Slavic Courses Spring 2022

(4 credits)

MTWRF 11:00 am – 11:50 am

Course Description: Five hours a week focusing on speaking, listening, reading and writing Russian, with an introduction to Russian culture. No previous knowledge of Russian expected.

(4 credits)

• SEC 001: MTWRF 9:55 am – 10:45 am
• SEC 002: MTWRF 12:05 pm – 12:55 pm
• SEC 003: MTWRF 1:20 pm – 2:10 pm

Course Description: Continuation of SLAVIC 101.

Prerequisites: SLAVIC 101. Open to first-year students.

(4 credits)

MTWR 11:00 am – 11:50 am          Instructor: Krzysztof Borowski

Course Description: Continuation of SLAVIC 111 – First Semester Polish.

Prerequisites: SLAVIC 111. Open to first-year students.

(4 credits)

• SEC 001: MTWRF 1:20 pm – 2:10 pm
• SEC 002: MTWRF 9:55 am – 10:45 am

Course Description: Continuation of SLAVIC 203.

Prerequisites: SLAVIC 203. Open to first-year students.

(4 credits)

MTWR 9:55 am – 10:45 am          Instructor: Krzysztof Borowski

Course Description: Continuation of SLAVIC 207 – Third Semester Polish.

Prerequisites: SLAVIC 207. Open to first-year students.

(4 credits)

MTWR 12:05 pm – 12:55 pm          Instructor: David Danaher

Course Description: The course is a continuation of 217/451; completion of 217/451 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 intermediate textbook Czech Step by Step. Another main text for the course will be the Czech film Musíme si pomáhat / Divided We Fall (Jan Hřebejk, 2000). 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. By the end of the course, all students will be able to: (1) hold conversations in Czech that reflect comfort with the communicative themes that we have treated;(2) understand texts on these themes by applying what they have learned (vocabulary and grammatical structures) to the reading and also by bringing to bear their own knowledge of the world to make educated guesses about words and structures with which they are not yet familiar; (3) write short texts on the topics they will have studied; (4) demonstrate familiarity with aspects of Czech culture relating to these themes; (5) articulate differences between Literary and Spoken Czech based on our work with the film. Note that students in the meets-with 452 section will be expected to demonstrate a higher level of accomplishment across all of these learning outcomes. An additional outcome that applies to 452 students is the following: (1) Students will develop their reading proficiency in Czech through the reading of extra texts (to be selected in consultation with the instructor) throughout the course of the semester.

(3 credits)

MWF 2:25 pm – 3:15 pm          Instructor: Krzysztof Borowski

Course Description: When we look at the map of Europe, we tend to think about nations as perfectly encapsulated in their respective nation-states: Germany is where Germans live, French people live within the borders of France, Italians in Italy, Poles in Poland, etc. However, history shows that the opposite is true!
 In this course, we will examine the forgotten world of multiple cultures, languages, and religions. We will explore the incredible diversity of the Central European region throughout the centuries by looking at Poland and the Polish lands as our case study. We will study examples within the following themes: bilingualism, borderlands, ethnicity, minority, nationality, religion, and others. We will discuss and analyze texts from various disciplines, including anthropology, archeology, film, history, literature, linguistics, and sociology. Come and explore the fascinating stories of Central European people with us! 

 Students will engage with course material through small group activities, discussions, lectures, and a collaborative multimedia mapping project. Students will actively participate in the learning process through in-class presentations that expand on the course material. Finally, students will have an opportunity to pursue their interests by researching and preparing a case study on the topic of their choice. 

