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Slavic Languages & Literatures

SLAV/PWAD 080 [006M]: The Devil & the Problem of Evil in Russian Literature
Literary Arts (LA) [GC Aesthetic/Literature]
Christopher Putney
This course will consider how the devil and other representatives of "unclean power" have been portrayed in over seven centuries of Russian literature, from the medieval period into the twentieth century. How has Russian literature tried to account for the persistence of radical evil-for which the devil stands as a most powerful metaphor-in a world that was supposedly created by a wholly good, omniscient, and all-powerful God? How does the Russian literary conception of the devil evolve over the centuries? In addition to premodern primary texts, we will read works by Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Bulgakov.

SLAV 081 [006F]: Metaphor and the Body
Literary Arts (LA) [GC Philosophical]
Laura A. Janda
The common denominator for human existence is the inhabitation of a physical body. Concentric layers of skin, tissue and bone give us oppositions of inside vs. outside; erect posture suggests vertical scales of measurement; lateral symmetry inspires notions of balance and harmony. This course examines bodily experience as the wellspring of meaning and how metaphor further extends meaning.

SLAV 082 [006M]: Doctors Stories
Literary Arts (LA) [GC Aesthetic/Literature]
Beth Holmgren
This seminar explores and reflects on the experience of being a doctor in the two distinct societies of Russia and the United States. We'll analyze how the "doctor's story"-both professional and personal-has been reconstructed and evaluated in a wide variety of Russian and American texts, including physicians' memoirs, fiction authored by doctors, and nonfiction or documentaries scripted in consultation with medical professionals. Our sampling of these text will inform our ongoing discussion of such questions as how one decides to become a doctor, how one chooses to become a doctor, how one chooses to become a certain kind of doctor (in specialization, institutional setting, geographical location, or specific service), how one copes with the responsibility for the patients' well-being, and what it means to be a doctor in one's society and culture.

SLAV/WMST 083 [006M]: The Actress: Celebrity and the Woman
Literary Arts (LA) [GC Aesthetic/Literature]
Beth Holmgren
Who is your favorite actress? what do you know about her? What makes you one of her fans? In this seminar we'll reflect on that experience, significance, and influence of the stage and motion picture actress in the modern era - that is, from the late nineteenth century, when such performers as Sarah Bernhardt and Eleonora Duse established the actress as international artist and celebrity, up to the present day. We'll analyze a wide array of texts representing the actress's experience and image - actresses' memoirs and correspondence, fan and expose' biographies, articles in the mass media, fan websites, fiction and film. The actress, as she cultivates herself and is packaged by others (agents, studios, the media) not only reflects and sets contemporary standards for beauty and lifestyle, but also often provokes public debate over women's "appropriate" familial, professional, and and public roles. Our seminar readings and discussion will be organized around a series of general topics: 1) the actress as performing artist (her call to act, her professional training and experience, her lifelong maintenance of a highly public artistic career); 2) gender specific issues of the actress's reputation (social judgments of her sexuality, private behavior, motherhood); 3) the actress as celebrity (the powerful, complex relationship between the actress and her fans, her function as symbol and - often - role model for her gender, ethnicity, race, nation, the philanthropic and political activism enabled by her public position).

SLAV/PWAD 084 [006M]: Terror for the People: Terrorism in Russian Literature and History
Literary Arts (LA) [GC Aesthetic/Literature]
Madeline Levine
What makes a person become a terrorist? What do terrorists hope to gain through such acts as assassination, arson, bombings? What type of people become terrorists, under what circumstances? And how do societies beset by terror respond? The readings for this seminar will address these questions in reference to the terrorist movement in late nineteenth-century Russia as seen through the eyes of the terrorists themselves and in the fictional creations of writers who made terrorism and terrorists the subject of their novels and short stories. This seminar is about both terrorism as a form of political protest and literature as a medium for reflecting the social and personal tensions that explode into terrorist activity. You will be asked to read critically and passionately, to participate in class discussions, and to write three short papers in response to specific assigned readings. In the end-of-term paper you will analyze the portrayal of a terrorist character in a fictional work of your choice. Also, as a supplemental, self-reflective exercise to remind us that America, too, has a history of home-grown terrorism (for example, John Brown's anti-slavery campaign, the Ku Klux Klan, the Weathermen, abortion-clinic bombings), the class will be divided into small groups, each of which will make an oral presentation to the class about a terrorist organization or incident in US history.

SLAV/PWAD 085 [006M]: Children & War
Literary Arts (LA) [GC Aesthetic/Literature]
Madeline Levine
What happens to childen during wartime? Who speaks for them, and how can we learn about their experiences? These are the central questions we will ask as we consider the experiences of the children who are victims of wars waged by adults: children who are intended victims; children whose physical or psychological wounds are "collateral damage"; children who are forced to be soldiers. Readings for this class will include children's wartime diaries, the adult memoirs of child-survivors, and fictional representations of children in war.
Through daily class discussion, writing assignments, and group projects we will engage such questions as: Can children communicate their own experience? Are memoirs to be trusted? Is fiction more powerful, or even, in a sense, more truthful, than "fact"? Students will grapple analytically with these issues in class discussions and essays. There will also be ample opportunity for expressing emotional responses in class and in a reading journal (which is required, but which will not be graded). Most of the assigned readings and supplemental film screenings focus on World War II in Eastern Europe (the professor's area of expertise) and East Asia, but the experiences of children in recent wars will also be touched upon. Students may choose to focus on other wars in their term papers (8-10 pages) and/or group projects (in-class or on-line presentations).

SLAV 086 [006M]: Literature and Madness
Literary Arts (LA) [GC Aesthetic/Literature]
Ivana Vuletic
This course considers the realtionship between literature and madness through the study of slected fiction, essays, and flim. We will examine how modern European and American artistic texts differently construct representations of madness. Students' reading, writing, class discussions and presentations will be directed by a series of topics, such as the origin of madness, awarness or unawareness of madness, the theme of the mad artist, and madness as a literary device. Assessment of students' academic achievvement will be base on theri class siscussion contribution (40%), oral presentation (10%), two short papers (25%), and the term paper (25%).