GNS+ Summer 2020 Courses

(3 credits)

• ONLINE            June 15th – July 26th          Instructor: Thomas A. DuBois

Course Description: Surveys folklore in the United States and around the world, with a comparative emphasis on ways in which individuals and groups use beliefs, songs, stories, sayings, dances, festivals, and artifacts to address issues of identity, authenticity, and authority, in complex societies.

Prerequisites: None

(3 credits)

• Section 001: ONLINE            June 15th – July 12th          Instructor: Kimathi Muthee
• Section 002: ONLINE           June 15th – July 12th          Instructor: Kimathi Muthee

Course Description: The oral tradition and the written word; the composition of stories, relationship between performer and audience, and transmission of tradition in various African societies.

Prerequisites: None

(3-4 credits)

• ONLINE          July 15th – August 9th

Course Description: Explores Yiddish song as an expression of the modern Jewish experience from Eastern Europe to the US. Covers folk song, popular and art music. Music and readings together provide an analytical framework to examine cultural and historical issues.

Prerequisites: For Communication B sections, satisfied Communication A requirement.

(4 credits)

• ONLINE          June 15th – July 12th

Course Description: Provides an introduction to the Turkish language, which is spoken by more than 80 million people in Turkey and Europe. Work within four language skills: listening, reading, writing, and speaking. Learn to communicate in Turkish in authentic situations. Turkish will be used as the primary language in classroom instructions, with minimal use of English.

Prerequisites: None.

(4 credits)

• ONLINE          July 13th – August 9th

Course Description: Building on skills learned in first semester Turkish, learn to communicate in more extended situations. Information on holidays, traditions and colloquial phrases will be introduced. Besides everyday Turkish, learn written Turkish such as formal letters, orders and messages. Pays special attention to reading and writing and to vocabulary expansion.

Prerequisites: GNS 339 (or LCA LANG 339 prior to fall 2018).

(4 credits)

• ONLINE          June 15th – July 12th

Course Description: Continues the study of the Turkish language, focusing on four language skills–listening, reading, writing, and speaking–in order to develop proficiency at the intermediate level. Improve communication in Turkish. Instruction will emphasize the language that is relevant to situations that students are likely to encounter if they travel to or live in Turkey. The secondary goal of the course is to improve students’ understanding of Turkish society and culture.

Prerequisites: GNS 340 (or LCA LANG 340 prior to fall 2018).

(4 credits)

• ONLINE          July 13th – August 9th

Course Description: Continues the study of the Turkish language, focusing on four language skills–listening, reading, writing, and speaking–in order to develop proficiency at the intermediate level. In addition to the topics covered in previous semesters, learn more about the language through history, literature and art, in order to better understand its cultural codes.

Prerequisites: GNS 439 (or LCA LANG 439 prior to fall 2018).

(3-4 credits)

• ONLINE                  June 15th – July 12th

Course Description: Continues the study of the Turkish languages combined with Azerbaijani, which is a Turkic language closely related to Turkish. Learn Azerbaijani written in the Latin alphabet and its minor differences from Turkish. Develop proficiency at the advanced level in listening, speaking, reading and writing in Turkish and in Azerbaijani.

Prerequisites: GNS 440 (or LCA LANG 440 prior to fall 2018).

(3-4 credits)

• ONLINE                 July 13th – August 9th

Course Description: A continuation of the study of Turkish language with Azerbaijani. Practice in understanding and employing Turkish at an advanced level, including spoken and written language in colloquial and professional modes. Analysis and interpretation of texts from a grammatical and cultural perspective.

Prerequisites: GNS 539 (or LCA LANG 539 prior to fall 2018).

(3 credits)

• ONLINE          July 13th – August 9th

Course Description: This course examines the fantastic, marvelous and uncanny literary works from a comparative perspective, especially by connecting them to Slavic mythological and religious beliefs. Students will read texts from Russian (Puškin, Gogol, Bulgakov, Zamyatin), Polish (Potocki, Schultz, Lem), Czech (Čapek) and South Slavic literatures (Pavić, Kiš, Živković). Theoretical readings will include works by the naturalized Bulgarian theoretician of the fantastic, Tzvetan Todorov, as well as his critics. We will discuss the development of the fantastic genre through the epochs of Romanticism, Modernism and Postmodernism, placing emphasis on the close reading of literary texts and their relationship to the broader cultural heritage of diverse Slavic cultures.

Prerequisites: Sophomore status or higher.

(4 credits)

• ONLINE          June 15th – July 12th

Course Description: This course approaches the Vikings along historical lines, and its backbone is texts from medieval sources. The legendary history of early Scandinavia, the consolidation of the Scandinavian kingdoms, developments both at home and abroad during the great period of Viking expansion, finally the conversion of Scandinavia to Christianity (which wrote finis to the Viking adventure) –these are the historical subjects discussed. Within this historical framework, a good deal of attention is devoted to the pre-Christian religion of early medieval Scandinavia, to its system of writing (the celebrated runes) and its literature (including the mythological and heroic poetry of the Edda, the court poems of the skalds, and the Icelandic sagas), to Viking art and archaeology. As we learn about the medieval Scandinavians we gain a greater understanding of ourselves and the human condition.

Prerequisites: Junior status or higher or consent of instructor.

(4 credits)

• ONLINE          June 15th – August 9th

Course Description: Offered online. Introduction to Russian language, focusing on speaking, listening, reading, and writing Russian, with an introduction to Russian culture. No previous knowledge of Russian expected.  SLAVIC 101 and SLAVIC 102 must be taken simultaneously for the summer session. For more information contact Dr. Anna Tumarkin, atumarki@wisc.edu.

Prerequisites: None

(4 credits/4 credits)

• ONLINE          June 15th – August 9th

Course Description: Offered online. Continue the study of the Russian language and culture, focusing on the development of intermediate level skills in speaking, listening, reading, and writing. SLAVIC 117 and SLAVIC 118 must be taken simultaneously for the summer session. For more information contact Dr. Anna Tumarkin, atumarki@wisc.edu.

Prerequisites: SLAVIC 102 or equivalent.