Spring 2013

Undergraduate Courses

Language Courses

BCS 403 SLN 11044

FIRST-YEAR BOSNIAN-CROATIAN-SERBIAN Daily 11:30 – 12:20 Website: click on title

Instructor: Belić 5 credits

During this course you will learn the basic skills necessary for communicating in BCS (speaking, listening, reading, and writing). You will also learn about Balkan cultures and increase your ability to use effective strategies for language learning and communication. In addition to becoming a proficient speaker of BCS, I hope that you will become a skilled language learner and develop a curiosity about and love for Slavic cultures.
Prerequisite: BCS 402 or permission of the instructor

CZECH 403 SLN 12731

FIRST-YEAR CZECH Daily 11:30 – 12:20

Instructor: Soldanova 5 credits

This three-term sequence (401-402-403), running from Autumn through Spring, is intended as an intensive introduction to the Czech language. Because of the small size of the classes, courses move at a faster pace than the normal introductory language sequence. The general objective is that at the completion of the one-year sequence students should be able to be creative with the language at the sentence level, handle basic everyday life situations, read simple connected texts dealing with basic personal and social needs, write short simple letters, postcards, diary entries, take down simple notes (e.g., phone messages), etc. The goal is to move from Novice to Intermediate Low/Mid level on the ACTFL Proficiency Scale. Prerequisite: CZECH 402 or permission of instructor

CZECH 406 SLN 12732

SECOND-YEAR CZECH MWF 12:30 – 2:20

Instructor: Soldanova (VLPA) 5 credits

The second-year sequence in Czech language is designed as a completion of the formal study of the grammar of the language, supplemented by extensive readings from a variety of areas, emphasizing cultural and ethnic heritage. Emphasis is placed upon oral and compositional skills. The student is expected to write brief reports and to prepare oral classroom presentations. Prerequisite: 405 or permission of instructor.

POLSH 403 SLN 18270

FIRST-YEAR POLISH Daily 12:30 – 1:20

Instructor: Untersteiner 5 credits

Polish 403 is the third class in a three-quarter sequence of first-year (beginning) Polish. At the completion of the sequence, the students should be able to be creative with the language at the sentence level, handle basic everyday life situations, read simple connected texts dealing with basic personal and social needs, write short letters, postcards, take down simple notes (e.g., phone messages), etc. The goal is to move from Novice to Novice High/Intermediate Low on the ACTFL Proficiency Scale. There are field trips to the Polish Hall, the Polish store, and the Polish Film Festival. There are also opportunities to volunteer at UW Polish Studies Endowment Committee events. Prerequisites: POLSH 402 or permission of instructor

Please note that first-year and second-year Polish language courses are taught in alternate years.
Second-year Polish will be offered Fall 2013.

RUSS 103 SLN 18627 SLN 18628 SLN 18629

FIRST-YEAR RUSSIAN Daily 9:30 – 10:20 Daily 10:30 – 11:20 Daily 12:30 – 1:20

Coordinator: Belić 5 credits

During this course students will learn the basic skills necessary for communicating in Russian (speaking, listening, reading, and writing). Students will also learn about the Russian culture and increase their ability to use effective strategies for language learning and communication. In addition to becoming proficient speakers of Russian, students taking this course will become skilled language learners as they develop a curiosity about Slavic cultures. Prerequisite: RUSS 102 or permission of instructor

RUSS 203 SLN 18631

SECOND-YEAR RUSSIAN Daily 11:30 – 12:20

Coordinator: Zaitseva (VLPA) 5 credits

The second-year sequence in Russian (RUSS 201-202-203) is a comprehensive review of grammar with continuing oral and compositional practice. Emphasis on oral presentation, composition, and conversation with careful attention to grammatical and idiomatic usage and vocabulary development. Prerequisite: RUSS 202 or permission of instructor

