Russian
Students considering language study outside the Western European offerings will find Russian a refreshing change. In our first-year sequence we cover the fundamentals with equal emphasis on speaking, listening, writing, and reading. Traditional materials are supplemented by fairy tales, folk songs, rock music video, film clips and internet materials. By the end of Russian 204, students are able to read short prose by Chekhov, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy, and to communicate functionally with native speakers. Language courses beyond 204 address contemporary Russian cultural and social issues while focusing on skill development at the intermediate (205), and advanced level. Students with pre-college Russian, either acquired or native, should consult the department for placement information.
Literature and Cultural Studies
We teach a variety of courses in English translation with no prerequisites (230-295). Courses at the 330-395 level which are conducted entirely in Russian aim to expand students' linguistic range as well as their understanding of analytical techniques and cultural contexts.
Requirements for the Russian Major
66 credits, including the following:
- RUSS 205 (6 credits);
- RUSS 207 or 307 or the equivalent (4 credits);
- 12 credits in English: Russian courses conducted in English numbered 150 or above or CAMS 237
- 18 credits numbered 330 or above, six of which will normally be RUSS 395
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LCST 245 The Critical Toolbox (6 credits)
In consultation with their advisor, students may substitute a comparable methods course in a different field, including:Electives: 14 credits
- HIST 240 Tsars and Serfs, Cossacks and Revolutionaries: The Empire that was Russia (not offered in 2022-23)
- HIST 241 Russia through Wars and Revolutions
- HIST 242 Communism, Cold War, Collapse: Russia Since Stalin (not offered in 2022-23)
- HIST 341 The Russian Revolution and its Global Legacies (not offered in 2022-23)
- RUSS 204 Intermediate Russian
- RUSS 207 Russian at a Cultural Crossroad Program: Intermediate Grammar
- RUSS 208 Russian at a Cultural Crossroad Program: Intermediate Phonetics
- RUSS 209 Russian at a Cultural Crossroad Program: Intermediate Conversation
- RUSS 237 Beyond Beef Stroganoff: Food in Russian Culture
- RUSS 239 The Warped Soul of Putin's Russia
- RUSS 244 The Rise of the Russian Novel (not offered in 2022-23)
- RUSS 261 Lolita (not offered in 2022-23)
- RUSS 266 The Brothers Karamazov
- RUSS 267 War and Peace
- RUSS 280 1917 (not offered in 2022-23)
- RUSS 301 Current Events in the Russophone Media (not offered in 2022-23)
- RUSS 307 Russian at a Cultural Crossroad Program: Advanced Grammar
- RUSS 308 Russian at a Cultural Crossroad Program: Advanced Phonetics and Intonation
- RUSS 309 Russian at a Cultural Crossroad Program: Advanced Practicum
- RUSS 331 The Wonderful World of Russian Animation
- RUSS 332 Chekhov in Film, Film in Chekhov
- RUSS 341 From Folktale to Fanfiction: Russian Short Prose (not offered in 2022-23)
- RUSS 342 Post-Soviet Film (not offered in 2022-23)
- RUSS 345 Russian Cultural Idioms of the Nineteenth Century (not offered in 2022-23)
- the integrative exercise (6 credits)
Courses 101, 102 and 103 do not count toward the major.
Study Abroad: Participation in foreign study programs is highly recommended. Consult the "Off-Campus Studies" section of the catalog for a description of the Carleton Moscow Program. Departmental approval of credit for participation in non-Carleton overseas programs should be sought before leaving campus.
Language House: Students have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the language by living in Parish International House. A native Russian Language Associate provides opportunities for conversation practice and assists students in organizing a variety of cultural activities.
Requirements for the Russian Minor
36 credits with a grade of C- or better, including:
- RUSS 205 and
- 12 credits numbered 330 or above.
- Elective credits may be chosen from among
- other offerings in the Russian section,
- CAMS 237 and
- HIST 240-242, 341
Courses 101, 102 and 103 do not count toward the minor.
