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This archived information is dated to the 2008-09 academic year only and may no longer be current.
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Stanford Bulletin, Archive 2008-09
Stanford Bulletin, Archive 2008-09
Graduate courses in Slavic Literature
Primarily for graduate students; undergraduates may enroll with consent of instructor.
SLAVLIT 200A. Introduction to Russian Literary Scholarship
Required of first-year Slavic graduate students and honors students. Elements of literary work and principles of literary history. 20th-century Russian literary scholarship emphasizing Russian formalism and structuralism. The relationship of literary studies with the other areas of humanistic research such as linguistics, history, art criticism, semiotics, and cultural studies. Bibliographic and archival research.
3-4 units, Aut (Fleishman, L)
SLAVLIT 200B. Proseminar in Russian Literary Theory
Corequisite: 305.
1 unit, not given this year
SLAVLIT 203. Academic Russian
How to read and analyze secondary sources, formulate arguments, and present intellectual work in Russian. In Russian. Prerequisite: four years of Russian or equivalent.
3 units, not given this year
SLAVLIT 211. Introduction to Old Church Slavic
The first written language of the Slavic people. Grammar. Primarily a skills course, with attention to the historical context of Old Church Slavic.
4 units, Win (Timberlake, A)
SLAVLIT 212. Old Russian and Old Church Slavic
Continuation of 211. Readings in additional canonical Old Church Slavic texts, following the Church Slavic tradition as it develops in early Rus (Kiev, Novgorod). Selections from the Primary Chronicle, Boris and Gleb, The Life of Theodosius. The general issues of writing and the reception of Byzantine culture in early Rus.
3 units, not given this year
SLAVLIT 215. Russian Poetry after Brodsky
The Bronze Age of Russian poetry in the 70s-80s as a time of enthusiasm for poetic diction and achievement, attempts to reclaim connections with Russian and European traditions, and avant garde experimentation. The new metaphysics, the problem of the poet's self, new forms, and the limitations of the poetic domain. Poets include Leonid Aronzon, Victor Krivulin, Elena Shvartz, Ivan Zhdanov, Petr Cheigin, Gennadii Aigui, and Leonid Gubanov. Readings in Russian. Undergraduates require consent of instructor.
3-4 units, not given this year
SLAVLIT 225. Readings in Russian Realism
Open to graduate students and advanced undergraduates. Russian realist and naturalist prose emerged in a historical context that fostered specific ideas about the function and form of the literary word. Readings from Turgenev, Goncharov, Leskov, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Dostoevsky, Garshin, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Gorky, Bunin. Discussions in English.
4 units, not given this year
SLAVLIT 227. Boris Pasternak and the Poetry of the Russian Avant Garde
The works of Pasternak and his contemporaries Vladimir Mayakovsky and Marina Tsvetaeva; cultural context and the features of Russian avant garde poetics. Readings in Russian.
3-4 units, Win (Fleishman, L)
SLAVLIT 229. Poetry as System: Introduction to Theory and Practice of Russian Verse
(Same as SLAVLIT 129.) The history and theory of Russian versification from the 17th to the 20th century. Prerequisite: reading knowledge of Russian.
4 units, not given this year
SLAVLIT 269. Pushkin: Tying and Untying the Threads of the Golden Age
Graduate seminar. The formation of a simultaneously imperial and Enlightenment culture under Catherine the Great, and how Pushkin and his contemporaries realized its potentials and contradictions. Literary texts in light of other verbal discourses and artistic media; the field of 18th-century and imperial studies in Russia. Undergraduates require consent of instructor.
3 units, not given this year
SLAVLIT 270. Pushkin
Major poems and prose with detailed examination of his cultural milieu. Emphasis is on changes in the understanding of literary concepts relevant to this period of Russian literature (poetic genres, the opposition between poetry and prose, romanticism).
2-3 units, not given this year
SLAVLIT 272. Osip Mandelstam and the Modernist Paradigm
His poetry, prose, cultural criticism as an expression of Russian modernism in contexts including: symbolism, acmeism, and the avant garde; NEP culture; and Stalinism. Mandelstam's legacy in art and Russian postmodernism. Myth of the poet. The cultural paradigm of Soviet civilization. Knowledge of Russian desirable but not necessary. See http://www.stanford.edu/class/slavic272.
2-4 units, not given this year
SLAVLIT 279. Literature from Old Rus' and Medieval Russia
(Same as SLAVLIT 179.) From earliest times through the 17th century. The development of literary and historical genres, and links among literature and art, architecture, and religious culture. Readings in English; graduate students read in original.
4 units, not given this year
SLAVLIT 283. Readings in the Russian Press
(Same as SLAVLIT 183.) For students at the fifth-year Russian level. Advanced language training based on Russian newspapers and magazines. Discussion of issues regarding the Russian media and reading articles of a typical Russian press format.
4 units, not given this year
SLAVLIT 287. Russian Poetry of the 18th and 19th Centuries
(Same as SLAVLIT 187.) Required of majors in Russian language and literature; open to undergraduates who have completed three years of Russian, and to graduate students. The major poetic styles of the 19th century as they intersected with late classicism, the romantic movement, and the realist and post-realist traditions. Representative poems by Lomonosov, Derzhavin, Zhukovskii, Pushkin, Baratynskii, Lermontov, Tiutchev, Nekrasov, Fet, Soloviev. In Russian.
3-4 units, Spr (Fleishman, L)
SLAVLIT 289B. The Literature and Culture of Kievan Rus and Muscovy
Major works in all genres from Kievan Rus and Muscovy (11th through 17th centuries) in their original language. Literature, history, and culture of the period; seminar discussions of the texts. Prerequisite: SLAVLIT 211.
4 units, Spr (Staff)
SLAVLIT 299. Individual Work for Graduate Students
For graduate students in Slavic working on theses or engaged in special work. Prerequisite: written consent of instructor.
1-12 units, Win (Staff), Spr (Staff), Sum (Staff)
SLAVLIT 310. Civilizing Process: Paradigms of Society and Culture in Modern Russian Literature and Film
Texts representing theoretical models of society and culture in confrontation with works of Russian fiction and film. Emphasis is on Norbert Elias's civilizing process and related theories. Topics: body and desire (Freud, Bakhtin); manners and civilizing process (Elias, Cuddihy, Lotman); symbolic forms, ritual, and systems (Geertz, Zorin); identities and practices (de Certeau, Bourdieu); subcultures (Hebdidge). Authors include Mayakovsky, Babel, Mandelstam, Bulgakov, Platonov, Zoshchenko, Erofeev, Pelevin, Trifonov, and Petrushevskaia; film makers: Mamin and Rogozhkin. Recommended: knowledge of Russian.
2-4 units, not given this year
SLAVLIT 399. Advanced Research Seminar in Russian Literature
Follow-up to 200- or 300-series seminars, as needed. May be repeated for credit.
2-4 units, Aut (Staff), Win (Staff), Spr (Staff), Sum (Staff)
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