RUSS 303 SLN 18634

THIRD-YEAR RUSSIAN Daily 11:30 – 12:20

Instructor: Polack (VLPA) 5 credits

The third-year sequence in Russian (RUSS 301-302-303) is intended to provide the student with extensive practice in spoken and written Russian based on a variety of prose readings. Intensive review and supplementation of strategic grammatical concepts, such as verbal prefixation, aspect, impersonal sentences, conditional mood, word order, indefinite pronouns, and reflexive verbs. Conducted in Russian. Prerequisite: RUSS 302 or permission of instructor

RUSS 304 SLN 18635

RUSSIAN READING AND TRANSLATION Friday 10:30 – 11:20

Instructor: West (VLPA) 1 credit CR/NC only

Russian reading and translation, with emphasis on developing full and accurate comprehension of unedited materials from newspapers, journals and books on current affairs, economics and politics. Primarily for graduate students in the REECAS M.A. program and the REECAS track of the European Studies undergraduate major, but useful for students in Russian studies and a variety of disciplines, including business, with varying levels of Russian. Prerequisite: Two years of Russian or permission of instructor.

RUSS 313 SLN 18636

BUSINESS RUSSIAN Tue, Thu 1:30 – 3:20

Instructor: Zaitseva (VLPA) 5 credits

Emphasizes the language and practice of business in Russia today. Prerequisite: either RUSS 203 or RUSS 250.

RUSS 403 SLN 18638

FOURTH-YEAR RUSSIAN Daily 9:00 – 10:20

Coordinator: Polack (VLPA) 5 credits

The fourth-year program in Russian (RUSS 401-402-403) begins the analysis of styles in the literary language. Readings are chosen from a variety of classical and contemporary works, from belles-lettres and poetry, and from journalism and non-artistic prose. Attention is especially paid to syntax, particularly the composition of compound and complex sentences and peculiarities of word order. Rhythm and intonation are stressed in oral recitation. One day per week is devoted to developing advanced written comprehension and translation skills. Prerequisite: RUSS 402 or permission of the instructor.

SLVN 404 SLN 18710

SECOND-YEAR SLOVENE LANGUAGE Mon, Wed 2:30 – 4:20

Instructor: Biggins (VLPA) 3 credits

Reinforces and expands foundational knowledge of Slovene language through grammatical topics and exercises, reading of authentic texts, composition, listening, oral presentations, and conversation. Prerequisite: SLVN 402.

Literature and Culture in English Translation

POLSH 420 SLN 18271

CONTEMPORARY POLISH CINEMA AND CULTURE Tue, Thu 9:30-11:20

Instructor: Mikołajczyk (VLPA) 5 credits

There are a number of Polish movie directors you may have heard about, like Polanski or Kieslowski, but contemporary Polish cinema is far richer than one might imagine. After the collapse of communism in 1989, movie directors in Poland seriously doubted whether the political change was real and, consequently, they produced a number of action movies, such as The Pigs by Wladyslaw Pasikowski, in which a corrupt and degenerate world ruled by mafia and former members of communist regime was darker than that portrayed in either The Godfather or The Fight Club. Then the artists started to discuss the economic problems Poland had to deal with, which is why Krzysztof Krauze shot The Debt, what may be called a Polish version of American Psycho. Recently Wojciech Smarzowski, a new star of Polish cinema, has dealt in his movies with troubled Polish history, creating works comparable to the Coen brothers’ films. We will discuss all of these movies and many others in the context of contemporary Polish culture and politics. All films have English subtitles.

RUSS 120 SLN 18630

FOOD MTWTh 11:30 – 12:20

Instructor: Alaniz (VLPA) 5 credits

Food is much more than something to put in your mouth for nourishment; it is a cultural object of over-arching significance. This course examines food in Russian literature, cinema, art and memoir. Relying on the critical writings of Food Studies scholars such as Michael Pollan and others, we will consider food in the Russian context, from the Middle Ages to the post-Soviet era, delving into such matters as table manners; excess; holidays; vegetarianism; communal dining; Soviet home economics; and hunger throughout Russian history. We will pay special attention to the particular artistic challenge of representing food in the literary and visual arts, and how Russians have responded. The reading list includes Nikolai Gogol, Leo Tolstoy, Mikhail Bulgakov, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Vladimir Sorokin and Lyudmilla Petrushevskaya.

