Russian

Students may complete a major or minor in Russian.

The Russian major is a multidisciplinary program designed to provide students with a broad understanding of Russian culture and the Russophone world. The major places a strong emphasis on the development of functional proficiency in the Russian language. Language study is combined with a specific area of concentration to be selected from the fields of Russian literature, history, economics, language/linguistics, or area studies.

College Foreign Language Requirement

The College’s foreign language requirement may be satisfied by completing RUSS B001 Elementary Russian Intensive and RUSS B002 Elementary Russian Intensive (or RUSS B101 Intermediate Russian/RUSS B102 Intermediate Russian, RUSS B201 Advanced Russian/RUSS B202 Advanced Russian, or RUSS B390 Russian for Pre-Professionals I/RUSS B391 Russian for Pre-Professionals II) with an average grade of at least 2.0. The department conducts placement tests for first-time students with previous Russian language study in the week before classes start in the fall semester. For any student interested in being placed, please reach out to Dr. Irina Walsh (iwalsh@brynmawr.edu).

Study Abroad

The Russian Department strongly recommends that majors study abroad for a summer, semester, or academic year in countries where Russian is spoken such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, or Armenia to maximize their language proficiency and cultural familiarity. We require formal approval by the department major adviser and Study Abroad office prior to the student’s travel. Without this approval, credit for courses taken abroad might not be given by the department and/or College. Russian courses taken abroad can, with the approval of the Russian Department, be counted toward the Russian major.

Domestic Summer Language Study Option

If study abroad is not practical, students may consider attending the Bryn Mawr Russian Language Institute or another approved intensive summer program offered domestically.

Senior Prizes

Graduating Seniors in Russian are eligible for the Elinor Nahm Prize in Russian Language and Linguistics or Elinor Nahm Prize in Russian Literature and Culture – prizes awarded for excellence in the study of Russian language and linguistics and of Russian literature and culture. The prizes carry a small award that is announced and celebrated at the annual Senior Awards Ceremony.

Major Requirements

A total of 10 courses is required to complete the major, which must include:

RUSS B102 (not required if the student is placed into a 200 or 300-level Russian language course, in which case one additional RUSS language course will help fulfill the ten-course minimum)
at least two language or content courses, taught in Russian at the 200 level (can include third-year Russian, RUSS B201/RUSS B202)
at least three content courses taught in Russian at the 300 level, including either RUSS B398 Senior Essay, or RUSS B400 Senior Essay
at least two area studies courses that are offered in history, literature, film, culture, taught in English
two additional RUSS courses, taught in Russian or English

Russian majors have the option of fulfilling the College’s writing requirement through Writing Attentive (WA) courses either through upper-level Russian language courses, where the focus is on writing in Russian, or through 200-level courses on Russian literature (in English), culture or film, where the focus is on writing in English. Majors also have the option of completing one WA course in Russian and one WA course in English.

Majors are encouraged to pursue advanced language study in a Russian-speaking country in summer, semester, or year-long academic programs. Majors may consider attending an approved intensive summer program offered domestically.

As part of the requirement for RUSS B398 or RUSS B399, all Russian majors take senior comprehensive examinations.

Course List
Code	Title	Units
A sample Russian major track:
RUSS B102	Intermediate Russian	1
RUSS B201	Advanced Russian	1
RUSS B202	Advanced Russian	1
RUSS B240	Russian through Art	1
RUSS B271	Chekhov: His Short Stories and Plays in Translation	1
RUSS B252	Love, Death, Justice, & Russian Literature	1
RUSS B365	Russian and Soviet Film Culture	1
RUSS B390	Russian for Pre-Professionals I	1
RUSS B391	Russian for Pre-Professionals II	1
RUSS B400	Senior Essay	1
Total Units		10

Honors

All Russian majors are considered for departmental honors at the end of their senior year. The awarding of honors is based on a student’s overall academic record, work done in the major, and intellectual engagement with Russian language and culture.

The departmental faculty awards honors based on superior performance in two areas: coursework in major-related courses (including language classes), and the senior thesis. The faculty requires a minimum 3.7 average in major-related coursework to consider a student for honors.

