. Some exposure to Russian culture. For beginning students. No prerequisites. Russian language classes aim at perfecting all four linguistic skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. This course meets three times per week with two additional weekly sessions (labs) devoted specifically to oral proficiency. These conversation sessions are taught by Russian native speakers.

Frequency: Every fall.

RUSS 102 - Elementary Russian II

Continuation of RUSS 101; further development of the same skills. Russian language classes aim at perfecting all four linguistic skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. This course meets three times per week with two additional weekly sessions (labs) devoted specifically to oral proficiency. These conversation sessions are taught by Russian native speakers.

Frequency: Every spring.

Prerequisite(s): RUSS 101 with a grade of C- or better, or consent of instructor.

RUSS 151 - "Things Don't Like Me:" The Material World and Why It Matters

We all have a contentious relationship with our material reality. The blankets are tangled, the roads are icy, the colors of the walls are wrong, the sun is too hot, the universe is too big. Once our basic needs are met, why do we continue to adapt, transform, and refine our physical environment? Why and how do human beings invest objects with meaning - and at what cost to others? What is the difference between persons and things, and is the distinction as clear-cut as it seems? How do the objects that surround us shape the world of ideas, emotions, and other essential aspects of human existence? Drawing upon the insights of scholars from such fields as history, literature, anthropology, visual art, architecture, and material culture studies, we will seek answers to these questions. We will read literary texts and analyze how the authors reflect as well as imagine material reality, and how they deploy concrete objects to create meaning in their work. The course will consist of mini-lectures, class discussion, oral presentations. We will meet outside of class for film screenings and a visit to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

Frequency: Occasionally offered.

RUSS 194 - Topics Course

Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.

RUSS 203 - Intermediate Russian I

In the second year of Russian, students learn to operate in basic social and cultural environments. Conversational skills needed on the telephone, public transport and other daily situations, listening and reading skills such as television, newspapers, and movies, and various modes of writing are studied. Russian language classes aim at perfecting all four linguistic skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Intermediate and advanced courses are taught in Russian as much as possible. This course meets three times per week with two additional weekly sessions (labs) devoted specifically to oral proficiency. These conversation sessions are taught by Russian native speakers.

Frequency: Every fall.

Prerequisite(s): RUSS 102 with a grade of C- or better, or consent of the instructor.

RUSS 204 - Intermediate Russian II

Continuation of RUSS 203; further development of the same skills; added emphasis on reading and discussing simple texts. Conversational skills needed on the telephone, public transport and other daily situations, listening and reading skills such as television, newspapers, and movies, and various modes of writing are studied. Russian language classes aim at perfecting all four linguistic skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Intermediate and advanced courses are taught in Russian as much as possible. Students are usually prepared for study in Russia after they have completed Intermediate Russian II. This course meets three times per week with two additional weekly sessions (labs) devoted specifically to oral proficiency. These conversation sessions are taught by Russian native speakers.

Frequency: Every spring.

Prerequisite(s): RUSS 203 with a grade of C- or better, or consent of instructor.

RUSS 245 - Nabokov

There is a risk in studying Vladimir Nabokov, as those who have can attest. At first, you find he is an author who understands the simple pleasures of the novel. He crafts wondrously strange stories-often detective stories-in language often so arresting you may find yourself wanting to read passages aloud to passers-by. Then, you may discover within the novel little hints, here and there, of a hidden structure of motifs. The hints are in the synaesthetic colors of sound, in the patterns on the wings of butterflies, in the tremble of first love, in shadows and reflections, in the etymologies of words. Soon the reader has become a detective as well, linking the recurring motifs, finding clues are everywhere. By then it is too late. The risk in studying Nabokov is that you may not see the world the same way again.Nabokov's life is itself remarkable. He was born into Russian nobility, but fled with his family to Western Europe after the 1917 Revolution. His father took a bullet intended for another. After his education in England, Nabokov moved to Berlin, and then to Paris, where advancing Nazi troops triggered another flight, this time to the United States. He was not only an accomplished poet, novelist, and translator, but also a lepidopterist. Nabokov found and conveyed both the precision of poetry and the excitement of discovery in his art, scientific work, and life.In this course, we will read a representative selection of both his Russian (in translation) and English language novels, including Lolita and Pale Fire, two of the finest novels of the twentieth century. We will explore various aspects of Nabokov's life and art in order to arrive at a fuller understanding of how cultural synthesis inspires artistic creation.