RUSS 223 SLN 18632

CONTEMPORARY RUSSIAN CINEMA M W F 9:30 – 11:20

Instructor: Alaniz (VLPA) 5 credits

How has cinema reflected Russia’s fortunes since the 1991 dissolution of the USSR? The tumultuous post-Soviet era saw the collapse of the Russian film industry; the domination of the market by foreign (especially American) product; and the slow return of the industry as the country’s economy recovered under the Putin administration. We will consider the differences between Western and Russian filmmaking practices; explore Russian cinema’s major themes, genres, auteurs and technological changes of the last 21 years; and produce our own film criticism. Students can expect to view, read and write about films by Nikita Mikhalkov, Kira Muratova, Alexander Sokurov, Alexei Balabanov, Yevgeny Yufit, Timur Bekmambetov and others. All movies and readings in English.

RUSS 240 SLN 18633

NABOKOV Tue, Thu 2:30 – 4:20

Instructor: Diment (VLPA) 5 credits

The course is devoted to the greatest American novels by Vladimir Nabokov: Pnin, Lolita, and Pale Fire. We will also read some of his stories of this period, as well as his autobiographical writings. All readings, discussions, and papers are in English.

RUSS 323 SLN 18637

20TH CENTURY RUSSIAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE Lecture MTWTh 12:30-1:20

Instructor: Diment (VLPA/I&S) 5 credits Optional “W” credit

Come take a sweeping tour of the dynamic literary and cultural scene of 20th/21st-century Russia, from the Bolshevik Revolution, Diaspora and Socialist Realist period, through the purges and post-Stalin ‘Thaw’, to the Stagnation, Perestroika and Post-Soviet eras! Lectures and discussion will focus not only on important literary texts of the 20th/21st centuries, but also on relevant films, music and paintings. Authors discussed include: Isaac Babel, Ilf and Petrov, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Yury Olesha, Andrei Platonov, Mikhail Bulgakov, and Vladimir Nabokov.

RUSS 420 SLN

SEX, SAINTS, SATANISM, SAVAGERY AND SYNAESTHESIA: THE SEAMY SIDE OF THE SILVER AGE IN RUSSIAN CULTURE Tue, Thu 10:30 – 12:20

Instructor: West (VLPA) 5 credits

The culture of the Silver Age in Russia, from the 1880s to the Revolution, was described by its detractors as “Decadence,” and many of the figures involved accepted the label. This was not just a thoughtless enjoyment of scandal: the Russian Symbolists were a seriously philosophical group, and all of these S-words had a place in their world-view. This course looks at prose and poetry, painting and music, both naughty and nice but always in some sense serious, in the three decades before the Russian Revolution. The material covered will include prose by Leonid Andreev (The Thought, 1902), Andrei Belyi (Petersburg, 1911-21), Artsybashev (Sanin, 1904-07), Sologub (The Petty Demon, 1902-05), poetry by Blok, Balmont, Briusov, Ivanov and others, selections from the philosophy of Vladimir Soloviev, Nikolai Berdiaev and Viacheslav Ivanov, paintings of Vrubel, Roerich and Bakst, and music of Stravinsky and Skriabin. Readings are in English, but students who can read the Russian originals are encouraged to do so, and students familiar with the contemporary culture of Europe are particularly welcome.

RUSS 423 SLN 18639

CONTEMPORARY RUSSIAN CINEMA M W F 9:30 – 11:20

Instructor: Alaniz (VLPA) 5 credits

How has cinema reflected Russia’s fortunes since the 1991 dissolution of the USSR? The tumultuous post-Soviet era saw the collapse of the Russian film industry; the domination of the market by foreign (especially American) product; and the slow return of the industry as the country’s economy recovered under the Putin administration. We will consider the differences between Western and Russian filmmaking practices; explore Russian cinema’s major themes, genres, auteurs and technological changes of the last 21 years; and produce our own film criticism. Students can expect to view, read and write about films by Nikita Mikhalkov, Kira Muratova, Alexander Sokurov, Alexei Balabanov, Yevgeny Yufit, Timur Bekmambetov and others. All movies and readings in English.