(3 credits)

TR 1:00 pm – 2:15 pm          Instructor: Łukasz Wodzyński

Course Description: The swift collapse of communist regimes across Central and Eastern Europe came as a surprise to both their opponents and political clients. How did culture mediate the experience of this political, social, and economic revolution? How does the experience of communism shape the historiography, identity, and vision(s) of the future of the affected nations? What is the condition of postcommunism? These are some of the questions we will be exploring as we examine Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Czech, and South Slavic literature and cinema from the decades following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

(3 credits)

TR 2:30 pm – 3:45 pm          Instructor: Łukasz Wodzyński

Course Description: Poland and Europe 1914-1945.  Even as we emerge from a devastating global health crisis and face the uncertain future, we find that the traumas, issues, and concepts engendered by two World Wars continue to haunt us, even a century later. We once again find ourselves in difficult times, marked by social, cultural, religious, and economic tensions. In this course, we will examine how cultural texts – including literature, film, theatre, painting and sculpture – produced during, between, and after the two wars – deal with the extreme and everyday experiences, with shattered worlds of individuals, ethnicities, and nations. 

(4 credits)

TR 2:30 pm – 3:45 pm (+ discussion section)          Instructor: David Danaher

Course Description: The theme of the course will be the culture of dissent in Czechoslovakia and Poland. That is, we will be looking at the “dissident” period in these countries–the 1960s through the late 1980s– primarily through the lens of literature and film, but within a broader interdisciplinary approach. This approach will involve problematizing the notion of dissent by suggesting that it is not tied to one particular time and place (to one historical -ism). Ideally, we will be able to view the subject not so much as an object of historical investigation (from a 21st-century American perspective), but as something relevant to our own lives that teaches us something about ourselves. A motif running throughout the course will be a focus on “faces of dissent” or the stories of individuals involved as “dissidents” in the countries under consideration. This is a cross-listed, interdisciplinary course sponsored through UW-Madison’s Center for Russian, East Europe, and Central Asia (CREECA). Funding from CREECA allows us to invite experts from the UW system and other universities to lecture on topics related to the course. The discussion section, taught by the course teaching assistant, is integral to the course. Active participation by students in discussion will be expected. The course is 4cr; it is credit type C at the elementary level and does not have prerequisites. It fulfills either the Humanities or Social Sciences breadth requirement for L&S. The instructional mode for this course is face-to-face meetings (four hours per week of class time) with time devoted to homework; credit hours are met according to the traditional Carnegie definition. Learning goals: (1) Students will demonstrate knowledge of major historical events and figures in the culture of dissent in Czechoslovakia and Poland; (2) Students will develop critical awareness of key texts (both written texts and films) that emerge in or from the culture of dissent in these two countries; (3) Students will develop critical-thinking skills related to the idea of dissent as a modern phenomenon.

(3 credits)

TR 11:00 am – 12:15 pm          Instructor: Maksim Hanukai

Course Description: What does it mean “to perform” and what does performance do? How does performance help impose or challenge oppressive structures of power? We will attempt to answer these and related questions by examining a range of performance theories and practices from Russia, Europe, and the United States. Focusing on artists and authors like Sergei Eisenstein, Bertold Brecht, Marina Abramovic, and Pussy Riot, we will learn about political theater in the 20th and 21st centuries, the emergence and evolution of performance art and art actionism, the aesthetic and juridical functions of documentary theater and film, and the recent performative turn in New Left poetry. We will also extend our inquiry beyond art to examine performative practices in modern political and everyday life: show trials, historical reenactment festivals, protests movements, gender performances, collective memory rituals, etc. This course is open to students at all levels. All readings and materials will be available in English. 

(3 credits)

MWF 1:20 pm – 2:10 pm          Instructor: S. A. Karpukhin

Course Description: A review of several major aspects of Russian grammar, focusing on the use of complex syntax in speech and writing. Read and discuss literary works and other Russian-language texts. Students will develop writing proficiency through compositions on a variety of topics.The goals of this course are to improve students’ reading fluency, writing skills, and command of Russian grammar and structure. We will focus on the use of complex syntax and undertake a thorough review of several major aspects of Russian grammar (including the imperative, verbal aspect, participles, comparatives and verbs of motion). Grammar topics will be presented and practiced using the textbook Panorama. In addition, grammatical forms will be contextualized by reading literary works as well as songs and articles. While the development of speaking skills is not a primary goal of this course (as it is in Slavic 315/316), class discussion of grammar, lexicon, and texts will be largely conducted in Russian. 

