Princeton University - The Graduate School

The literature faculty seeks candidates who have a firm foundation in Russian language and literature. In the case of students planning to specialize in language and linguistics, some previous training in or knowledge of general synchronic and diachronic linguistics is highly desirable.

The backbone of the program is the Russian language, which entering students are expected to read easily and speak fluently. Beyond that, students are required, by the third year, to achieve a level of reading competency in two other languages selected from among French, German, and Slavic languages other than Russian (Czech, Polish, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, and Bulgarian are offered on a regular basis). Given the nature of our program, complete command of both oral and written English is absolutely necessary, and experience in Western universities highly desirable.  We strongly urge Russian students who have had no previous experience in Western universities to contact the director of studies before applying. 

All of the portions of the application are important and should be completed thoughtfully.  The writing sample plays a particularly important part in the admissions process. It is highly desirable that the writing sample an applicant sends us be:

Students in Russian literature are expected to demonstrate early a reading knowledge of either (1) French and German or (2) French or German and one Slavic language other than Russian. Students in Slavic and theoretical linguistics are expected to demonstrate knowledge of two Slavic languages other than Russian. Czech, Polish, and Serbo-Croatian are offered on a regular basis. These language requirements must be satisfied before the student is admitted to the general examination. Applicants are urged to begin their preparation in these languages as soon as possible. In the case of linguistics students, the second non-Russian Slavic language can be taken the year following generals. Until general examinations are passed, students take annual diagnostic tests so that the faculty can assess their knowledge of the Russian language.

Program of Study

The Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) program normally lasts five years. The student studies full time in residence during the first two years and takes the general examination at the end of this period or during the first term of the third year. After general examinations, individual programs vary. Most students combine dissertation research with teaching. (Stipends are not contingent on teaching, but students are encouraged to teach at least two terms as part of their career preparation.) Some students spend a term or a year doing dissertation research abroad. Ideally, this research is funded by outside fellowships, but if such funding is unavailable and the faculty deems the research essential, university fellowship stipends can be used to cover these expenses.

In the early years of graduate study, students use the summer to prepare for generals or to do additional language study abroad (usually in Eastern Europe). After generals, most use the time to continue researching and writing their dissertation.

Because we aim to admit only two students into the program each year, we are able to help them design a program of study and develop a research trajectory that accords with individual scholarly needs and interests.  Choosing from a wide range of courses, entering students arrange their programs in consultation with the director of graduate studies and faculty advisers. 

Graduate seminars in the department cover historical periods (e.g., Russian Realism, Symbolism, Acmeism, Futurism, Soviet and Post-Soviet Literature and Culture), specific authors (e.g., Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Tsvetaeva, Pasternak), theoretical approaches to literature (e.g., the Russian critical tradition from Belinsky to the Tartu school and Bakhtin), and core courses in the development of literary genres (the evolution of Russian poetic form; the evolution of Russian prose).

There are also courses designed to enable students to master the basic grammar and to read original texts in Slavic languages other than Russian (e.g. Czech, Polish, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Bulgarian).  Seminars offered by other departments (e.g., comparative literature, music, history, anthropology, art and archaeology) are often relevant to scholarly interests of our students and we encourage the development of interdisciplinary connections and ideas.  Course offerings are augmented by a graduate reading list of both required and recommended works intended to provide students with literacy in the field.  

General Examination

The Ph.D. qualifying examination is designed to ensure that students have the ability to conduct independent research and to lead them to a productive and interesting dissertation project.

The examination process requires close cooperation between the student and his/her committee (three faculty members chosen by the student). By the summer of their second year, students should develop two fields of inquiry. In consultation with the faculty, they will draw up (and read) a bibliography of approximately 75 items for each of them. The two fields should be sufficiently distinct in that the bibliographies do not overlap in a significant way.

For each bibliography, the candidate formulates four research questions , two c oncerning author and context and two concerning author and approach. From these, the examination committee chooses two questions. The candidate is given one week for each critical essay, which should be approximately 3,000 words (footnotes and bibliography excluded).

The exam for the first bibliography should take place early in the fifth semester; the exam for the second bibliography should take place toward the end of that same semester. Each exam is followed (ordinarily one week later) by a one-hour oral discussion. Among other things, this discussion should consider the feasibility of either essay to serve as the basis of a dissertation chapter.

Dissertation and Final Public Oral Examination

The dissertation normally emerges from work already undertaken in seminars or other courses under the guidance of department faculty. It should be an in-depth essay on a subject that can be treated in 150 to 200 pages. At the final public oral examination, the candidate defends the dissertation in the presence of department faculty and other informed or interested scholars, and is expected to demonstrate a mastery of the subject and effectiveness in oral discourse.

Teaching Experience and Assistantships

The department provides graduate students with supervised training in undergraduate teaching. S tudents normally teach at least two semesters. This experience takes the form of instruction in language courses (elementary or intermediate) and leading discussion sections of Russian literature survey courses. Such teaching ordinarily begins only after students have completed general examinations.

Slavic

SLA 501    Russian Morphosyntax
      Leonard H. Babby

The first semester is devoted to discovering the proper representation of Predicate Argument Structure, its affix-mediated alteration, and its mapping to syntax. The second semester is devoted to applying this concept of Argument Structure to the morphosyntactic analysis of Russian, e.g., syntax, negation, case, voice, etc.

