ELEM BOSNIAN/CROATIAN/SERBIAN
Essentials of the spoken and written language. Prepares students to read texts of moderate difficulty by the end of the first year.
- TWF 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
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Instructor:
Aleksandar Boskovic
CULPA: 1 Info - 4 points
ELEMENTARY CZECH II
Essentials of the spoken and written language. Prepare students to read texts of moderate difficulty by the end of the first year.
- TRF 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
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Instructor:
Christopher W Harwood
CULPA: 4
Info
- 4 points
ELEMENTARY POLISH II
Essentials of the spoken and written language. Prepares students to read texts of moderate difficulty by the end of the first year.
- MWR 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
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Instructor:
Madeleine Pulman-Jones
Info - 4 points
FIRST-YEAR RUSSIAN II
Grammar, reading, composition, and conversation.
- MTWR 8:50 a.m.-9:55 a.m.
- MTWR 10:10 a.m.-11:15 a.m.
- MTWR 2:40 p.m.-3:45 p.m.
- 5 points
ELEMENTARY UKRAINIAN II
Designed for students with little or no knowledge of Ukrainian. Basic grammar structures are introduced and reinforced, with equal emphasis on developing oral and written communication skills. Specific attention to acquisition of high-frequency vocabulary and its optimal use in real-life settings.
- MWR 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
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Instructor:
Yuri Shevchuk
CULPA: 4 Info - 4 points
INTER BOSNIAN/CROATIAN/SERBIAN
Prerequisites: BCRS UN1102 or the equivalent. Readings in Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian literature in the original, with emphasis depending upon the needs of individual students. This course number has been changed to BCRS 2102
- TWF 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
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Instructor:
Aleksandar Boskovic
CULPA: 1 Info - 4 points
INTERMEDIATE CZECH II
Prerequisites: CZCH UN1102 or the equivalent. Rapid review of grammar. Readings in contemporary fiction and nonfiction, depending upon the interests of individual students.
- TRF 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
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Instructor:
Christopher W Harwood
CULPA: 4
Info
- 4 points
INTERMEDIATE POLISH II
Prerequisites: POLI UN1102 or the equivalent. Rapid review of grammar; readings in contemporary nonfiction or fiction, depending on the interests of individual students.
- TRF 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
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Instructor:
Christopher Caes
Info - 4 points
SECOND-YEAR RUSSIAN II
Prerequisites: RUSS UN2101 or the equivalent. Drill practice in small groups. Reading, composition, and grammar review.
- MTWR 10:10 a.m.-11:15 a.m.
- MTWR 1:10 p.m.-2:15 p.m.
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Instructor:
Marina Grineva
Info - 5 points
INTERMEDIATE UKRAINIAN II
Prerequisites: UKRN UN1102 or the equivalent. Reviews and reinforces the fundamentals of grammar and a core vocabulary from daily life. Principal emphasis is placed on further development of communicative skills (oral and written). Verbal aspect and verbs of motion receive special attention.
- MWR 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
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Instructor:
Yuri Shevchuk
CULPA: 4 Info - 4 points
THIRD-YEAR RUSSIAN II
Prerequisites: RUSS UN2102 or the equivalent and the instructors permission. Enrollment limited. Recommended for students who wish to improve their active command of Russian. Emphasis on conversation and composition. Reading and discussion of selected texts and videotapes. Lectures. Papers and oral reports required. Conducted entirely in Russian.
- MWF 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
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Instructor:
Tatiana Mikhailova
Info - 4 points
Russian Through Theater
Russian Through Theater is a content-based language course designed for students who already have the equivalent of two semesters of college-level Russian and want to continue exploring their path as Russian language learners. This course is experimental in that it combines elements of traditional language learning with theatricality and creativity. A stress-free learning environment will stimulate language skills and fluency. Staging skits, theatrical pieces, short at first and longer by the end of the semester, will encourage students to focus on phonetics, intonation contour, and idiomatic expressions. In addition to performing skits and short plays, the course includes various forms of improvisation. Reading, listening and speaking - these three essential skills of language learning are constantly practiced. Incorporating theater into language learning not only makes the process enjoyable but also creates a rich, immersive environment that supports language development holistically. Various performative and ludic models, offered by the theater productions -- rehearsed and improvised alike – will help students with shaping a language persona, a skill that students may use in life situations. This skill adds confidence to their conduct of language and allows to communicate effectively with limited linguistic knowledge.
