Slavic Languages and Literature

The Soviet Union was a country of paradoxes. While the Soviet government promoted national self-determination by establishing autonomous territories and fostering the development of national languages and cultures, it simultaneously engaged with practices of domination and control akin to European colonial empires. This course seeks to elucidate the inherent ideological tensions of the Soviet system through the works of authors and filmmakers from the Caucasus and Central Asia, situating them within the broader context of what has come to be known as postcolonial theory.

Beginning with the Soviet Union’s self-championing as the first anti-imperialist state, we will explore how writers and filmmakers from the Soviet metropole imagined and constructed the idea of an internal Other. Moving beyond the metropolitan imagination, we will examine how imperial categorizations were challenged by writers and filmmakers from the so-called Soviet "periphery." How did the non-European part of the population of the Soviet Union negotiate questions of identity, assimilation into the dominant culture, and resistance within the frameworks of Soviet modernization, nationality policy, and the official aesthetic doctrine of the Soviet Union - Socialist Realism?  Finally, we will delve into how Soviet-era discourses persist and evolve in the post-Soviet context, influencing contemporary geopolitical and social realities across the Eurasian region. All course materials will be available in English.

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.

Few modern writers have been as adored, reviled, translated, or adapted as Fyodor Dostoevsky. In this seminar, we explore the “afterlife/survival” (Überleben) of Dostoevsky’s writings, with a particular emphasis on his reception and transformations during the decades of global modernism. We will ask: when and how was the dominant 20th-century image of Dostoevsky made? How is this image reflected, and refracted, in the later theory and practice of the novel? What resonances has it found across the political spectrum, from the pre-revolutionary Russian Empire through interwar Europe, the mid-century United States, and our present era of resurgent technocracy, imperialism, and nationalism? The first half of the course focuses on the Silver Age writers who did most to frame Dostoevsky’s legacy and artistic persona for an international readership. In the second half, we turn to a range of historical, literary, and theoretical contexts where this legacy comes into play. Students will take an active role in researching and shaping the story about Dostoevsky’s uncanny “survival” that our course tells, engaging with a range of readings in modernist literature, criticism, and novel theory. Midway through the course, each student will be responsible for a reception case study, researching either a place and time where Dostoevsky was widely influential or (by permission) a single author whose work comes into close dialogue with his.

Note: Russian-language readings will be provided in the original; many are also available in translation. Other readings will be provided and discussed in English translation, though reading in the original is always encouraged. The course is open to all graduate students by permission.

The course falls neatly into two halves, addressing the British and Russian empires as they were in the 19th century. The purpose of the course is to become familiar with imperial thinking, the thought (pro-empire, anti-empire, and simply permeated by empire, to put it in terms familiar to a contemporary audience) implicit in various literary works of the time. For the most part, the readings assigned are primary texts. These will be heavily supplemented during course meetings: the instructor will bring in various materials that would be obscure if assigned to students outside of class, but with live explanations in-class, will enrich their understanding of the primary readings.

Most readings are literary texts, though students will also read and receive guidance in secondary academic literature about those works. A few philosophical and historical texts from the time under examination will also be assigned.

How do you write literature in the midst of catastrophe? To whom do you write if you don’t know whether your readership will survive? Or that you yourself will survive? How do you theorize society when the social fabric is tearing apart? How do you develop a concept of human rights at a time when mass extermination is deemed legal? How do you write Jewish history when Jewish future seems uncertain?

This course offers a survey of the literature and intellectual history written during World War II (1939-1945) both in Nazi occupied Europe and in the free world, written primarily, but not exclusively, by Jews. We will read novels, poems, science fiction, historical fiction, legal theory and social theory and explore how intellectuals around the world responded to the extermination of European Jewry as it happened and how they changed their understanding of what it means to be a public intellectual, what it means to be Jewish, and what it means to be human.

The aim of the course is threefold. First, it offers a survey of the Jewish experience during WWII, in France, Russia, Poland, Latvia, Romania, Greece, Palestine, Morocco, Iraq, the USSR, Argentina, and the United States. Second, it introduces some of the major contemporary debates in holocaust studies. Finally, it provides a space for a methodological reflection on how literary analysis, cultural studies, and historical research intersect.

This class aims to introduce the students to the field of Bible and Literature, with special attention to the Hebrew Bible and to Literary Theory. We will read portions of Genesis, Numbers, Jonah, Hosea, Ezekiel, Esther, Mark, and Revelations, and discuss it in tandem with literary theory as well as 20th Century literary texts. Literary theory, this class will argue, is central for our understanding of the Bible, and, at the same time, the Biblical text is essential for the manner in which we theorize literature. Our discussion will be guided by four loosely interconnected questions: What insights can we gain about the theology of the Biblical text from a literary analysis? What happens to theological ideas once they are dramatized and narrativized? In what way can modern literary adaptations of the Bible contribute to our understanding of the Biblical text? How does the Bible challenge and trouble some of the perceived ideas of literary theory?

The syllabus is divided into three units. The first unit —Bible and Literature in Theory, offers a survey of some of the scholarly approaches to the intersection of literature and theology. We will read theory that interrogates the intersection of theological and literary concepts, focusing on omniscience, authorship, temporality, characterization, and plot. The second unit —Literature as Biblical Exegesis, shifts the focus to a reading of Biblical texts in tandem with their modern literary and cinematic interpretations, focusing on Job and Esther.  What, we will ask, happen to the Biblical world once it is being refracted through a modern sensibility? How can we take literature seriously as Biblical hermeneutics? The third unit —Recent Directions, introduces some of the recent directions in the field, focusing on how literature imagines the relationship between Bible, archeology, and modernity, as well as on the intersection of Biblical literature, fantasy, and science fiction.

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.

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.

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.

Prerequisites: the department's permission. Supervised Individual Research

This course studies the renaissance in Ukrainian culture of the 1920s - a period of revolution, experimentation, vibrant expression and polemics. Focusing on the most important developments in literature, as well as on the intellectual debates they inspired, the course will also examine the major achievements in Ukrainian theater, visual art and film as integral components of the cultural spirit that defined the era. Additionally, the course also looks at the subsequent implementation of the socialist realism and its impact on Ukrainian culture and on the cultural leaders of the renaissance. The course treats one of the most important periods of Ukrainian culture and examines it lasting impact on today's Ukraine. This period produced several world-renowned cultural figures, whose connections with the 1920s Ukraine have only recently begun to be discussed. The course will be complemented by film screenings, presentations of visual art and rare publications from this period. Entirely in English with a parallel reading list for those who read Ukrainian.