Russian
RUSS 131 Elementary Russian I (4)
The course introduces the basic features of Russian grammar and provides an essential Russian vocabulary for practical conversation, reading, writing, and aural comprehension. Classroom work is supplemented with laboratory and multimedia practice.
- Offering: Annually
- Instructor: Bishop
RUSS 132 Elementary Russian II (4)
The course introduces the basic features of Russian grammar and provides an essential Russian vocabulary for practical conversation, reading, writing, and aural comprehension. Classroom work is supplemented with laboratory and multimedia practice.
- Offering: Annually
- Instructor: Bishop
RUSS 199 Topics in Russian Studies (1-4)
A semester-long study of topics in Russian Studies. Topics and emphases will vary according to the instructor. This course may be repeated for credit with different topics. See the New and Topics Courses page on the Registrar’s webpage for descriptions and applicability to majors/minors in other departments.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Topic dependent
- Prerequisite: Topic dependent
- Offering: Occasionally
- Professor: Staff
RUSS 231 Intermediate Russian I (4)
The course continues the study of basic Russian language skills, introducing various language styles and adding to the students' vocabulary base. In second semester, students complete reading and composition assignments, and discuss and write reports on simple videos. Classroom work is supplemented with laboratory and multimedia practice.
RUSS 232 Intermediate Russian II (4)
The course continues the study of basic Russian language skills, introducing various language styles and adding to the students' vocabulary base. In second semester, students complete reading and composition assignments, and discuss and write reports on simple videos. Classroom work is supplemented with laboratory and multimedia practice.
RUSS 233W Russian Culture: Russian Ways and Views of Russia (4)
This writing-centered course acquaints students with major artistic achievements in Russian society from the 10th century to the present day -- in architecture, painting, literature, and music -- and explores particularly Russian manners and customs that define the everyday lives of its people. It examines the possible ways in which these achievements, manners, and customs might be said to define that society in a certain period. The materials are presented historically through films, music, pictures, paintings, readings, and food.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Writing-centered; Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Offering: Alternate years in springs
- Instructor: Staff
RUSS 235 Russian and Soviet Cinema (4)
A survey of masterpieces of Russian Film from the 1920s to the present including works by Eisenstein, Vertov, and Tarkovsky. The course will examine the ways in which directors, like authors of novels and other literary genres, create a fictional world; the historical and social context in which these films were made will also be discussed. Taught in English
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Offering: Alternate falls
- Instructor: Bishop
RUSS 242W Great Short Stories from Russia (4)
This course will examine masterpieces of Russian short fiction from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In addition to analyzing the individual stores closely, students will consider the tradition of the short story within Russian literary history and will explore the dialogue taking place among the texts. Stories will include the ridiculous tales of Gogol, the classic short prose of Chekhov, and the magical realism of Nabokov. Taught in English.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Writing-centered; Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Offering: Alternate falls
- Instructor: Bishop
RUSS 245W From Russia with Love: Family and Sexuality in Twentieth-Century Russian Literature (4)
Tolstoy famously wrote, "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Beginning with his controversial novella, "The Kreutzer Sonata," this course will examine love and family in Russian literature, a problem which becomes particularly complicated in the twentieth century. Topics will include androgyny in the writings of the symbolists, the regimentation of sex in Zamiatin's anti-utopian novel We, mystical love in Bulgakov's Master and Margarita, questions of disease and sterility in Solzhenitsyn's Cancer Ward, and generational conflict in the writings of Tsvetaeva and Petrushevskaia. The course does not require a background in Russian history of culture; only a curiosity and desire to explore new literary worlds. Taught in English.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Writing-centered; Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Offering: Alternate years
- Instructor: Bishop
RUSS 250W Tolstoy's War and Peace (4)
