DEPARTMENT OF SLAVIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES

Elementary Russian 101-1 is the first in a three-quarter sequence designed to introduce students to the Russian language and contemporary Russian culture. In this course, students will continue to develop the fundamentals of speaking, listening, writing, and reading. Emphasis will be placed on practical communication so that students can function at a basic level in several authentic situations by the end of the year.

In this course we will explore some of the sociolinguistic issues in Slavic speaking countries and areas (the Russian Federation, the former Soviet Union, the former Czechoslovakia, etc.) and in Central Europe (specifically, Turkish in Germany). We will look at contemporary issues in Russia and the Ukraine, especially the annexation of the Crimea, anti-gay laws in Russia, and censorship of Pussy Riot. We will explore language policies, minority language rights, language vs. dialect, language planning, language and identity, and language and nationalism.

No description available.

(Co-listed with Hum 260 and History 200)

Historical Studies (IV), Lit. Fine Arts (VI) or Ethics and Values (V). 2017 is the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. To make sense of the significance of this anniversary, this team-taught course integrates insights from Northwestern specialists in Russian and Soviet literature, art, music, theatre, film, graffiti, history, and politics. (These include Saul Morson, Clare Cavanagh and Ilya Kutik). The course provides an introduction to modern Russia’s rich cultural history, from the revolutionary fervor of the 1920s to Stalinist repression, from the vitality of art during the post-Stalin “thaw” to the new artistic revolutions that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. The course also grapples with fundamental questions such as how historical and political contexts shape the arts, how the arts have been and can be used to imagine new worlds, how foreign ideologies interact with national cultures, and how scholars’ distinct disciplinary tools and frameworks shape their approaches to the study of Russia’s history, politics, and artistic culture.

Добро пожаловать! Welcome back! Slavic 302 is a yearlong combined third- and fourth-year multi-skill course. It is recommended for students who are familiar enough with Russian basic grammatical concepts and vocabulary and are willing to continue moving beyond this level to acquire more advanced language skills–- speaking, reading, writing, and listening. The goal is to help students master all major structures of Russian and to begin to function in a wide range of settings and topics. The course acquaints students with aspects of Russian culture that are familiar to most educated native Russian speakers, through literature, videos and Russian movies). Students are encouraged to pursue and develop their own interests in Russian culture, history and social life.

A graduate level seminar that addresses the complexities of teaching Russian language. The group explores teaching methods with an emphasis on communicative approach to language teaching, working with groups and individuals, and demonstrating and presenting ideas. This seminar is geared toward the student interested in teaching assistantships as well as professional education.

Russian poema is a specific genre in Russian poetry that appeared in the 18th century and continues till now. Without knowing about its originality in Russian literary culture it is impossible to imagine the development of Russian poetry through its all periods. Course covers all major poema masterpieces, including those by Pushkin, Baratynsky, Blok, Belyi, Tsvetaeva, Mayakovsky, Pasternak, and Akhmatova.