Classes will be conducted primarily in Russian, with sporadic instruction in English when necessary for clarification of assignments or for better understanding of terminology used during mini-lectures.
- W 5:10 p.m.-6:50 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Tatiana Mikhailova
Info - 2 points
LIT & REVOLUTION (20TH C LIT)
The revolutionary period (1905-1938) in Russia was not only one of extreme social upheaval but also of exceptional creativity. Established ideas about individuality and collectivity, about how to depict reality, about language, gender, authority, and violence, were all thrown open to radical questioning. Out of this chaos came ideas about literature and film (just for example) which have shaped Western thought on these subjects to this day. In this course we will study a variety of media and genres (poetry, manifestos, film, painting, photomontage, the novel, theoretical essays) in an effort to gain a deep understanding of this complex and fascinating period in Russian cultural history.
- MW 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
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Instructor:
Jessica E Merrill
CULPA: 2 Info - 3 points
TOLSTOY AND DOSTOEVSKY
Two epic novels, Tolstoys War and Peace and Dostoevskys The Brothers Karamazov, will be read along with selected shorter works. Other works by Tolstoy include his early Sebastopol Sketches, which changed the way war is represented in literature; Confession, which describes his spiritual crisis; the late stories Kreutzer Sonata and Hadji Murad; and essays on capital punishment and a visit to a slaughterhouse. Other works by Dostoevsky include his fictionalized account of life in Siberian prison camp, The House of the Dead; Notes from the Underground, his philosophical novella on free will, determinism, and love; A Gentle Creature, a short story on the same themes; and selected essays from Diary of a Writer. The focus will be on close reading of the texts. Our aim will be to develop strategies for appreciating the structure and form, the powerful ideas, the engaging storylines, and the human interest in the writings of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. No knowledge of Russian is required.
- MW 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
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Instructor:
Liza Knapp
CULPA: 28
Info
- 3 points
Queer and Loathing: Literature, Homophob
Lit, Homophobia, & Russia
Over the past decade, official Russian rhetoric has posed queerness as the product of cultural and moral degradation in Western countries, framing Russia’s domestic legal homophobia and revanchist foreign policy as heroic resistance to a deformed and despotic Western sociopolitical order. According to this narrative, queer identity is a recent and unwelcome Western import to Russia, something fundamentally alien to Russianness. Our course draws together a wide array of cultural artifacts, accrued from the 19th-century up to now, which tell a starkly different story. A story of lives that defied expectation—and of the pains and pleasures that such defiance entailed. There is heroism in this story, but its ‘heroes’ often don’t fit the moniker, flouting our expectations much as they did those of their contemporaries. Spanning three centuries, and media of every kind, we will work to uncover the history of gender and sexual difference that the present Russian regime seeks to obscure and erase. What were these lives, and who were these people? How did they understand themselves, and how can we understand them today? What did they endure, what were their joys, and what did they create? In attempting to answer these questions, we will trace the cultural roots of Russia’s present-day anti-queer ideology, and consider the structures of power that have shaped its national identity. Existing scholarship will provide us with context for our readings, while critical tools drawn from feminist philosophy and queer theory help us to deepen our reflections.
There are no prerequisites for this course. No knowledge of Russian is required.
RUSSIAN FOR HERITAGE SPKRS II
Prerequisites: RUSS V3430 or the instructors permission. This course is designed to help students who speak Russian at home, but have no or limited reading and writing skills to develop literary skills in Russian. THIS COURSE, TAKEN WITH RUSS V3430, MEET A TWO YEAR FOREIGN LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT. Conducted in Russian.
- MW 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
- 3 points
Folklore Past and Present
Folklore Pask and Present
This course moves from Serbia and Bosnia, to Ukraine and the Czech lands, through Poland to Russia and Finland and then on to the southern Siberian steppes and finally the Russian Far East. Along the way, the course is divided into three major thematic and theoretical units.