RUSS B001 Elementary Russian Intensive (1.5 Unit)

Study of basic grammar and syntax. Fundamental skills in speaking, reading, writing, and oral comprehension are developed. Seven hours a week including conversation sections and language laboratory work. Approach: Course does not meet an Approach; Haverford: A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts) (A), Humanities (HU) Enrollment Cap: 18; If the course exceeds the enrollment cap the following criteria will be used for the lottery: Freshman; Sophomore; Junior; Senior. Two additional hours of Conversation (per week) will be set according to students' schedules.

RUSS B001S Elementary Russian (1 Unit)

RUSS B002 Elementary Russian Intensive (1.5 Unit)

RUSS B002S Elementary Russian (1 Unit)

RUSS B101 Intermediate Russian (1 Unit)

Continuing development of fundamental skills with emphasis on vocabulary expansion in speaking and writing. Readings in Russian classics and contemporary works. Five hours a week

RUSS B101S Intermediate Russian (1 Unit)

RUSS B102 Intermediate Russian (1 Unit)

Continuing development of fundamental skills with emphasis on vocabulary expansion in speaking and writing. Readings in Russian classics and contemporary works. Five hours a week.

RUSS B102S Intermediate Russian (1 Unit)

RUSS B106 Intensive Survival Russian (1 Unit)

This course will be an intensive "crash" course in Russian for those enrolled in the 360 who have no prior experience studying or speaking Russian (those in the 360 who have studied the Russian language in the past will be expected to take a concurrent Russian language course at the College). This course will entail 5 hrs./week of elementary language instruction in Russian, with special emphasis on speaking skills needed for the trip.

RUSS B201 Advanced Russian (1 Unit)

Intensive practice in speaking and writing skills using a variety of modern texts and contemporary films and television. Emphasis on self-expression and a deeper understanding of grammar and syntax. Five hours a week.

RUSS B202 Advanced Russian (1 Unit)

RUSS B209 Russia and the East (1 Unit)

“We are Asians!,” famously declared the Russian poet Aleksandr Blok in 1918. Russian culture has long celebrated the nation’s close ties to the east as well as its ancient eastern heritage. From the time of Genghis Khan and the Mongolian yoke’s invasion of Kievan Rus’ in the 13th century to the present day and Vladimir Putin’s ongoing geopolitical pivot to the east, Russia has grappled with its eastern roots, its vast eastern expanse, and Sino-Russian relations. This course will explore a wide variety of cultural manifestations of Russia’s eastern orientation: Russian philosophy at the turn into the 20th century that emphasized Russia’s eastern, mystical focus; Russian symbolist poetry and prose that amplified Russia’s ties to the East; silent cinema of the 1920s that linked revolution to the East; non-fiction accounts of penal colonies and work camps scattered throughout Siberia (with particular emphasis on the work of Chekhov, Solzhenitsyn, Shalamov); late Soviet fiction probing life in rural Siberia; and contemporary Russian fiction that revisits Russia’s eastern mysticism. Exploring Russia’s ties to the East from a variety of historical, artistic, and social perspectives, this course aims to explore Russian culture’s Eurasian essence.

RUSS B212 Russian Literature in Translation (1 Unit)

This is a topics course. Topics vary. All readings, lectures, and discussions in English.

RUSS B216 The Soviet Thaw and Its Culture (1 Unit)

Named by famed Soviet writer Ilya Ehrenburg, the Thaw (Ottepel) was a brief period in Soviet history spanning the late 1950s and early 1960s, when social, political and cultural changes led to more openness and freedom in Soviet society. This course focuses on this brief, yet consequential time in Soviet history. The main text for the course will be the 2013 TV series The Thaw (dir. Valery Todorovsky). As we watch this show, we will discuss its major conflicts and the characters’ lives, and we will look into all the allusions to various Soviet texts and realia. As such, we will explore Stalin’s repressions, de-Stalinization, the rehabilitation of Stalin’s political prisoners, Gagarin’s orbiting of the Earth, the Cold War, Khrushchev’s policies during the Thaw, artistic movements, government censorship, and fashion. Through articles, literary and non-literary texts, documentaries and feature films, in addition to the TV series, participants in this course will expand their understanding of this time period in Soviet history and Russian culture in general. Participants will also compare and contrast culturally-accepted norms, behaviors, and taboos in Soviet Russia to those characteristic of contemporary Russian society. All texts and class interaction will be in Russian.