Frequency: Occasionally offered.

Cross-Listed as: ENGL 245

RUSS 250 - Terrorism and Art: The Spectacle of Destruction

Russia presents an excellent case study for the topic of political violence. Terrorism as a means of political persuasion originated in the land of the tsars; Russian history features an incendiary cycle of repressions, revolts, and reprisals. Studying the origins and depictions of these events in works of art reveals how culture mediates between the world of ideas and the sphere of action. We will consider the tactics and motives of revolutionary conspirators as well as the role that gender and religion played in specific acts of terror. We will explore the ways in which Russian revolutionary thought and action served as a model for radicals around the world. The Russian case will provide a framework for in-depth study of examples of terrorism from Algeria, Ireland, Germany, the U.S., and the Middle East. Texts will include novels, poems, manifestos, letters, journalistic accounts, and films, as well as readings in cultural history and political theory. Taught in English.

Frequency: Alternate years.

Cross-Listed as: INTL 250

RUSS 251 - Russian Literature on the Eve of Revolution

How can literature help readers find meaning and purpose in times of crisis? In this course, we will study well-crafted narratives serving as windows into the conditions that led to dissent, social strife, and a thirst for liberation in imperial Russia, culminating in the Bolshevik revolution. Under autocracy in Russia, literature was the only public forum for debates about the things that mattered most. In the lead-up to the revolution, Russian literature had a tangible effect on the world by building compassion and sparking indignation, inspiring questions about how things could be otherwise, and by driving readers to action. In the first half of the semester, we will read short stories by authors such as Gogol and Chekhov who left an indelible impression on world literature, and a selection from a novel that served as a bible for revolutionaries. In the second half, we will focus on Dostoevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov, a story of rebellion against fathers in every sense, written in response to the rise of revolutionary terrorism in Russia. We will conclude with a novella by Tolstoy, Hadji Murat, about the resistance that the Russian state met in its attempt to subjugate the peoples of the Caucasus. We will consider these texts as works of art and as sources of understanding and impact feeding into the Bolshevik Revolution. These narratives about people caught up in unjust systems of power raise questions about how one can and should act under oppressive circumstances. The characters we will encounter grapple with issues of agency and responsibility, as well as the crucial question of who gets to decide what is right and what is wrong in a secular world. As such, these stories bear witness not only to their times, but to ours as well. No previous knowledge of Russian literature or history is required. For our readings we will use English translations that preserve the pleasures of the original texts.

Frequency: Alternate years.

Cross-Listed as: ENGL 251

RUSS 252 - Revolution, Repression, and Resistance: Soviet and Post-Soviet Literature and Culture

In the twentieth century, political and artistic revolutions in Russia had repercussions far beyond its borders; we can still feel the effects to this day. How do artists respond to and shape historical events? How did writers in twentieth-century Russia transmute fear, violence, and chaos into art? In this course we will consider novels, stories, and poems, as well as paintings, music, and film reflecting upon the Bolshevik revolution, the Stalinist terror, World War II, the Thaw, glasnost and perestroika, and the turmoil of the post-Soviet era. We will become acquainted with major artistic trends including Symbolism, Futurism, and Socialist Realism; and observe how in each case, matters of style went hand in hand with the desire to change the world. Our readings will convey the fantastic schemes of the utopian thinkers at the turn of the century; artists' responses to and participation in the political, scientific, and sexual experimentation of their time; and the survival of creative expression in the midst of unimaginable hardships. We will discover how and why some cultural figures chose to serve, and others to resist, the state, and what fate had in store for them. We will learn how provocateurs and innovators such as Mayakovsky, Akhmatova, Babel, Zoshchenko, Bulgakov, Solzhenitsyn, Brodsky, Pelevin, and Tolstaya explored the relationship between art and ideology, exile and creativity, laughter and subversion, memory and survival, individual psychology and historical cataclysm. All reading will be in English.