Epics and Ballads: History, Performance, Identity
Our first focus is on historical songs in the context of Romantic nationalism. We will explore why people (philologists) began to write these down, and how they were they edited and organized into print books. We discuss what these publications meant in the context of Romantic nationalist movements for political autonomy from the Ottoman or Hapsburg Empires. Given the stakes, some scholars were (maybe too) creative with their material. We will ask: What makes an epic text authentic, as opposed to an invented tradition, or even a fake? Throughout, we will pay attention to how traditions of oral performance were learned and transmitted within specific communities of artists, such as Ramadan performers, upper-class Bosnian women, and Ukrainian minstrels.
Words in Context: Poetry, Power, Positioning
Our second unit begins with the theoretical redefinition of folklore in the 20th c. Folklore is no longer defined by
who
performs it (e.g. peasants), but by its characteristics of variation and localization. We begin with a genre that anyone can perform—the proverb. To understand the power of small forms we need place them in their real-world context. We learn about ethnographic interviewing methods aimed at eliciting the local meanings of folklore. We consider relationship between the body and verbal folklore in south Siberian shamanism and in the performance of charms by folk healers in Russia and Finland. In order to bring the study of folklore home, to us at Columbia, we consider campus legends and folklore of the COVID-19 pandemic. This unit provides students with the tools needed to design and carry out their own mini-ethnography, which serves as the final project for the course.
Oral Narrative: Legends, Fairytales, Cross-Cultural Motifs
Our last major unit is dedicated to folk narrative—the memorate (personal narrative), the legend and the fairytale. We begin with Russian memorates about nature and house spirits. Narratives told as true events (memorates, legends) are contrasted with the genre of the fairy tale. We learn about how fairy tales were typically performed
- T 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Jessica E Merrill
CULPA: 2 Info - 3 points
Advanced Ukrainian Through Literature, M
ADVANCED UKRAINIAN
This course is organized around a number of thematic centers or modules. Each is focused on stylistic peculiarities typical of a given functional style of the Ukrainian language. Each is designed to assist the student in acquiring an active command of lexical, grammatical, discourse, and stylistic traits that distinguish one style from the others and actively using them in real-life communicative settings in contemporary Ukraine. The styles include literary fiction, scholarly prose, and journalism, both printed and broadcast
- MW 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Yuri Shevchuk
CULPA: 4 Info - 3 points
Word and Grammar
Many modern theories of grammar are almost entirely based on English, having been developed mainly to describe the structure of English and, to a much lesser extent, other familiar languages of Europe. But the languages of the world are highly diverse, many of them, in contrast to English, with highly complex word and inflectional structures and relatively simple phrasal structures. Theories of grammar built on English serve such languages poorly. This course seeks to address this imbalance by focusing on languages with complex morphological and morphosyntactic structures. Because the grammars of such languages are built around word structures, we will be exploring current lexicalist theories of grammar such as Lexical Functional Grammar and Construction Grammar to develop formal explicit analyses of these languages. One learns morphological and morphosyntactic analysis by doing it across languages of various types, so we will regularly be working through problems to analyze in class.
- MW 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
-
Instructor:
William Foley
h-index: 0 Info - 3 points
Semantics
This course provides an introduction to semantics, the study of meaning in language. We will explore a range of semantic phenomena, and students will learn the tools and techniques of formal semantic analysis as well as core concepts, goals, and findings of the field.
- TR 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Meredith Landman
CULPA: 1 h-index: 5 Info - 3 points
FIN DE SIECLE UKRAINIAN LIT
The course focuses on the emergence of modernism in Ukrainian literature in the late 19th century and early 20th century, a period marked by a vigorous, often biting, polemic between the populist Ukrainian literary establishment and young Ukrainian writers who were inspired by their European counterparts. Students will read prose, poetry, and drama written by Ivan Franko, the writers of the Moloda Muza, Olha Kobylianska, Lesia Ukrainka, and Volodymyr Vynnychenko among others. The course will trace the introduction of feminism, urban motifs and settings, as well as decadence, into Ukrainian literature and will analyze the conflict that ensued among Ukrainian intellectuals as they shaped the identity of the Ukrainian people. The course will be supplemented by audio and visual materials reflecting this period in Ukrainian culture. Entirely in English with a parallel reading list for those who read Ukrainian.
