Slavic 102 Second Semester Russian, 4 credits
001 9:55 AM-10:45 AM MTWRF
002 11:00 AM-11:50 AM MTWRF
003 12:05 PM-12:55 PM MTWRF
004 1:20 PM-2:10 PM MTWRF
Prerequisites: Slavic 101 or equiv. Open to Fr
Continuation of Slavic 101.
Slavic 112 Second Semster Polish
001 1:20 PM-2:10 PM MTWF
The course teaches MODERN STANDARD POLISH. It practices reading, writing, speaking, and oral comprehension at the beginner level. The focus will be on oral communication, on learning grammatical patterns and building up active vocabulary. The course proposes a cultural component. Students will learn about Poland’s history, geography, literature, films through language exercises.
Slavic 142/342 Second Semester Serbo-Croatian
001 12:05-12:55 PM MWF
Dijana Mitrovic
This course will further develop your reading, speaking, listening and writing skills in Serbo-Croatian. The course will improve your knowledge of grammar, such as cases and verb conjugations, and will continue to acquaint you with common features of culture of the region.
Slavic 182 Russian Honors Tutorial for Slavic 102, 1 credit
Sergey Karpukhin, M, 2:25 PM-3:15 PM
Prerequisites: Con reg for hon credit in Slavic 102. Open to Fr
Slavic 204 Fourth Semester Russian, 4 credits
001 9:55 AM-10:45 AM MTWRF
002 1:20 PM-2:10 PM MTWRF
Prerequisites: Slavic 203 or equiv. Open to Fr
Continuation of Slavic 203.
Slavic 218/452 Fourth-Semester (Intensive) Czech
(4cr; MTWR 12:05-12:55, Van Hise 575)
The course is a continuation of Czech language sequence; complete of 218/451 or its equivalent serves as a necessary prerequisite. The course is designed to further develop communicative skills in Czech: speaking, reading, listening, and writing. The course continues to move students through the B1 level (in the Common European Framework) of learning another language. It is thematically organized by lessons in the textbook Czech Step by Step 2. Another main text for the course will be the Czech film Musíme si pomáhat / Divided We Fall. All students will be responsible for vocabulary/grammar work in Step by Step and for work with the film; tests will cover both. The instructional mode for this course is face-to-face meetings (four hours per week) and time devoted to homework; credit hours are therefore met according to the Carnegie definition.
Slavic 242/LitTrans 241 Literatures and Cultures of Eastern Europe
Dijanna Mitrovic
MW 2:30-3:45pm
In this class we will be studying cultures of Eastern and Central Europe through works of literature, theatre, and film produced between the end of WWII and the fall of the Berlin Wall (1945–1989). Special focus will be placed on the strategies political regimes were employing to control artistic production during the Cold War era, as well as the subversive techniques of resistance that artists and authors used in return. Apart from learning about the region of the time, the class material will help us recognize/resist various forms of (self)censorship in general, thus making us better scholars, artists, and citizens of the world. Additional course’s goal is to hone your analytical skills as well as critical thinking abilities.
Slavic 245/LitTrans 247-002 Topics in Slavic Literatures in Translation: Russia and the Jews
3 cr.
Zilbergerts, T-Th, 11-12:15
Language of instruction: English
This course explores the rich world of Russian Jewish culture from its very beginnings. Reading literary, theological and political works by Jewish and Russian writers, our aim will be to understand the creative and often-troubled relationships among them. The course will take us from the Imperial through the Soviet periods, examining the rise of movements such as Hasidism, Zionism, and Communism, as we analyze each literary work amid the cultural developments of its day. All materials will be provided in English translation and no prior knowledge is required.
email: zilbergerts@wisc.edu
Slavic/PoliSci/Geog/History 253 Russia: An Interdisciplinary Survey
Professor Manon van de Water
1438/818 Van Hise Hall
mvandewa@wisc.edu
Lecture 001: TR 1:20-2:15pm
Dis 301: W 9:55-10:45am
Dis 302: W 11:00-11:50am
Dis 303: W 1:20-2:10pm
Dis 304 W 2:25-3:15pm
prerequisites: open to freshmen
This course is designed as an interdisciplinary introduction to Russian civilization, drawing on contributions by over a dozen faculty members from ten departments at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as visiting lecturers. The course aims to impart a basic knowledge of Russian history, literature, politics, religion, philosophy, art, geography, economy, cinema, theatre, and foreign affairs, to provide students with the tools to begin to grasp the complex issues that Russian culture and society present us. By the end of the semester, students will be familiar with the major issues, approaches, and topics of disagreement among Russian area specialists, and have a solid understanding of Russian culture, history, geography, and politics.