SLAV 490 SLN 18703

THE POST-WORLD WAR II EUROPEAN NOVEL Tue, Thu 2:30-4:20

Instructor: Crnković (VLPA) 5 credits

The course will focus on novels whose distinctive quality is their setting in a different, mostly past era. Readings will include a selection from the following group of texts: John Fowles’ The French Lieutenant’s Woman, George Orwell’s 1984, Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day, Meša Selimović’s Death and the Dervish (one of the very few European novels engaging the Quran on a number of levels), and Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being. We will examine how and why these novels choose a non-contemporary setting, and what they achieve by invoking late premodern, Victorian, early twentieth-century, or relatively recent historical periods (such as the World War II or the 1960s), or else by creating a dystopian image of future. While the course engages with some major theories of the novel (e.g., by Frye or Bakhtin, from McKeon’s edited volume), it will chiefly be centered on an in-depth study of the literary works.

UKR 420 SLN 19878

THE UKRAINIAN NOVEL Tue, Thu 1:30-3:20

Instructor: Rewakowicz (VLPA) 5 credits

This course covers the Ukrainian novel from the mid-nineteenth century to the present and focuses especially on those works that challenge established narrative conventions through the introduction of new themes, concepts, and techniques. The evolution of the novel form will be presented within a wider historical, political, and social context. Whenever possible we will also examine screen adaptations of the selected novels. Topics to be considered include identity construction, gender relations, regionalism, ideology, and postcolonialism. The reading list consists of novels by P. Kulish, M. Kotsiubynsky, O. Kobylianska, V. Pidmohylny, V. Shevchuk, Y. Andrukhovych, O. Zabuzhko, T. Prokhasko and S. Zhadan. Lecture/discussion format, with quizzes, short papers, presentations and take-home exam.

Slavic Linguistics

LING 200

NEW REQUIREMENT LING 200 is now a prerequisite for both RUSS 451 and for SLAV 351.

SLAV 351, required for all EELLC majors and Slavic Language minors, and RUSS 451, required for all RUSSIAN majors now have a prerequisite: LING 200 available in the Linguistics Department. RUSS 451 is offered each Winter quarter. SLAV 351 is offered each Spring quarter. If you are planning on enrolling in RUSS 451 or SLAV 351, you will need to have taken the prerequisite LING 200 before being admitted to either course.
Visit http://depts.washington.edu/lingweb for information on LING 200.

SLAV 351 SLN 18700

HISTORY OF THE SLAVIC LANGUAGES Mon, Wed 1:30 – 3:20

Instructor: Belić (VLPA) 5 credits

Introduction to the history of Slavic languages from the beginnings to the present time, including sound changes, morphology, vocabulary and the development of writing systems. Cross-listed with SLAV 551

SLAV 425 SLN 18701

WAYS OF MEANING: UNIVERSAL AND CULTURE-SPECIFIC ASPECTS OF LANGUAGE Wed, Fri 12:30 – 2:20

Instructor: Dziwirek (VLPA) 5 credits

This course addresses how people talk to each other in different languages, to what extent the language we speak determines who we are, and the relationship between language and thought, culture, & national identity. We will discuss moral concepts, friendship and love, freedom, homeland, politeness and rudeness, and gender. No prerequisites.

SLAV 470 SLN 18702

WHAT’S IN A LANGUAGE NAME? THE CASE OF BOSNIAN, CROATIAN, MONTENEGRIN, AND SERBIAN Tue, Thu 12:30 – 2:20

Instructor: Belić (VLPA) 5 credits

This course examines various phenomena related to the Serbo-Croatian language, on the one hand, and, on the other, to the Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian languages. Concepts such as language death and language birth are explored. The relationship between dialect and language is analyzed. Notions of language politics, language standardization, and language codification in general and specifically in the Balkans are considered. Structures of Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian are briefly addressed for purposes of making linguistic comparisons. No prior knowledge of the language(s) is necessary since most readings are general and students may work on any language(s) of their choice.