- TR 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Mark Andryczyk
Info - 3 points
THE WRITERS OF PRAGUE
After providing an overview of the history of Prague and the Czech lands from earliest times, the course will focus on works by Prague writers from the years 1895-1938, when the city was a truly multicultural urban center. Special attention will be given to each of the groups that contributed to Prague’s cultural diversity in this period: the Austro-German minority, which held disproportionate social, political and economic influence until 1918; the Czech majority, which made Prague the capital of the democratic First Czechoslovak Republic (1918-1938); the German- and Czech-speaking Jewish communities, which were almost entirely wiped out between 1938 and 1945; and the Russian and Ukrainian émigré community, which—thanks in large part to support from the Czechoslovak government—maintained a robust, independent cultural presence through the 1920s and early 1930s. Through close reading and analysis of works of poetry, drama, prose fiction, reportage, literary correspondence and essays, the course will trace common themes that preoccupied more than one Prague writer of this period. In compiling and comparing different versions of cultural myth, it will consider the applicability of various possible definitions of the literary genius loci of Prague.
- TR 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Christopher W Harwood
CULPA: 4
Info
- 3 points
Chekhov and Others
We will explore Anton Chekhov’s work on its own terms, in its cultural context, and in relation to the work of others, especially Anglophone writers who responded, directly or indirectly, to Chekhov and his work. Readings by Chekhov include selected stories (short and long), his four major plays, and
Sakhalin Island,
his study of the Russian penal colony.
There are no prerequisites. Knowledge of Russian is not required; all readings in English.
Students who know Russian are encouraged to read Chekhov’s work in Russian.
The course will be comparative as it addresses Chekhov on his own and in relation to anglophone writers.
The course is open to undergraduates (CC, GS, BC) and graduates in GSAS and other schools. The attention to
how
Chekhov writes may interest students in the School of the Arts.
- MW 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Liza Knapp
CULPA: 28
Info
- 3 points
Expressive Culture of Soviet and Indepen
Exp Cult of Sov & Ind Geo
Expressive culture in the form of traditional and mediated performing and visual arts, film and literature has reflected and shaped modern Georgian social life in immeasurable ways. This seminar brings anthropological perspectives to bear on how expressive culture has served to articulate national and local senses of identity, grappled with collective trauma, and forged avant-garde creative networks within and beyond Georgia’s borders in the socialist and postsocialist periods. The course is organized in three units: it begins by interrogating the curatorial interventions of international organizations like UNESCO and their role in commodifying Georgian culture for global markets, proceeds by exploring powerful creative responses to colonial and totalitarian experience, and concludes by focusing on the capital city of Tbilisi–its built spaces, ever-changing social configurations, and shifting value systems–as a persistent muse in expressive cultural forms.
There are no prerequisites and the course assumes no prior knowledge of Georgian history, language, or culture.
- W 10:10 a.m.-noon
-
Instructor:
Lauren E Ninoshvili
CULPA: 4 Info - 3 points
ADVANCED POLISH II
Prerequisites: two years of college Polish or the instructors permission. Extensive readings from 19th- and 20th-century texts in the original. Both fiction and nonfiction, with emphasis depending on the interests and needs of individual students.
- TR 8:40 a.m.-9:55 a.m.
-
Instructor:
Christopher Caes
Info - 3 points
LANG DOCUMENTATION/FIELD MTHDS
Prerequisites: LING UN3101 In light of the predicted loss of up to 90% of the world languages by the end of this century, it has become urgent that linguists take a more active role in documenting and conserving endangered languages. In this course, we will learn the essential skills and technology of language documentation through work with speakers of an endangered language.
- TR 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Meredith Landman
CULPA: 1 h-index: 5 Info - 3 points
Linguistics: Languages of Asia
With the largest landmass of any continent and a majority of the world’s population, Asia is deeply diverse linguistic terrain, where even the major national languages may come from very different families and employ varied writing systems. Though many are endangered and little documented, Asia’s 2,000-plus languages are a crucial lens for looking in specific detail at the long-run history of places, peoples, and cultures, telling us “What’s where why?”, as language typologists sometimes put it. This course surveys four of Asia’s major language groups (Indo-Iranian, Turkic, Tibeto-Burman, and Sinitic) and four of its proposed linguistic areas (the Caucasus, India, mainland Southeast Asia, and Northeast Asia), where a constellation of languages from a variety of families, as well as isolates, have long been in close contact. Lesser-studied languages large and small will be examined in close-up for both their linguistic features and the natural, social, and historical forces that shape them.