Course Requirements include quizzes, a midterm, a final exam, responses to select lectures and films, and short presentations in discussion sections.
Required Texts:
- Thompson, John M., Russia and the Soviet Union: An Historical Introduction from the Kievan State to the Present (7th ed.)
- Turgenev, Ivan S. Mumu.
- Solzhenitsyn, Alexander One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, trans. H. T. Willetts
- Electronic Readings on Canvas
Slavic 276 Third Year Russian II, 4 credits
Alexandra Walter, MWF 9:55 AM-10:45 AM
Sergey Karpukhin, MWF 1:20 PM-2:10 PM
Prerequisites: Slavic 275 or equiv.
Continuation of Slavic 275.
Slavic 316 Russian Language and Culture II, 2 credits
Anna Tumarkin, TR 1:20 PM-2:10 PM
Prerequisites: Slavic 275 or equiv
Emphasizes speaking and listening skills, helping students to converse on different stylistic levels, with varying degrees of formality, according to the rules of Russian speech etiquette.
Slavic 322 Fourth Year Russian II, 4 credits
Maksim Hanukai, MWF 1:20-2:10pm
Prerequisite: Slavic 321 or cons inst
Slavic/Theatre/Curric 362 Drama for Teaching and Learning, 3 credits
001 4:15-5:45 PM MW
002 4:00-5:30 PM TR
Prerequisites: So standing
This is a methods course useful for all involved in teaching and learning, including foreign languages. Introduction to philosophy, methodology, and practice of the use of drama and performance techniques in any educational or recreational settings. Focus on creativity and embodied and contextual learning, based on current neurological, psychological, and sociological research. A practical class which includes demonstration and practice with children.
Slavic 421/LitTrans 221 Nikolai Gogol
Professor Andrew Reynolds
001 MWF 12:05-12:55
301 T 12:05-12:55
“When, as in the immortal The Overcoat, Gogol really let himself go and pottered on the brink of his private abyss, he became the greatest artist that Russia has yet produced.” Vladimir Nabokov
This course will explore the major fictional texts of Nikolai Vasil’evich Gogol (1809-52) – Ukrainian and Petersburg Tales, The Inspector General, Dead Souls – in an attempt to get closer to one of the most enigmatic and influential writers in world literature Relevant non-fiction texts will also be introduced when appropriate. Despite the comparisons to Poe and Kafka or Gogol’s undeniable influence on Dostoevsky and Bulgakov, one thing is certain – his world of laughter and tears is unlike that of any other writer. Are his characters realistic if satirical portraits of his countrymen, or phantoms spawned by his own spiritual torments? Is Gogol a Russian imperialist or Ukrainian nationalist, both, or neither? Is Dead Souls an excoriation of a sad Russia or an evocation of her special destiny as the speeding troika before whom all other nations will give way?
Assessment will be made based on class participation, attendance, essays, and an in-class exam in week 12. Please have read and bring the assigned story to each class period, since our discussions – as well as most of the writing assignments – will be based on close textual analysis. All students are asked to purchase the editions indicated, but are encouraged to consult and compare any of the many other available translations of Gogol’s work as well. Students in SL421 may wish to compare the Russian texts to the translations – cheap editions of Gogol’s Russian works should be available from online book stores such as kniga.com or petropol.com or the biblio-globus web site. Many (almost certainly all) of the Russian texts are available online too. And of course Memorial Library has many copies of Gogol’ in Russian.
Undergraduate students registered for Slavic 421 will have additional meetings (every two or three weeks) throughout the semester to discuss elements of some the original Russian texts, including works already studied in English in class and a few works that are not part of that syllabus. A meeting schedule and requirements for Slavic 421 will be distributed separately. Our main focus will be on reading “The Nose” in Russian.
Slavic 424/LitTrans 224 Tolstoy
001 MWF 11:00-11:50
301 T 11:00-11:50
Prof. Kirill Ospovat
Lit Trans 224 (3 credits) / Slavic 424 (4 credits)
In this course, we will read and discuss Tolstoy’s lengthier and shorter masterpieces, from War and Peace to Kholstomer, alongside some of his nonfictional manifestoes. We will explore his techniques of representation and ethical stances and trace their evolution through Tolstoy’s long literary career. What were Tolstoy’s objections to sexuality and political reform? What is moral and beautiful? How does civilization and education relate to nature? What does death say about life? These are some of the questions that we will investigate while reading Tolstoy’s manifold work.