Frequency: Offered in alternate years.

RUSS 257 - Tolstoy's War and Peace

In 1851, a dropout from the university, Lev Tolstoy volunteered to serve in the Caucasus, where he also launched his writing career. Later he examined Napoleon's war with Russia in War and Peace , while gradually gaining fame for his stance against imperialist wars and violence. His doctrine of non-resistance against evil was to inspire his last piece of war writing, Hadji Murad as well as other thinkers from Gandhi to Martin Luther King. Though most of the semester will be devoted to the "non-novel," "loose baggy monster," War and Peace we interrogate it in the context of Tolstoy's evolving ideas and 19th century Russia and Europe. We conclude with a close reading of Hadji Murad , Harold Bloom's "personal touchstone for the sublime prose fiction." While pondering Tolstoy and Russia, students are introduced to various critical approaches to literature and various reactions to Tolstoy both on page and on stage. In English. Lectures, discussion, writing, and oral presentations.

Frequency: Occasionally offered.

RUSS 260 - Rise/Fall of Tsarist Russia

This course examines the Russian empire (1689-1917) within a global historical narrative. We will explore the formation and collapse of the Russian empire, paying special attention to its role within larger world developments and the experience of the diverse peoples that populated its territory. Considering external and internal processes, we will examine the numerous challenges that the Russian Empire faced throughout two and a half centuries. Of particular significance are its relationship with the West, Russia's imperialism, and the issues of modernization. Can count towards History's "Europe" and "pre-1800" and "Race/Indigeneity" and "Colonization/Empire" fields.

Frequency: Alternate years.

Cross-Listed as: HIST 260

RUSS 261 - Making History: Russian Cinema as Testimony, Propaganda, and Art

Through the study of Russian films starting from the silent era up to the present day, the course will explore how storytelling in cinema differs from that in history and fiction, as well as how power relations, technology, and aesthetics shaped cinematic depictions of major historical events in Russia and the Soviet Union, from medieval times to post-Soviet era. Students will view and analyze films that are among the essential Russian contributions to world cinema, by directors including Eisenstein, Tarkovsky, Mikhalkov, and Sokurov. Course readings will draw upon film theory, history, fiction, and memoirs. We will use our readings to create a conceptual framework for examining the films as narratives about real events, as vehicles of propaganda, and as imaginative works of art. In addition to attending weekly film screenings and discussing the films and readings in class, students will give presentations on topics of their choice arranged in consultation with the instructor.

Frequency: Occasionally offered.

Cross-Listed as: HIST 261

RUSS 262 - Revolutionary Russia and the Soviet Union

A survey of Russian, Soviet and post-Soviet history from the Russian Revolution to the present. Topics include the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, Bolshevik rule and its tsarist heritage, Soviet "monocratic" society under Lenin and Stalin, dissent in the USSR, the "command economy" in the collapse of Communist political power, and national consciousness as an operative idea in the Commonwealth of Independent States. Can count toward History's "Europe" and "post-1800" and "Colonization/Empire" fields.

Frequency: Alternate years.

Cross-Listed as: HIST 262

RUSS 265 - Translation as Cross-Cultural Communication

When communication takes place across language barriers, it raises fundamental questions about meaning, style, power relationships, and traditions. This course treats literary translation as a particularly complex form of cross-cultural interaction. Students will work on their own translations of prose or poetry while considering broader questions of translation, through critiques of existing translations, close comparisons of variant translations, and readings on cultural and theoretical aspects of literary translation.