RUSS B220 Chornobyl (1 Unit)

This course introduces students to the Chornobyl nuclear disaster, its consequences, and its representations across a range of cultures and media through a comparative lens and as a global phenomenon. Culture meets ecology, science, history, and politics. Students will contribute to a digital exhibition and physical installation. Taught in translation. No knowledge of Russian required.

RUSS B222 Language Policy Issues and the Russophone World (1 Unit)

This course provides an introduction to the study of language policy and language planning in the countries where Russian is or has once been used. The course will offer a survey of current theoretical approaches to language maintenance, bilingualism and language shift, as well as language spread and language death. Having a rich history of language interaction, the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and post-Soviet Russia will be the major foci in this course. We will explore how Russian was often used as a tool for colonization. We will follow the development of various writing systems by Soviet linguists, mostly in the 1920s and 1930s. We will also look at the interactions between Russian and languages currently used in Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Baltic states, and in parts of the Russian Federation. All texts and class interactions will be in Russian.

RUSS B224 The Meaning of Life and the Russian Novel (1 Unit)

This course examines profound questions about the nature and purpose of human existence raised by preeminent 19th-century Russian authors such as Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Mikhail Lermontov, Karolina Pavlova, Ivan Turgenev, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Lev Tolstoy, and Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin. (Content varies somewhat each time the course is offered.) Topics include the definition of good and evil, the meaning of freedom, the role of rationality and the irrational in human behavior, power dynamics between individuals and in relation to the state, and the relationship of art to life. In reading and closely analyzing texts that became the foundation for the Russian novelistic tradition, we explore how these works and their contexts speak to contemporary issues, our lives, and eternal, accursed questions. No knowledge of Russian required. Open to all.

RUSS B226 Perestroika and the Collapse of the Soviet Union (1 Unit)

RUSS226 examines the last decade of the Soviet Union and its political, social, and cultural issues. You will learn about Brezhnev’s last years in the Politburo, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the summer 1980 Olympics in Moscow. Perestroika, or “rebuilding,” which began with Mikhail Gorbachev’s rise to power in 1985, shifted every aspect of living in the Soviet Union, including the economic situation, censorship, and ethnic tensions in the Soviet republics, and eventually led to the collapse of the Soviet Empire. Through prominent films and writing of the 1980s, you will gain an understanding of the Soviet system in its final stage. All texts and class interaction will be in Russian. Prerequisite: RUSS B201 or permission of instructor.

RUSS B227 Eurasia and its Ecology: Cultural & Historical Perspectives (1 Unit)

This course will explore the historical, social, and cultural significance of the environment in Russian literature and the visual arts. As the largest country on the planet and as a sprawling nation that covers almost a sixth of the world’s land mass, Russia has both cherished and exploited its vast forests and ample natural resources. Exploring Russian culture from an ecological perspective, we will delve into the fiction, poetry, cinema, and photography that has raised environmental issues or, in the opposite vein, has promoted rapid industrial development and a swift taming of Russia’s natural landscape for the sake of progress. To this day, Russian artists continue to grapple with the ecological state of the country and its fragile well-being.

RUSS B228 Russian Narratives of Displacement and Acculturation (1 Unit)

Russian narratives of the displaced include memoirs and essays written by those authors who had to immigrate and those who were exiled within their country. What information did these authors include in their narratives? And what did they omit? How did they show their lives within the bigger picture of their country’s present? Were they focused on adapting to the new settings or on contemplating the past in their writing? Through discussions of written texts, documentaries and feature films, as well as through interviewing Russophone immigrants about their experiences, we will deepen our understanding of narratives of displacement. We will also look at the mechanisms, stressors, and strategies that authors manifest as signs of acculturation, and eventually adaptation to the new culture or setting.