Independent Undergraduate Study

SLAVIC 498 RUSS 499 SLAV 499

SENIOR HONORS THESIS DIRECTED STUDY OR RESEARCH DIRECTED STUDY OR RESEARCH

3-9 credits (See Honors Assoc.) 1-5 credits 1-5 credits

Departmental permission is required to register for these courses, and applications are available in Smith M253.

Graduate Courses

RUSS 501 SLN 18642

RUSSIAN LANGUAGE FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS Mon, Thu 10:30 – 11:20

Instructor: Polack 2 credits

Develops language skills of particular use to graduate students. Emphasis on rapid assimilation of a variety of written materials with sophisticated understanding and maximum retention of vocabulary, and ability to discuss in Russian the more theoretical and abstract kinds of material. Prerequisites: 403 or equivalent and graduate standing in Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies.

RUSS 523 SLN 18643

20TH CENTURY RUSSIAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE MTWTh 12:30-1:20

Instructor: Diment 5 credits

Come take a sweeping tour of the dynamic literary and cultural scene of 20th/21st-century Russia, from the Bolshevik Revolution, Diaspora and Socialist Realist period, through the purges and post-Stalin ‘Thaw’, to the Stagnation, Perestroika and Post-Soviet eras! Lectures and discussion will focus not only on important literary texts of the 20th/21st centuries, but also on relevant films, music and paintings. Authors discussed include: Yevgeny Zamyatin, Yury Olesha, Andrei Platonov, Mikhail Bulgakov, Valentin Katayev, Vladimir Nabokov, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Tatyana Tolstaya, Viktor Pelevin and Roman Senchin.

RUSS 542 SLN 18644

SEMINAR IN RUSSIAN POETRY Mon, Wed 2:30 – 4:20

Instructor: West 5 credits

Russian poetry from Pushkin to the present day, including modern techniques for poetry analysis and the place of poetry in Russian culture as a whole. Students must read, in Russian, the literary works involved, and some other works on the social, historical, and philosophical backgrounds that have inspired Russian poets.

RUSS 543 SLN 18645

NABOKOV Tue, Thu 2:30 – 4:20

Instructor: Diment 5 credits

The course is devoted to the greatest American novels by Vladimir Nabokov: Pnin, Lolita, and Pale Fire. We will also read some of his stories of this period, as well as his autobiographical writings. All readings, discussions, and papers are in English.

SLAV 551 SLN 18705

HISTORY OF THE SLAVIC LANGUAGES Mon, Wed 1:30 – 3:20

Instructor: Belić 5 credits

Introduction to the history of Slavic languages from the beginnings to the present time, including sound changes, morphology, vocabulary and the development of writing systems. Cross-listed with SLAV 351
Please note: students wishing to take this course in Spring 2011 or after will need the newly required pre-req: LING 200, or permission of the instructor.

SLAV 570 SLN 18706

WHAT’S IN A LANGUAGE NAME? THE CASE OF BOSNIAN, CROATIAN, MONTENEGRIN, AND SERBIAN Tue, Thu 12:30 – 2:20

Instructor: Belić 5 credits

This course examines various phenomena related to the Serbo-Croatian language, on the one hand, and, on the other, to the Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian languages. Concepts such as language death and language birth are explored. The relationship between dialect and language is analyzed. Notions of language politics, language standardization, and language codification in general and specifically in the Balkans are considered. Structures of Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian are briefly addressed for purposes of making linguistic comparisons. No prior knowledge of the language(s) is necessary since most readings are general and students may work on any language(s) of their choice.

RUSS 600 SLAVIC 600 SLAVIC 800

INDEPENDENT GRADUATE STUDY/RESEARCH INDEPENDENT GRADUATE STUDY/RESEARCH DOCTORAL DISSERTATION

1-5 credits 1-5 credits 1-9 credits

Departmental permission is required to register for these courses, and applications are available in Smith M253.