For Slavic 424: discussion section mandatory, will meet five times in the course of the semester, readings and discussion in Russian; pre-requisite Slavic 276.
Slavic 434 Contemporary Russian Literature, 3 credits
Sergey Karpukhin, MWF 12:05 PM-12:55 PM
Prerequisites: Slavic 322 or cons inst
Second in a two-semester course sequence, this course focuses on those topics in modern Russian cultural history that are most often discussed by Russians and serve as the basis for contemporary political and media discourse.
Slavic/Folk 444 – Slavic and Eastern European Folklore
This class will focus on the folktale as a narrative genre within the Slavic and East European Folklore, drawing on stories from Russian, Czech, Polish, Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian, Jewish and other particular folk traditions of the region. Besides gaining insights into the narrative construction of the folktale, the students will be invited to draw analogies between folklore, mythology, literature and psychology by connecting these theories to the tales recorded by Afanasiev (East Slavic), Karadžić (South Slavic), Glinski (West Slavic), etc. In addition to learning about particular Slavic and East European folktales and narrative theories, students will participate in the creation of a “Slavic folktale” through a group process guided by the instructor, so that they can closely relate to the structural and narrative patterns of storytelling.
Slavic 472/ LitTrans 218 Historia literatury polskiej po roku 1863, 3 credits
MW 4:00-5:15 PM
Prerequisites: Slavic 470
Slavic 702 Eighteenth Century Russian Literature
Kirill Ospovat
F 2:30-4:10pm
Slavic 702: The Empire of Fictions: Russian Literature in the Eighteenth Century
Fr 2:30PM – 4:10PM, Van Hise 1411
Instructor: Kirill Ospovat, ospovat@wisc.edu
In this seminar, we will examine the major writers and genres of eighteenth-century Russian literature in their historical and political context. Secular literature was imported to Russia as an element of “Westernized” empire-building, a constant process of disciplinary and cultural reform initiated by Peter the Great and pursued by his successors throughout the eighteenth century. Considering literary texts and genres as a primary medium of reform, we will explore the complex relationship between politics, social morality and poetics from imperial panegyrics of the 1730s to the emergence of the “private” gaze in the 1790s. We will combine an emphasis on exemplary and influential texts which demand slow and attentive reading with a discussion of broader theoretical arguments.
Requirements: Students of Slavic will be expected to work with primary texts in Russian original. Outside students may use translations which do exist for a number of texts mostly in the second half of the syllabus. Students with interests in early modern and Enlightenment Europe are welcome.
Slavic 705 Special Topics in Russian Language/Linguistics: Adv Russian Grammar and Comp, 3 credits
Karen Evans-Romaine, TR 2:30 PM-3:45 PM
Prerequisites: Graduate or professional standing
Slavic 820 College Teaching of Russian, 1 credit
Anna Tumarkin, R 2:30 PM-4:00 PM
Prerequisites: Teaching assistant in Russian
Slavic 900 Seminar: Slavic Literature and Culture: Contemporary Russian Performance
Prerequisites: Graduate or professional standing
Time: Mon, 2:30-5:00 pm
Instructor: Maksim Hanukai
In this seminar, we will adopt a broad definition of “performance” to examine a range of performative practices from contemporary Russia. We will begin with a brief introduction to performance theory by reading excerpts from works by (among others) Mikhail Bakhtin, Erving Goffman, Richard Schechner, and Erika Fischer-Lichte. These readings will help us build up a vocabulary of terms and concepts for our future discussions and introduce us to critical methods from the flourishing field of performance studies. The rest of the seminar will be divided into four interconnected modules: (1) Theater and Drama, (2) Actionism and Performance Art, (3) Performativity in Literature, and (4) Cultural Performances. Movements and artists that will be discussed will include: New Russian Drama, Russian documentary and postdramatic theater, Collective Actions, Voina, Pussy Riot, Pyotr Pavlensky, Moscow Conceptualism, Chto Delat’, and the Translit collective. We will also discuss different kinds of cultural performances, from “historical reenactments” and “immortal regiments” to performances of power and protest. All discussions will be framed historically with consideration of such related topics as censorship, funding and institutional frameworks, cultural transfer, and developments in Russian cultural politics. Our primary language for the seminar will be English, with supplementary readings and visual materials in Russian for Slavic graduate students.