RUSS B232 Coal, Oil, Nuclear: Narrative Afterlives (1 Unit)

Coal. Oil. Nuclear energy. These items give shape to our everyday lives in countless ways. They impact our health, our politics, and our very survival on earth.. Nevertheless, because these resources permeate nearly every aspect of our existence, the human mind can struggle to comprehend them in their totality. In this course, we’ll explore texts that engage with our environment to help us bring humans’ relationship to these materials into focus. Scientific, historical, and economic studies tend to focus on their scale and widespread impact. Reading stories, watching

RUSS B233 Experimental Literature; or, Weird Stuff (1 Unit)

Stuck in a reading rut? Is the strange, the peculiar, the mind-shattering, the paradigm-shifting calling? Texts that imagine and generate changed perspectives, cultures, and lives? Reading a wide variety (multiple literatures, 20th- and 21st-centuries), we’ll investigate—gravely and playfully—what experimenting with/in literature means as well as experimental literature’s capacity in representing cultural margins. In particular, in which ways can experimental literature intersect with atypical attitudes and values, alternative lifestyles, and issues such as nature and land, Indigeneity, and gender? What makes the experimental enter the mainstream, and can they interact fruitfully? What happens at the very margins when writers use unusual techniques and styles? Let’s get weird. (Catch the Oulipo constraint in here?) Note: Taught in English. No knowledge of Russian language/culture necessary. Open to all.

RUSS B234 Ecological Displacement in Russophone Literature (1 Unit)

Our era of immense environmental upheaval is striking in its urgency and scale, but it is, of course, far from unprecedented. In this class, we’ll consider the effects of ecological displacement, both real and imagined as portrayed in Russophone literature; its ties to solastalgia, nostalgia, and the condition of exile; art as a form of conservation; and historical and environmental issues in the region.

RUSS B235 The Social Dynamics of Russian (1 Unit)

An examination of the social factors that influence the language of Russian conversational speech, including contemporary Russian media (films, television, and the Internet). Basic social strategies that structure a conversation are studied, as well as the implications of gender and education on the form and style of discourse. Prerequisite: RUSS B201, RUSS 102 also required if taken concurrently with RUSS 201.

RUSS B237 Crime or Punishment: Russian Narratives of Incarceration (1 Unit)

This course explores Russian narratives of incarceration, punishment, and captivity from the 17th century to the present day and considers topics such as social justice, violence and its artistic representations, totalitarianism, witness-bearing, and the possibility of transcendence in suffering. Taught in English. No knowledge of Russian language/culture necessary. Open to all.

RUSS B240 Russian through Art (1 Unit)

Course examines visual art in the Russian Empire of the 19th and early 20th century, in the Soviet Union, and in the Post-Soviet space. You will learn about major Russian-speaking painters and their work, as well as about important museums, collectors, and exhibits, both in and outside of Russia. You will learn about peredvizhniki, Mir iskusstva, avantgarde artists, socialist realism in art, Sots-Art, the Lianozovskaya group, and other important movements in the history of art in the last two hundred years. All texts and class interaction will be in Russian.

RUSS B252 Love, Death, Justice, & Russian Literature (1 Unit)

This Inside-Out course will be conducted inside a correctional institution and will bring inside (SCI Chester) and outside students (BMC) into dialogue. Can Russian novels and short stories help us understand our lives? We’ll closely read and analyze works by several Russian authors and discuss how they each treat themes including life, death, family, love, the individual and society, generational conflicts, crime and punishment, and power dynamics. Finally, our broad goal will be to explore how these texts speak to contemporary issues, our lives, and eternal problems that all of humanity faces—what Russians call the “accursed questions.”

RUSS B258 Soviet and Eastern European Cinema of the 1960s (1 Unit)

This course examines 1960s Soviet and Eastern European “New Wave” cinema, which won worldwide acclaim through its treatment of war, gender, and aesthetics. Films from Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Russia, and Yugoslavia will be viewed and analyzed, accompanied by readings on film history and theory. All films shown with subtitles; no knowledge of Russian or previous study of film required.

RUSS B265 Queer Russias (1 Unit)

This course presents an alternative vision of Russia’s cultural legacy with a focus on queer writing, film, and art from the early nineteenth century to the present day. We consider key moments in this history by examining texts that explore what it has meant to be queer in Russia under different regimes with various levels of tolerance, while centering their power as works of protest art, personal expression, and creative exploration and experimentation. Topics includes: queer masculinities and femininities, reproductive rights, pop and Internet cultures, queer joy, homophobia and protest, trans rights, queerness and disability, marriage, among others. Taught in English. No knowledge of Russian language/culture necessary. Open to all.