Frequency: Occasionally offered.

Prerequisite(s): Advanced proficiency in a second language required.

Cross-Listed as: INTL 265 and LING 265

RUSS 270 - Wrongdoing in Russian Literature

The Russian word for crime literally means "overstepping," in the sense of crossing a boundary. What happens, however, when that boundary shifts, as it did in the twentieth century with the Bolshevik Revolution? Or what if the society that defines the criminal is itself "wrong"? Throughout its history, Russian literature has returned almost obsessively to the theme of transgression. We will take a cross-cultural approach as we juxtapose Russian texts with those from other literary traditions, bringing out a similar and contrasting views of wrongdoing in Russian culture and that of "the West" against which Russia has traditionally defined itself. Readings will introduce course participants to an intellectual axe murderer, a malicious barber, a female serial killer, demonic hooligans, men pushed over the edge by classical music, and others on the wrong side of the law. Central to the course will be the question of how fiction writers present crime and how their artistic choices influence the way readers think of such seemingly self-evident oppositions as good and evil, right and wrong. We will address such themes as: the motives for and the moment of crossing over into crime; the detective as close reader/the criminal act as a work of art; gender and violence; crimes of writing; the (in)justice of punishment and the spectacle of state power. We will explore St. Paul's "underworld" history and how it has been reinvented as a tourist attraction. Students will be encouraged to apply ideas arising from our readings to current events, studying the means by which contemporary instances of wrongdoing (and the trials intended to make things right) are represented in the mass media, and analyzing how true-life stories are turned into allegory and myth.

Frequency: Occasionally offered.

RUSS 272 - The Post-Soviet Sphere

The USSR's 1991 dissolution ended one of history's great experiments. Socialism sought to dissolve ethnicity and overcome ethnic conflict with a focus on equality. Instead it exacerbated nationalism and created-separated identities. But how? Topics include ethno-creation, control, and resistance; ethnic animosities and the USSR's destruction; new states after 1991; "diaspora" populations beyond ethnic homelands; local rebellions; new "native" dictatorships; and recent international organizations. .

Frequency: Alternate years.

Cross-Listed as: INTL 272

RUSS 286 - Between Europe and Asia

What is Northern Eurasia? Who inhabited the territory of present-day Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic countries, the Caucasus, and parts of Central Asia? How did groups of diverse ethnic, religious, cultural, and economic backgrounds interact with one another? This course aims to answer these questions and explore the history of peoples and spaces in Northern Eurasia from the medieval period to the eighteenth century. Stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, Northern Eurasia has been a place of intensive cultural exchange for many centuries. During this time, various groups came into contact which resulted in trade, wars, and imperial rule. The complex history of relations among peoples is the subject of this course. Drawing on a variety of primary sources, literary works, and films, we will discuss such topics as Eurasian identities; indigenous peoples; ideas of Russianness and imperialism; the problem of state-building, and the formation of empires.

Frequency: Alternate years.

Cross-Listed as: HIST 286

RUSS 294 - Topics Course

Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.

RUSS 305 - Advanced Russian I

This course builds upon the language skills acquired in RUSS 204 by solidifying confidence in speaking and conversing, deepening student vocabulary and reading skills through authentic readings from a variety of genres, strengthening listening skills through exposure to film, TV and other media, and introducing students to higher-level essay writing. By the end of the course, students will be expected to master fundamental grammatical concepts, and will be exposed to more advanced concepts such as participles, verbal adverbs, diminutives, and stylistics. The course is topical in nature, and topics will change from year to year. They may include literature, current events, history, film, theater, and mass media. In the anticipation that students will study in a Russian-speaking country the following semester, a primary goal of the course is to facilitate the achievement of advanced proficiency while studying abroad.

Frequency: Fall semester.

Prerequisite(s): RUSS 204 or permission of instructor.