This course is devoted to a close reading of Tolstoy's War and Peace -- for many, one of the world's greatest novels. Topics include Tolstoy's use of language and literary innovation; Tolstoy's representations of consciousness and knowledge, human intentions and responsibility; Tolstoy's views on history and historiography; his depictions of life and his comments on the meaning of life; and, the role and meaning of war. Taught in English.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Writing-centered; Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Offering: Alternate fall semesters
- Instructor: Bishop
RUSS 299 Topics in Russian Studies (1-4)
A semester-long study of topics in Russian Studies. Topics and emphases will vary according to the instructor. This course may be repeated for credit with different topics. See the New and Topics Courses page on the Registrar’s webpage for descriptions and applicability to majors/minors in other departments.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Topic dependent
- Prerequisite: Topic dependent
- Offering: Occasionally
- Professor: Staff
RUSS 320W The Nineteenth-Century Russian Novel (4)
The course considers the development of some of the greatest longer works of nineteenth-century Russian literature, including novels by Gogol, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy. It examines the development of these works in terms of literary contexts, social changes, and ideas, giving special attention to such topics as love, justice, fate, free will, and Russian national identity. Taught in English.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Writing-centered; Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Offering: Alternate years in fall
- Instructor: Staff
RUSS 325 Topics in Russian Literature (4)
This course enables a student to acquire knowledge of selected authors, genres, and literary periods in Russian literature. Potential texts include Chekhov's plays, Dostoevsky's political novels, Russian fairy tales, Nabokov's prose, and the stories of contemporary women writers in Russia. Taught in English.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV
- Offering: Alternate years in spring
- Instructor: Staff
RUSS 330 Advanced Russian Grammar: Stylistics and Translation (2)
This course will introduce students to grammar and devices commonly used in a variety of genres of fictional and non-fictional texts. We will give special attention to how language and communication styles define texts and aspects of cultural interaction. We also will consider challenges that come with translating such texts and examine aspects of translation theory in attempts to understand how meaning might be affected by translation.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
- Prerequisite: RUSS 232
- Offering: Fall
- Instructor: Bishop
RUSS 333 Russian Civilization and Culture (4)
Studies in geography, history, economics and the chronological development of culture and ideas. Class discussions. Oral and written reports in Russian.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV, NEL 231 or higher
- Prerequisite: RUSS 330 or RUSS 370
- Offering: Spring
- Instructor: Bishop
RUSS 370 Introduction to Russian Literature (2)
The course examines selected works (in Russian) of Russian prose and poetry of the 19th and 20th centuries. In addition to examining the works in their literary context (style, genre, linguistic peculiarities, rhetorical devices, irony, satire, etc.) the historical and societal viewpoint will also be discussed, so that the student will have a better understanding of the Russian people in each particular period of history. Course to be taught in Russian.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: CV, NEL 231 or higher
- Prerequisite: RUSS 330
- Offering: Annually
- Instructor: Bishop
RUSS 399 Topics in Russian Studies (1-4)
A semester-long study of topics in Russian Studies. Topics and emphases will vary according to the instructor. This course may be repeated for credit with different topics. See the New and Topics Courses page on the Registrar’s webpage for descriptions and applicability to majors/minors in other departments.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Topic dependent
- Prerequisite: Topic dependent
- Offering: Occasionally
- Professor: Staff
RUSS 429 Topics in Russian Studies (1-4)
A semester-long study of topics in Russian Studies. Topics and emphases will vary according to the instructor. This course may be repeated for credit with different topics. See the New and Topics Courses page on the Registrar’s webpage for descriptions and applicability to majors/minors in other departments.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Topic dependent
- Prerequisite: Topic dependent
- Offering: Occasionally
- Professor: Staff
RUSS 499W Senior Thesis (4)
The Senior Thesis course requires students to write a major research paper. This work is completed under close supervision of a faculty member and in consultation with student peers. The student's work undergoes regular criticism and rewriting in order to enhance the student's appreciation for the research process modes of inquiry, and methodologies, as well as to make sure that work on the project continues to be productive and clear.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Writing centered; Arts & Humanities; World Engagement: NEL 231 or higher
- Prerequisite: RUSS 330
- Offering: Annually
- Instructor: Bishop