(3 credits)

MWF 12:05 pm – 12:55 pm          Instructor: Ewa Miernowska

Course Description: Students expend their language proficiency  by engaging with texts from different genres, historical periods and perspectives. Continued work on grammar and vocabulary with written exercises and compositions. Readings offer a variety of authentic materials: short stories, novels, poems, and press articles. The program includes also films, music and visual arts. 

Prerequisites: SLAVIC 208, appropriate score on the placement exam, or consent of instructor. Open to first-year-students. 

(3 credits)

MWF 12:05 pm – 12:55 pm          Instructor: Ewa Miernowska

Course Description: Students expend their language proficiency  by engaging with texts from different genres, historical periods and perspectives. Continued work on grammar and vocabulary with written exercises and compositions. Readings offer a variety of authentic materials: short stories, novels, poems, and press articles. The program includes also films, music and visual arts. 

Prerequisites: SLAVIC 277, appropriate score on the placement exam, or consent of instructor. Open to first-year-students. 

(3 credits)

MWF 12:05 pm – 12:55 pm          Instructor: Ewa Miernowska

Course Description: Students expend their language proficiency  by engaging with texts from different genres, historical periods and perspectives. Continued work on grammar and vocabulary with written exercises and compositions. Readings offer a variety of authentic materials: short stories, novels, poems, and press articles. The program includes also films, music and visual arts. 

Prerequisites: SLAVIC 301 or appropriate score on the placement exam or consent of instructor. Open to graduate students only. 

(3 credits)

TR 1:00 pm – 2:15 pm          Instructor: Alexandra Walter

Course Description: The goals of this course are to improve students’ listening comprehension and speaking skills in Russian, focusing on the development of syntax and conversational patterns to increase the complexity and length of discourse students can understand and create. Students will discuss topics related to contemporary Russian culture and society and work with authentic reading and listening materials, including literary texts, newspaper articles, songs, and film.

(3 credits)

MWF 12:05 pm – 12:55 pm          Instructor: Ewa Miernowska

Course Description: Students expend their language proficiency  by engaging with texts from different genres, historical periods and perspectives. Continued work on grammar and vocabulary with written exercises and compositions. Readings offer a variety of authentic materials: short stories, novels, poems, and press articles. The program includes also films, music and visual arts. 

Prerequisites: SLAVIC 278 or appropriate score on the placement exam or consent of instructor. Open to first-year-students. 

(3 credits)

MWF 12:05 pm – 12:55 pm          Instructor: Ewa Miernowska

Course Description: Students expend their language proficiency  by engaging with texts from different genres, historical periods and perspectives. Continued work on grammar and vocabulary with written exercises and compositions. Readings offer a variety of authentic materials: short stories, novels, poems, and press articles. The program includes also films, music and visual arts. 

Prerequisites: SLAVIC 331 or appropriate score on the placement exam or consent of instructor. Open to first-year-students. 

(3 credits)

TR 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm          Instructor: Molly Mattaini

Course Description: This is a methods course useful for all involved in teaching and learning, including foreign languages. It offers an introduction to philosophy, methodology, and practice of the use of drama and performance techniques in any educational or recreational setting. The focus is on creativity and embodied and contextual learning, based on current neurological, psychological, and sociological research. 

This course is considered a CBL course: Community Based Learning, and it includes demonstration and practice with children. 

This section is open to both undergraduates and graduate students. Graduate students who demonstrate an affinity of working with children and complete the course successfully are eligible to teach this course as a TA. 

(3 credits)

MWF 12:05 pm – 12:55 pm          Instructor: Andrew Reynolds

Course Description: “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?

(3 credits)

MWF 12:05 pm – 12:55 pm          Instructor: S. A. Karpukhin

Course Description: 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. The primary aim of the course, the second one in a two-course sequence, is to offer an overview of those aspects of Russian history and culture which are most relevant in Russia today. The course will include a survey of the most important historical events of Russian history whose purpose is to introduce you to the discussion of Russian culture in Russian. There will be no separate discussion of grammar and I will not correct your grammar in conversation as long as everyone understands your meaning. We will continually practice all four skills (listening, reading, speaking, writing), but always in application to historical and cultural knowledge. 

