Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures

Chair

Caryl G. Emerson

Director of Graduate Studies

Michael A. Wachtel

Professor

Leonard H. Babby

Ellen B. Chances

Caryl Emerson, also Comparative Literature

Herman S. Ermolaev

Olga P. Hasty

Michael A. Wachtel

Assistant Professor

Mirjam Fried

Serguei A. Oushakine

Lecturer with Rank of Professor

Charles E. Townsend

Senior Lecturer

Francis R. McLellan

Lecturer

Ksana Blank

 

Graduate instruction in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures aims to prepare students for careers as teachers and scholars in either the field of Russian language and literature, or the field of Slavic and theoretical linguistics.

Admission Requirements

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.

Students admitted to the graduate program are expected to have a strong command of Russian (a minimum of three years of college Russian). Entering students are asked to demonstrate proficiency through written examinations and are assigned to language courses such as may be necessary to remedy any deficiencies.

Language Requirements

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.

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.

Examinations

Until general examinations are passed, students take annual diagnostic tests so that the faculty can assess their knowledge of the Russian language.

The general examination consists of written and oral sections, and is based on course work and reading lists.

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 150–200 pages. On 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 an effectiveness in oral discourse.

Teaching Experience and Assistantships

The department provides graduate students with supervised training in undergraduate teaching. 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.

Courses

SLA 501, 502 Russian Morphosyntax

Leonard H. Babby

The first term is devoted to discovering the proper representation of predicate argument structure, its affix-mediated alteration, and its mapping to syntax. The second term is devoted to applying this concept of argument structure to the morphosyntactic analysis of Russian, e.g., control of infinitive complements, impersonal sentences, binding, hybrid verbal categories and their syntax, negation, case, voice, etc.

SLA 503, 504 The History of the Russian Language I, II

Leonard H. Babby

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

SLA 505 Common and Comparative Slavic

Mirjam Fried

A comparative analysis of modern Slavic languages, with an emphasis on morphosyntactic phenomena. 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 510 Prose Works from the List

Ksana Blank, Caryl Emerson

A service course designed to meet the fluctuating needs of second- and third-year Russian literature students confronted with the lengthy graduate reading list only partially covered in regularly offered seminars. Twelve prose works (18th through 20th century) are selected for close analysis and contextualization. Students present weekly reports. End-of-term exercise modeled after general examinations.

SLA 511 Critical Approaches to Literature: Russian Contributions

Caryl G. Emerson

A survey of major 20th-century critical movements (formalism, Bakhtin, the Tartu School of cultural semiotics), with all theoretical paradigms tested against primary 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

Ksana Blank, Olga P. Hasty, Michael A. Wachtel

Covers the beginnings of Russian literature to 1700 (epic, chronicles, and hagiography), and the development of Russian literature from 1700-1800 (poetry, drama, and prose).

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 G. 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 The 19th-Century Master Novelists

Ksana Blank, Ellen B. Chances, Caryl G. Emerson

A study of the literary evolution and major prose writings of either Dostoevsky or Tolstoy.

SLA 517 Russian Short Prose

Ellen B. Chances

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

Olga P. Hasty, Michael A. Wachtel

Readings selected from the 19th century (e.g., the “Golden Age,” the Romantics) or the 20th century (e.g., the Symbolists, the Futurists, the Acmeists).

SLA 519 Soviet Literature

Herman S. Ermolaev

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

SLA 520 Topics in Contemporary Russian Culture

Ellen B. Chances, Serguei A. Oushakine

An examination of significant cultural phenomena. Topics include the role of the intellectual; the interplay between contemporary literature and film; contemporary Russian journalism; the search for values; the arts; Glasnost and its roots; Andrei Bitov: the ecology of life and literature.

SLA 530 Topics in Russian and Slavic Linguistics

Staff

Topics could include the Slavic verb, problems of voice in Slavic, the function of word order in Slavic, 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., Bely, Pasternak, Tsvetaeva), or significant literary and critical trends (the “superfluous man,” “ornamentalism,” and Soviet literature and censorship).

SLA 532 Topics in Slavic Literatures Other than Russian

Staff

Topics may include 19th or 20th-century Czech narrative prose, Polish poetry, and South Slavic folklore.

SLA 533 Topics in Russian Philosophy

Caryl G. Emerson

The 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 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 is provided in Russian religious and metaphysical thought, and connections are made, where appropriate, to major writers.

SLA 599 Slavic Dissertation Colloquium

Staff

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.