Catalog home

The Academic Program

• The Academic Year
• Graduation Requirements
• Instructional Policies
• The Curriculum
  • African Studies
  • American Studies
  • Anthropology
  • Art
  • Asian Languages and Cultures
  • Biology
  • Chemistry
  • Classics
  • Cognitive and Neuroscience Studies
  • Computer Science
  • Economics
  • Educational Studies
  • English
  • Environmental Studies
  • French and Francophone Studies
  • Geography
  • Geology
  • German Studies
  • Hispanic Studies
  • History
  • Humanities and Media and Cultural Studies
  • International Studies
  • Latin American Studies
  • Legal Studies
  • Linguistics
  • Mathematics and Computer Science
  • Middle Eastern Studies and Islamic Civilization
  • Music
  • Philosophy
  • Physical Education
  • Physics
  • Political Science
  • Psychology
  • Religious Studies
  • Russian Studies
  • Sociology
  • Theater and Dance
  • Urban Studies
  • Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies
• Special Programs

• Program Description
• Course Descriptions
• Russian web site

Russian Course Descriptions

Russian language classes (unless otherwise stated) are proficiency oriented, and aim at perfecting all four linguistic skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Intermediate and advanced courses are taught in Russian as much as possible. Most classes meet three times per week with an additional weekly class period devoted specifically to oral proficiency. These conversation classes are taught by Russian native speakers.

 

101 ELEMENTARY RUSSIAN I

A structured introduction to the basics of the Russian sound system and grammar, as well as speaking, reading, writing, and comprehension. Some exposure to Russian culture. For beginning students. No prerequisites. Every fall. (4 credits)

 

102 ELEMENTARY RUSSIAN II

Continuation of Russian 101; further development of the same skills. Prerequisite: Russian 101 with a grade of C– or better, or consent of instructor. Every spring. (4 credits)

 

203 INTERMEDIATE RUSSIAN I

In the second year of Russian, students learn to operate in basic social and cultural environments. Conversational skills needed on the telephone, public transport and other daily situations, listening and reading skills such as television, newspapers and movies, and various modes of writing are studied. Prerequisite: Russian 102 with a grade of C– or better, or consent of the instructor. Every fall. (4 credits)

 

204 INTERMEDIATE RUSSIAN II

Continuation of Russian 203; further development of the same skills; added emphasis on reading and discussing simple texts. Students are usually prepared for study in Russia after they have completed Intermediate Russian II. Prerequisite: Russian 203 with a grade of C– or better, or consent of instructor. Every spring. (4 credits)

 

251 NINETEENTH CENTURY RUSSIAN LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION

An introduction to the literary tradition that gave the world Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. Readings will include prose, poetry, drama, and literary criticism, and authors representative of the Golden Age of Russian poetry (Pushkin, Lermontov), the Age of the Realistic novel (Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy), as well as the late 19th century masters of the short story. Russian drama is represented by Gogol, Ostrovsky, and Chekhov. Lectures, readings, and discussions in English; Russian majors may read some assignments in Russian. No prerequisites. Alternate years; next offered Spring 2008. (4 credits)

 

252 TWENTIETH CENTURY RUSSIAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE IN TRANSLATION

A survey of Russian literary responses to revolution, repression, dissent, and glasnost. Readings and discussions of representative authors from such disparate movements as Symbolism, Socialist Realism, literature of dissent, and fantastic prose, including Bely, Bulgakov, Solzhenitsyn, and Tertz. The great twentieth-century tradition in poetry will also be covered, including Mayakovsky, Akhmatova, Pasternak, and Brodsky. Lectures, readings, and discussions in English; Russian majors may read some assignments in Russian. No prerequisites. Alternate years. (4 credits)

 

255 RUSSIAN CULTURE

Survey of Russian culture from the Middle Ages through tsarist Russia up to the twentieth century. Art in Russia has always had social functions, and we will study the interaction of art, society, and politics throughout Russian history. Topics include religious icons and writing, St Petersburg and Westernization, the institution of censorship, art as political statement, and the modernist notion of "art for art's sake." Lectures, readings, and discussions in English. Alternate years; next offered Fall 2007. (4 credits)

 

256 MASS CULTURE UNDER COMMUNISM (Same as Humanities, Media and Cultural Studies 256)

The politics and sociology of Soviet Russian culture from the October Revolution to the fall of communism. For each period in Soviet history, changes in the production and consumption of culture will be considered with specific examples to be discussed. Topics dealt with in the course include the role of mass media in society, popular participation in "totalitarian" societies, culture as a political tool. Popular films, newspapers and magazines, songs, radio and TV programs, etc., will serve to analyze the policies that inspired them and the popular reactions (both loyal and dissenting) they evoked. No prerequisites. Taught in English. Alternate years; next offered Spring 2008. (4 credits)

 

265 TRANSLATION AS CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION (Same as International Studies 265)

When communication takes place across language barriers, it raises fundamental questions about meaning, style, power relationships, and traditions. This course treats literary translation as a particularly complex form of cross-cultural interaction. Students will work on their own translations of prose or poetry while considering broader questions of translation, through critiques of existing translations, close comparisons of variant translations, and readings on cultural and theoretical aspects of literary translation. Advanced proficiency in a second language required. Alternate years. (4 credits)

 