RUSS 363 - Orientalism and Empire: Russia's Literary South

Since the 18th century to the recent wars with Chechnya, contradictory views of Russian empire building have been reflected in Russian literature. Students first explore recurring Russian ideas of empire, such as "Moscow the Third Rome," and "Eurasianism," as well as the constructs of East/West as factors in Russian identity thinking. The course focuses on the Caucasus region, Russia's "Oriental" south, starting with a brief history of imperial expansion into the area and concentrating on its literary expression in travelogues, Classicist and Romantic poetry, Oriental tales, short stories, and novels. We will ponder general "orientalist" imagery and stereotyping (the noble savage, the brave tribesman, the free-spirited Cossack, the sensual woman, the imperial nobleman/peasant, the government functionary, and "virgin" territory) together with ideas of nation and identity based on this specific region. We will read classics of Russian literature (Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy, Tsvetaeva), but also lesser known authors, some justly and others unjustly forgotten by the canon (Osnobishin, Elena Gan, Iakubovich, Rostopchina). We will supplement our literary readings with a variety of critical and historical texts, as well as films. In English.

Frequency: Occasionally offered.

RUSS 364 - Culture and Revolution

This course examines the relationship between cultural and political change during four very different revolutions: in France of 1789, in Russia of 1917, and the more recent events in Iran and South Africa. How do people change when governments are overturned? How do revolutions shape the consciousness of their citizens? Do people understand events as revolutionaries intend them to? To answer these questions, we will examine symbols and political ideologies, mass media outreach, education and enlistment, changing social identities, the culture of violence, popular participation and resistance, as well as other issues. Readings will include such diverse sources as Voltaire and Rousseau, Marx and Lenin, Khomeini and the Koran. We will read contemporary accounts, both sympathetic and antagonistic, and look at popular culture to see how events were understood. Fashion and etiquette, comics and caricatures, movies and plays are among the materials used. Taught in English.

Frequency: Alternate years.

Cross-Listed as: INTL 364

RUSS 367 - Dostoevsky in Translation

Dostoevsky lived an extraordinary life. After achieving instant fame with the publication of Poor Folk, he languished in near obscurity for many years. He was sentenced to death for participation in a political society and was reprieved by the tsar just minutes before his scheduled execution. He served four years of hard labor in prison and another five years in exile in Siberia. He suffered from debilitating epilepsy and a compulsive gambling habit, and he struggled with massive debt. Yet by the end of his life the Russian public hailed him as a prophet and Russia's greatest living writer. Like his life, his novels are extraordinary. They plumb the dark depths of the human soul, confronting the reader with issues of life and death, good and evil, and the presence of evil in God's universe. In this course we will read Dostoevsky's four great novels Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, Demons, and The Brothers Karamazov, as well as the misunderstood anti-nihilist work Notes from Underground. Taught in English.

Frequency: Alternate years.

RUSS 394 - Topics Course

Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.

RUSS 405 - Advanced Russian II

Seminars on selected topics in Russian Studies. Open to all students with advanced proficiency in Russian, and serving as an integrative capstone experience for majors. The course will combine discussions of a central topic in the Russian Studies field with students' own scholarly exploration. Recent seminar topics have included Human Rights in the Post-Soviet Sphere, The Contemporary Short Story, and Forbidden Art and the Performance of Dissent. During the semester, seminar participants will pursue independent in-depth research that draws upon Russian sources; this research will serve as the basis of class workshops and discussions during the second half of the semester. The course is taught in Russian, but the final paper will be written in English. Workshops and discussions of the final paper in class and during consultations with the instructor will likewise be conducted in English. Since the topic changes from year to year, the course may be repeated for credit with permission of the instructor.

Frequency: Every spring

Prerequisite(s): RUSS 305 or permission of instructor

RUSS 488 - Senior Seminar

Frequency: Every spring.

Prerequisite(s): RUSS 305 or approval of instructor.