RUSS B271 Chekhov: His Short Stories and Plays in Translation (1 Unit)

A study of the themes, structure and style of Chekhov’s major short stories and plays. The course will also explore the significance of Chekhov’s prose and drama in the English-speaking world, where this masterful Russian writer is the most staged playwright after Shakespeare. All readings and lectures in English.

RUSS B277 Nabokov in Translation (1 Unit)

A study of Vladimir Nabokov’s writings in various genres, focusing on his fiction and autobiographical works. The continuity between Nabokov’s Russian and English works is considered in the context of the Russian and Western literary traditions. All readings and lectures in English.

RUSS B316 Russian and Soviet Short Story (1 Unit)

This new Russian language course will explore the nature and evolution of the Russian short story from the beginning of the 19th century through the beginning of the 21st century. We will begin with the stories of Pushkin and Gogol and continue with Garshin who proved instrumental in developing the genre to its modern form. Students will then read stories by Chekhov, Bunin, Nabokov, Babel, Shukshin, Tolstaya, Pelevin — writers with distinguished voices who introduced a variety of groundbreaking themes, characters, and plots and whose art reveals the possibilities of the genre. All the readings and discussion will be in Russian.

RUSS B317 Power and the Poet: Resistance and Otherness in Russian, Sov (1 Unit)

In Imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet Russia, literature and, later, cinema have served to augment voices calling for freedom and non-conformism in opposition to censorship and oppression. Vis-à-vis these calls for freedom, the concept of the Other has always occupied a prominent space in the Russian collective mindset, as well as in literature and art. Evoking the broad image of the writer, artist, philosopher, and thinker in Russian culture and embodying Otherness, the poet has often challenged Russian society to confront difficult issues. This course will examine how the so-called poet’s Otherness has been imagined and depicted in Russian prose and poetry, cinema and media, and in the culture as a whole. By questioning underlying assumptions in Russian culture, students will explore the processes of constructing and representing the Other in terms of ethnicity, social class, sexual orientation, and dissidence. Conducted in Russian

RUSS B319 Advanced Russian through Current Events (0.5 Unit)

This course offers an exploration of contemporary social, political, ecological, and cultural issues in Russia and on the territories of former Soviet Republics. By working with authentic materials, including articles and video clips, students will solidify Advanced-level reading, listening, writing and speaking skills (ACTFL 2012). All texts and class interactions will be in Russian.

RUSS B365 Russian and Soviet Film Culture (1 Unit)

This seminar explores the cultural and theoretical trends that have shaped Russian and Soviet cinema from the silent era to the present day. The focus will be on Russia’s films and film theory, with discussion of the aesthetic, ideological, and historical issues underscoring Russia’s cinematic culture. Taught in Russian. No previous study of cinema required, although RUSS 201 or the equivalent is required.

RUSS B380 Seminar in Russian Studies (1 Unit)

An examination of a focused topic in Russian literature such as a particular author, genre, theme, or decade. Introduces students to close reading and detailed critical analysis of Russian literature in the original language. Readings in Russian. Some discussions and lectures in Russian. Prerequisites: RUSS 102 and one 200-level Russian literature course.

RUSS B390 Russian for Pre-Professionals I (1 Unit)

This capstone to the overall language course sequence is designed to develop linguistic and cultural proficiency in Russian to the advanced level or higher, preparing students to carry out academic study or research in Russian in a professional field. Suggested Preparation: study abroad in Russia for at least one summer, preferably one semester; and/or certified proficiency levels of 'advanced-low' or 'advanced-mid' in two skills, one of which must be oral proficiency.

RUSS B391 Russian for Pre-Professionals II (1 Unit)

Second part of year long capstone language sequence designed to develop linguistic and cultural proficiency to the “advanced level,” preparing students to carry out advanced academic study or research in Russian in a professional field. Prerequisite: RUSS 390 or equivalent.