(3 credits)

MTWR 12:05 pm – 12:55 pm          Instructor: David Danaher

Course Description: The course is a continuation of 217/451; completion of 217/451 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 intermediate textbook Czech Step by Step. Another main text for the course will be the Czech film Musíme si pomáhat / Divided We Fall (Jan Hřebejk, 2000). 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. By the end of the course, all students will be able to: (1) hold conversations in Czech that reflect comfort with the communicative themes that we have treated;(2) understand texts on these themes by applying what they have learned (vocabulary and grammatical structures) to the reading and also by bringing to bear their own knowledge of the world to make educated guesses about words and structures with which they are not yet familiar; (3) write short texts on the topics they will have studied; (4) demonstrate familiarity with aspects of Czech culture relating to these themes; (5) articulate differences between Literary and Spoken Czech based on our work with the film. Note that students in the meets-with 452 section will be expected to demonstrate a higher level of accomplishment across all of these learning outcomes. An additional outcome that applies to 452 students is the following: (1) Students will develop their reading proficiency in Czech through the reading of extra texts (to be selected in consultation with the instructor) throughout the course of the semester.

(3 credits)

MWF 11:00 am – 11:50 am          Instructor: S. A. Karpukhin

Course Description: A focus on development of reading, writing, and speaking skills and on the interpretation of texts in their historical and cultural context. This course is the final course in the Russian language sequence required for the Russian major (either Russian Language & Literature or Russian Language & Civilization). It will focus on development of reading, writing, and speaking skills in the interpretative (interpreting written and audio/video materials), interpersonal (speaking with others), and presentational (oral presentations to the class and written compositions) modes. The goal of this course is to enable students to progress in language proficiency from the Intermediate to the Advanced level in reading and listening, and to the Intermediate High level in speaking and writing. In addition, the course will enrich students’ cultural knowledge through reading and discussion of literary texts. 

(3 credits)

MWF 11:00 am – 11:50 am          Instructor: Karen Evans-Romaine

Course Description: The goals of this advanced-level course are to improve students’ Russian proficiency in listening and speaking, with an emphasis on formal registers, and to help provide students with basic knowledge of a variety of areas related to contemporary Russian-language media and culture necessary for a professional-level command of the language, regardless of the student’s discipline. Course modules will include recent Russian history (since perestroika), issues of press and mass communications, elections, Russian domestic politics and foreign policy, economic issues, healthcare, and issues in contemporary Russian culture. We will also discuss some American political and economic issues from a Russian point of view. 

(2 credits)

M 2:30 pm – 5:00 pm          Instructor: Kirill Ospovat

Course Description: A graduate introductory course to 18th century Russian literature.

(3 credits)

T 2:30 pm – 5:00 pm          Instructor: Maksim Hanukai

Course Description: This course introduces students to the original works of major trends representing literary theory in the Slavic world and wider: formalism, materialism, structuralism, semiotics, deconstruction, psychoanalysis, gender-based theory and other relevant theories that have influenced the way we treat literature as a cultural and aesthetic practice. 

(1 credits)

R 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm          Instructor: Anna Tumarkin

Course Description: This course is designed and required for current Slavic Department Russian-language Teaching Assistants and provides important professional development in course design, lesson planning, and assessment. Course participants work cooperatively to develop course activities and assessment instruments, and will learn how to identify and solve problems in the classroom.

Prerequisites: Teaching assistant in Russian. Graduate or professional standing.

(3 credits)

F 2:30 pm – 5:00 pm          Instructor: Kirill Ospovat

Course Description: A seminar linking Russian literary and aesthetic theory from the 18th century, Realism, and avantgarde to western political theory from Hobbes to Karl Marx and Walter Benjamin.