- MW 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Ross Perlin
Wikipedia Info - 3 points
The Road to Power: Marxism in Germany an
Marxism in Germany and Ru
Before Marxism was an academic theory, it was a political movement, but it was not led by Marx. This course examines the years in between, when a new generation began the task of building the organizations, practices, and animating theories that came to define “Marxism” for the twentieth century. Two of the most important such organizations were the German and Russian Social Democratic Parties. Responding to dramatically different contexts, and coming to equally different ends, they nevertheless developed organically interconnected. This course selects key episodes from the road to power of both parties, from their founding to the Russian Revolution— what might be called the “Golden Age” of Marxism. This course is open to all undergraduates who have completed Contemporary Civilization.
- M 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Adam Leeds
h-index: 2 Info - 3 points
ADV BOSNIAN/CROATIAN/SERBIAN
Prerequisites: BCRS UN2102 Further develops skills in speaking, reading, and writing, using essays, short stories, films, and fragments of larger works. Reinforces basic grammar and introduces more complete structures.
- TW 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Aleksandar Boskovic
CULPA: 1 Info - 3 points
READINGS IN CZECH LITERATURE II
Prerequisites: two years of college Czech or the equivalent. A close study in the original of representative works of Czech literature. Discussion and writing assignments in Czech aimed at developing advanced language proficiency.
- MW 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
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Instructor:
Christopher W Harwood
CULPA: 4
Info
- 3 points
CHTENIIA PO RUSSKOI LITERATURE
CHTENIIA PO RUSS:Voina i mir
- TR 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Irina Reyfman
CULPA: 5
Info
- 3 points
FOURTH-YEAR RUSSIAN II
- MWF 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Tatiana Mikhailova
Info - 4 points
PRACTICAL STYLISTICS-RUSS LANG
Prerequisites: RUSS W4334 or the equivalent or the instructor's permission. Prerequisite: four years of college Russian or instructor's permission. The course will focus on theoretical matters of language and style and on the practical aspect of improving students' writing skills. Theoretical aspects of Russian style and specific Russian stylistic conventions will be combined with the analysis of student papers and translation assignments, as well as exercises focusing on reviewing certain specific difficulties in mastering written Russian.
- TR 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
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Instructor:
Irina Reyfman
CULPA: 5
Info
- 3 points
LANGUAGE & SOCIETY
How language structure and usage varies according to societal factors such as social history and socioeconomic factors, illustrated with study modules on language contact, language standardization and literacy, quantitative sociolinguistic theory, language allegiance, language, and power.
- MW 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Ross Perlin
Wikipedia Info - 3 points
LITERARY TRANSLATION
Prerequisites: four years of college Russian or the equivalent. Workshop in literary translation from Russian into English focusing on the practical problems of the craft. Each student submits a translation of a literary text for group study and criticism. The aim is to produce translations of publishable quality.
- M 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Ronald Meyer
Info - 4 points
RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CULTURE
From Prince Valdimir’s Rus’ to the Post-Soviet Russia of Vladimir Putin, religion has remained a key factor in the making and remaking of Russian polity and culture. This course will explore how Orthodox Christianity—whether privileged or persecuted—came to dominate the Russian religious scene and shape Russian institutions, discourses, and lived experiences. Students will draw from a variety of primary and secondary sources—chronicles, saints’ lives, travel narratives, memoirs, letters, legal documents, icons and other ritual objects, films and fictional texts, as well as a large body of scholarly works and contemporary media materials—to examine how Russia’s Orthodox past and its rewriting into competing “histories” have been used over time as “legacies” shaping the present and the future.
- W 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Valentina Izmirlieva
CULPA: 14 Info - 4 points
Late Soviet Underground Literature and A
Late Soviet Undergr Lit &
The Soviet underground constitutes a highly important example of alternative culture that developed in the USSR outside of restraints of censorship, albeit not in a full isolation from Soviet environment. The goal of the course is to familiarize students with this rich legacy as the extrapolation of interrupted trajectories of Russian modernism and the avant-garde as well as underdeveloped tendencies that can form a foundation for new Russian culture of the 21st century. The course, if approved, can be offered in several iterations, each time with a focus on a particular genre. This version of the syllabus focuses on prose and dramaturgy, but there can be a syllabus on poetry, performance, and visual art in any combination.
- T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Mark Lipovetsky
Wikipedia Info - 4 points