Slavic Department Graduate Courses

Spring 2006 Course Schedule

501, 502
Russian Morphosyntax
L.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., control of infinitive complements, impersonal sentences, binding, hybrid verbal categories and their syntax, negation, case, voice, etc.

503, 504
The History of Russian Language I, II

C.E. Townsend & L.H. Babby
First semester: Historical phonology and introduction to historical morphology. Second semester: Historical morphology and syntax.
505
Common and Comparative Slavic

M. 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.
507
Old Russian Texts

L.H. Babby
Close reading and grammatical analysis of Old Russian texts.
510
Prose Works from the List

C. Emerson, K. Blank
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 contexualization. Students present weekly reports. End-of-term exercise modeled after general exams.
511
Critical Approaches to Literature: Russian Contributions

C. 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.
512
The Evolution of the Russian Poetic Form

M. Wachtel
An introduction to Russian poetics through selected readings, from Trediakovsky to Brodsky, organized by poetic genre. Specific subjects include: the ode, the elegy, folk adaptations, blank verse, and the significance of translation.
513
Russian Literature before 1800

O. Hasty or M. Wachtel
This course covers either the beginnings of Russian literature to 1700 (epic, chronicles, and hagiography) or the development of Russian literature from 1700-1800 (poetry, drama, and prose).
514
Pushkin

M. Wachtel
A study of Pushkin's major lyrics, narrative poems, drama and prose in the context of Russian and European literary developments.
515
The Evolution of Russian Prose

C. Emerson
A survey of either the lesser-read Russian novelists or important nineteenth-century Romantic and Realist genres (idyll, travel, notes, gothic and society tale, sketch, neohagiography) through exemplary short texts (read in Russian) and selected parodies and criticism.
516
The 19th-Century Master Novelists

E. Chances, C. Emerson, or K. Blank
A study of the literary evolution and major prose writings of either Dostoevsky or Tolstoy.
517
Russian Short Prose

E. 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.
518
Major Russian Poets and Poetic Movements

O.P. Hasty or M. Wachtel
Readings are selected from the nineteenth century (e.g., the "Golden Age," the Romantics) or the twentieth century (e.g., the Symbolists, the Futurists, the Acmeists).
519
Soviet Literature

H. Ermolaev
A study of representative authors in one of three historical periods: 1917-1930, 1930-1965, or 1965-present. The course is conducted entirely in Russian.
520
Topics in Contemporary Russian Culture

E. Chances
An examination of significant cultural phenomena. Topics include the role of the intellectual; the interplay between contemporary literature and film; Russian journalism; the search for values; the arts; Glasnost and its roots; Andrei Bitov: the ecology of life and literature.
530
Topics in Russian and Slavic Linguistics

M. Fried
Topics might include: the Slavic verb; problems of voice in Slavic; function of word order in Slavic; case in Slavic languages; verbal aspect in Slavic; West Slavic dialectology.
531
Topics in Russian Literature of Literary Theory

O.P. Hasty or Staff
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, Soviet Literature and censorship).
532
Topics in Slavic Literatures Other than Russian

Visiting Faculty or Staff
Topics may include nineteenth- or twentieth-century Czech narrative prose, Polish poetry; South Slavic folklore.
533
Readings in Russian Spiritual Philosophy

Emerson, Blank
Major thinkers: Chaadaev, Khomiakov, Soloviev, Fyodorov, Shestov, Frank, Florensky, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Lossky, Rozanov, Sergei Bulgakov, Berdiaev.
Updated 8/25/04