RUSS B398 Senior Essay (1 Unit)

Independent research project designed and conducted under the supervision of a departmental faculty member. May be undertaken in either fall or spring semester of senior year.

RUSS B399 Senior Conference (1 Unit)

Exploration of an interdisciplinary topic in Russian culture. Topic varies from year to year. Requirements may include short papers, oral presentations, and examinations.

RUSS B400 Senior Essay (1 Unit)

RUSS B403 Supervised Work (1 Unit)

COML B213 Theory in Practice: Critical Discourses in the Humanities (1 Unit)

What is a postcolonial subject, a queer gaze, a feminist manifesto? And how can we use (as readers of texts, art, and films) contemporary studies on animals and cyborgs, object-oriented ontology, zombies, storyworlds, neuroaesthetics? By bringing together the study of major theoretical currents of the 20th century and the practice of analyzing literary works in the light of theory, this course aims at providing students with skills to use literary theory in their own scholarship. The selection of theoretical readings reflects the history of theory (psychoanalysis, structuralism, narratology), as well as the currents most relevant to the contemporary academic field: Post-structuralism, Post-colonialism, Gender Studies, and Ecocriticism. They are paired with a diverse range of short stories across multiple language traditions (Poe, Kafka, Camus, Borges, Calvino, Morrison, Djebar, Murakami, Ngozi Adichie) that we discuss along with our study of theoretical texts. We will discuss how to apply theory to the practice of interpretation and of academic writing, and how theoretical ideas shape what we are reading. The class will be conducted in English, with an additional hour taught by the instructor of record in the target language for students wishing to take the course for language credit.

ITAL B216 Body and Mind (1 Unit)

In this course, we will explore representations of the relationship between body and mind, starting from 19th-century Russian novels that conceptualize love as a physical ailment and ending with the history of Alzheimer’s disease. Talking about the relationship between body and mind will allow us to investigate how gender roles and models of womanhood and masculinity shaped the evolution of modern sciences, from psychiatry to obstetrics. Investigating how bodies have been (and continue to be) read, we will discuss systems created to police societies by cataloguing bodies, from Lombroso’s phrenology to modern fingerprinting and face recognition softwares. Finally, we will consider how our understanding of the relationship between body and mind has changed over time. Many of the theories we will discuss during the semester are now considered outdated pseudo-science - but how can we conceptualize the difference between science and pseudo-science? As new categories and disease designations appear to substitute the old ones, which are the implications of creating a label for a constellation of existing symptoms? The course will be taught entirely in English. There will be an optional hour in Italian for students of Italian.

ITAL B318 Falling Statues: myth-making in literature, politics and art (1 Unit)

We have become accustomed to the rituals of the dismissal of the heroes of the past: we tear down statues, we rename buildings and places. But how did we get there? How, why and by whom are heroes constructed? When old heroes are questioned, what substitutes them? How are the raise and fall of heroes tied to shifting models of masculinity, womanhood, power and the state? In this course, we will explore these questions focusing on Italy and Russia, two countries that in the 19th and 20th century went through several cycles of construction and deconstruction of their political heroes. In the first part of the course, we will investigate the codification of the “type” of the freedom-fighter in the representations of the protagonists of 19th-century European revolutionary movements, focusing on the links between the Italian Risorgimento and the anti-Tsarist movement in Russia, culminating in the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. From the pamphlets that consecrated the Italian Garibaldi as the “hero of the two worlds” to the autobiographies of the Russian terrorists and the transcripts of their trials, we will investigate myth-making as a constitutive part of political movements and reflect on the models of masculinity and womanhood at the foundation of the “typical” revolutionary hero. In the second part of the semester, we will focus on Stalinism and Fascism, systems that exploited their revolutionary roots to mobilize supporters in favor of oppressive institutions. Finally, we will discuss the many ways in which 19th - and 20th-century heroes have been confronted, neutralized, dismantled – and the many ways in which their models still haunt us. We will focus on literary texts and political speeches, but we will also analyze propaganda posters, movies, paintings, photographs, monuments and even street names. For your final project, you will have the option of building on our class discussions to explore myth-making in contemporary movements or forms of deconstruction of existing heroes.

Academic Catalog