SLA 502    Russian Morphosyntax
      Leonard H. Babby

The first semester is devoted to discovering the proper representation of Predicate Argument Structure, its affix-mediated alteration, and its mapping to syntax. The second semester is devoted to applying this concept of Argument Structure to the morphosyntactic analysis of Russian, e.g., syntax, negation, case, voice, etc.

SLA 503    The History of the Russian Language I, II
      Leonard H. Babby

The first semester explores historical phonology and introduction to historical morphology. The second semester examines historical morphology and syntax.

SLA 504    The History of the Russian Language I, II
      Leonard H. Babby

The first semester explores historical phonology and introduction to historical morphology. The second semester examines historical morphology and syntax.

SLA 505    Common and Comparative Slavic
      Mirjam Fried

The course is designed as a comparative analysis of modern Slavic languages, with emphasis on morphosyntactic patterning. The topics include the genesis and different manifestations of Slavic verbal morphology, nominal morphology, participial constructions, basic sentence structure, cliticization and word order.

SLA 507    Old Russian Texts
      Leonard H. Babby

A close reading and grammatical analysis of Old Russian texts.

SLA 511    Critical Approaches to Literature: Russian Contributions
      Caryl Emerson

A survey of major 19th- and 20th-century schools of literary and cultural criticism (from Belinsky to the Tartu School), with some direct application to selected literary texts.

SLA 512    The Evolution of Russian Poetic Form
      Michael A. Wachtel

An introduction to Russian poetics through selected readings, from Trediakovsky to Joseph Brodsky, organized by poetic genre. Specific subjects include the ode, the elegy, folk adaptations, blank verse, and the significance of translation.

SLA 513    Russian Literature before 1800
      Olga P. Hasty, Michael A. Wachtel

This course is a survey of the most significant works and genres of Russian literature from the medieval period through the eighteenth century.

SLA 514    Pushkin
      Michael A. Wachtel

A study of Pushkin's major lyrics, narrative poems, drama and prose in the context of Russian and European literary developments.

SLA 515    The Evolution of Russian Prose
      Caryl Emerson

A survey of either the lesser-read Russian novelists (and/or dramatists), or important 19th-century Romantic and Realist genres (idyll, travel notes, the familiar letter, gothic and society tale, sketch, neohagiography) through exemplary short texts (read in Russian) and selected parodies and criticism.

SLA 516    19th-Century Master Novelists
      Ellen B. Chances

A study of either Dostoevsky or Tolstoy.

SLA 517    Russian Short Prose
      Ellen B. Chances

The course either concentrates on a single writer (Gogol, Chekhov, Babel) or traces the development of the Russian short story from Karamzin to the present.

SLA 518    Major Russian Poets and Poetic Movements
      Michael A. Wachtel

Readings selected from the nineteenth century (e.g., the "Golden Age," the Romantics) or the twentieth century (e.g., the Symbolists, the Futurists, the Acmeists).

SLA 519    Soviet Literature
      Petre M. Petrov

A study of representative authors in one of three historical periods: 1917-1930, 1930-1965, or 1965-present. Each period is taught for one semester. The course is conducted entirely in Russian.

SLA 520/MUS 510    Topics in Contemporary Soviet and Post-Soviet Culture
      Leonid V. Maximenkov

The course explores various metaphors of family used to organize and represent different social process in contemporary Russian culture. By analyzing recent film, fiction, and examples of popular culture, we will try to understand why metaphors of relatedness and narratives of belonging became especially prominent and effective after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

SLA 521/GER 516    Topics in 20th-Century Literature
      Devin A. Fore

Course examines a wide range of literary forms and problems in the modern era and in the years following its demise. Topics include the modern German novel, modernist literature and photography, Viennese modernism, politics and avant-garde in the 1960's, and contemporary literature.

SLA 530    Topics in Russian Literature or Literary Theory
      Ksana Blank

Topics may include the Russian verb, problems of voice in Russian, function of word order in Russian, case in Slavic languages, verbal aspect in Slavic, and West Slavic dialectology.

SLA 531    Topics in Russian Literature or Literary Theory
      Olga P. Hasty

Topics may include individual authors (e.g., Herzen, Bely, Pasternak, Tsvetaeva) or significant literary and critical trends (the "superfluous man," "skaz," Russian formalism, Bakhtin, the Moscow/Tartu School, and Soviet literature and censorship).

SLA 532    Topics in Slavic Literatures Other than Russian
      Staff

Topics may include nineteenth or twentieth-century Czech narrative prose, Polish memoiristic writing, and South Slavic folklore.

SLA 533    Topics in Russian Philosophy
      Ksana Blank

Seminar investigates that mix of spirituality, intuitive speculation, and critique of Western positivism that marks the personalist Russian philosophical tradition. After an introduction to Russian Orthodoxy and some key early texts, readings will focus on the idea of spiritual creativity as a redemptive aesthetic (in works by Chaadaev, Khomiakov, Fyodorov, Soloviev, Shetov, Florensky, Lossky, Rozanov, Sergei Bulgakov, and Berdiaev). Background will be provided in Russian religious and metaphysical thought, and connections made where appropriate to major writers.

SLA 542    Socialist Realism
      Petre Petrov

Course examines the historical formation and existence of Soviet socialist realism as a method of representation, theoretical platform, and cultural reality.

SLA 599    Slavic Dissertation Colloquium
      Michael A. Wachtel

A practical course devoted to scholarly writing intended to facilitate the proposal and dissertation writing process. The seminar meets every three to four weeks. Dissertation writers circulate work in progress for feedback and discuss issues that arise in the course of their work. The seminar is required of all post-generals students in Russian literature who are in residence.