268 NABOKOV (Same as English 268)

The scandal surrounding Vladimir Nabokov's 1955 novel about the nymphet Lolita finally made him a hugely successful celebrity, allowing him to retire from teaching at Cornell University and move to Switzerland to devote himself to fiction, translation, criticism and lepidoptery. This was only one of the many metamorphoses Nabokov underwent while in exile, moving from Russia to the Crimea, Cambridge UK, Berlin, Paris, Cambridge MA, Ithaca, Hollywood, and finally Montreux. Members of the Russian nobility, the Nabokovs lost everything with the 1917 Revolution except for their immense cultural capital, which Nabokov transformed into a tremendously productive career as a writer, critic, translator and scholar in Russian, French, and English. This course examines both the Russian (in translation) and English novels. A merciful defier of national, linguistic, cultural and theoretical categories, Nabokov remains paradoxically elusive and monumental, a thrilling and exasperating genius. Spring semester. (4 credits)

 

272 POST-NATIONALISM: THE POST-SOVIET SPHERE (Same as International Studies 272)

The USSR's 1991 dissolution ended one of history's great experiments. Socialism sought to dissolve ethnicity and overcome ethnic conflict with a focus on equality. Instead it exacerbated nationalism and created-separated identities. But how? Topics include ethno-creation, control, and resistance; ethnic animosities and the USSR's destruction; new states after 1991; "diaspora" populations beyond ethnic homelands; local rebellions; new "native" dictatorships; and recent international organizations. Alternate years; next offered Spring 2008. (4 credits)

 

363 ORIENTALISM AND EMPIRE: RUSSIA'S LITERARY SOUTH (Same as Humanities and Media and Cultural Studies 263)

Since the 18th century to the recent wars with Chechnya, contradictory views of Russian empire building have been reflected in Russian literature. Students first explore recurring Russian ideas of empire, such as "Moscow the Third Rome," and "Eurasianism," as well as the constructs of East/West as factors in Russian identity thinking. The course focuses on the Caucasus region, Russia's "Oriental" south, starting with a brief history of imperial expansion into the area and concentrating on its literary expression in travelogues, Classicist and Romantic poetry, Oriental tales, short stories, and novels. We will ponder general "orientalist" imagery and stereotyping (the noble savage, the brave tribesman, the free-spirited Cossack, the sensual woman, the imperial nobleman/peasant, the government functionary, and "virgin" territory) together with ideas of nation and identity based on this specific region. We will read classics of Russian literature (Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy, Tsvetaeva), but also lesser known authors, some justly and others unjustly forgotten by the canon (Osnobishin, Elena Gan, Iakubovich, Rostopchina). We will supplement our literary readings with a variety of critical and historical texts, as well as films. In English. Alternate years; next offered Fall 2007. (4 credits)

 

364 CULTURE AND REVOLUTION (Same as International Studies 364)

This course examines the relationship between cultural and political change during four very different revolutions: in France of 1789, in Russia of 1917, and the more recent events in Iran and South Africa. How do people change when governments are overturned? How do revolutions shape the consciousness of their citizens? Do people understand events as revolutionaries intend them to? To answer these questions, we will examine symbols and political ideologies, mass media outreach, education and enlistment, changing social identities, the culture of violence, popular participation and resistance, as well as other issues. Readings will include such diverse sources as Voltaire and Rousseau, Marx and Lenin, Khomeini and the Koran. We will read contemporary accounts, both sympathetic and antagonistic, and look at popular culture to see how events were understood. Fashion and etiquette, comics and caricatures, movies and plays are among the materials used. Taught in English. Alternate years; next offered 2008-2009. (4 credits)

 

367 DOSTOEVSKY AND GOGOL

Dostoevsky has had a major impact on writers and thinkers from Nietzsche to Coetzee. He himself paid tribute to Gogol's fantastic imagination. Course readings will range from the absurdist ravings of Gogol's madmen to the existential dilemmas of Dostoevsky's murderers. Discussions will cover the haunted and haunting city of Petersburg, saints, prostitutes, and infernal women, holy fools and Russian Orthodoxy, as well as critical views ranging from Russian Formalists to Freud to Bakhtin's ideas of dialogical speech. Students will explore major 19th century philosophical and cultural currents and a variety of literary movements and genres, and we will also see how our authors have been represented in other media, such as film and painting. From Gogol's Ukrainian and Petersburg tales and Dead Souls, the readings move to Dostoevsky's early humorous works, his major novels, and the course concludes with The Brothers Karamazov. In English. Alternate years. (4 credits)

 

488 SENIOR SEMINAR

Seminars on selected topics in Russian language, literature, or culture, designed to serve as an integrative capstone experience for majors. Recent topics are "Investigating Russian Web and Press and "The Contemporary Short Story." The Spring 2007 seminar will be announced at the time of registration for the term. Conducted in Russian. Prerequisite: Three years (204, followed by a semester abroad) of Russian or approval of instructor. Since the topic changes from year to year, we recommend that sufficiently advanced students repeat this course. Every spring. (4 credits)

 

604 TUTORIAL

Prerequisite: permission of the instructor. Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Every semester. (4 credits)

 

614 INDEPENDENT PROJECT

Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Every semester. (4 credits)

 

624 INTERNSHIP

Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Every semester. (4 credits)

 

634 PRECEPTORSHIP

Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Limit to be applied toward the major will be determined in consultation with the department. Every semester . (4 credits)

 

644 HONORS INDEPENDENT

Independent research, writing, or other preparation leading to the culmination of the senior honors project. Every semester. (1–4 credits)

Macalester College · 1600 Grand Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55105  USA · 651-696-6000
Comments and questions to webmaster@macalester.edu