Russian Courses
RUSS 101 Elementary Russian For students with no previous training in or minimal knowledge of Russian. Simultaneous development of skills in speaking, reading, aural comprehension, writing. Students with prior instruction or who speak Russian at home should consult the department for placement information. Class meets five days a week. 6 credits; NE; Fall; Anna M Dotlibova, Laura Goering
RUSS 102 Elementary Russian Continues Russian 101. Prerequisite: Russian 101 or equivalent. 6 credits; NE; Winter; Anna M Dotlibova, Victoria Y Thorstensson
RUSS 103 Elementary Russian Concludes introductory method of Russian 101-102. Prerequisite: Russian 102 or equivalent. 6 credits; NE; Spring; Laura Goering
RUSS 107 Russian at a Cultural Crossroad Program: Beginning Grammar This course will focus on continued study of the fundamentals of Russian grammar, vocabulary expansion, and activation. This course is conducted by members of Kazakh National University's Philological Faculty and supervised by the program director. Prerequisite: Russian 102 or placement beyond Russian 102. 4 credits; NE; Spring; Victoria Y Thorstensson
RUSS 108 Russian at a Cultural Crossroad Program: Beginning Phonetics This course is taken in combination with Russian 107. Students focus on the essentials of Russian pronunciation with preliminary work in intonation. This course is conducted by members of Kazakh National University's Philological Faculty and supervised by the program director. Prerequisite: Russian 102 or placement beyond Russian 102. 2 credits; NE; Spring; Victoria Y Thorstensson
RUSS 109 Russian at a Cultural Crossroad Program: Beginning Conversation This course is taken in combination with Russian 107. Emphasis on socially relevant material. This course is conducted by members of Kazakh National University's Philological Faculty and supervised by the program director. Prerequisite: Russian 102 or placement beyond Russian 102. 3 credits; NE; Spring; Victoria Y Thorstensson
RUSS 204 Intermediate Russian Continued four-skill development using texts and resources from a variety of sources. Emphasis on communicative skills. Prerequisite: Russian 103 or equivalent. 6 credits; NE; Fall; Victoria Y Thorstensson
RUSS 205 Russian in Cultural Contexts In this course students continue to develop skills of narration, listening comprehension, and writing, while exploring issues of contemporary Russian life and consciousness. The issues are examined from the position of two cultures: American and Russian. The course draws on a variety of sources for reading and viewing, including the periodic press, film, and music. Prerequisite: Russian 204 or equivalent. 6 credits; IS, NE; Winter; Anna M Dotlibova
RUSS 207 Russian at a Cultural Crossroad Program: Intermediate Grammar This course aims at vocabulary expansion and the assimilation and activation of formulaic conversational structures and speech etiquette at the same time it develops familiarity with more complex principles of Russian grammar. This course is conducted by members of Kazakh National University's Philological Faculty and supervised by the program director. Prerequisite: Russian 205 or equivalent. 3 credits; NE; Spring; Victoria Y Thorstensson
RUSS 208 Russian at a Cultural Crossroad Program: Intermediate Phonetics This course is taken in combination with Russian 207. Students focus on the essentials of Russian pronunciation and correction. Preliminary work in intonation will be offered. This course is conducted by members of Kazakh National University's Philological Faculty and supervised by the program director.
3 credits; NE; Spring; Victoria Y Thorstensson
RUSS 209 Russian at a Cultural Crossroad Program: Intermediate Conversation This course is taken in combination with Russian 207. Emphasis will be placed on socially relevant reading materials. This course is conducted by members of Kazakh National University's Philological Faculty and supervised by the program director.
Prerequisite: Russian 205 or equivalent.
3 credits; NE; Spring; Victoria Y Thorstensson
RUSS 228 Russian at a Cultural Crossroad Program: Dialogues in the Russophone World In this course we will the address the problem of Russophonia and the changing role of the Russian language in the post-Soviet world. Through discussions of theoretical readings, literary texts and cultural artefacts, we will explore spaces for creative dialogues among writers and artists in the post-Soviet states and the Russophone diasporas. Topics will include the post-colonial search for identity in contemporary art; linguistic, gender and cultural hybridity in prose and poetry; imperial legacies, trauma and (post)memory in historical and auto-fiction; and connections between creative communities and ecological and political activism. Taught in English.
Prerequisite: Participation in OCS program in Qazaqstan.
6 credits; LA, IS; Spring; Victoria Y Thorstensson
RUSS 237 Beyond Beef Stroganoff: Food in Russian Culture How did the Russian peasant stove shape culinary culture? Why did Catherine the Great force her subjects to cultivate potatoes? How did the October Revolution change the way Soviet citizens ate? In this course we will study key aspects of Russian history and culture through the lens of culinary history. Topics will include: food and fasting in Russian Orthodoxy; food, class and power under the tsars; high Russian (or is it French?) culture of the nineteenth century; Soviet policies for feeding the worker; non-Russian cuisines in the Soviet Union; drinking culture and anti-alcohol campaigns; food and nationalism in the twenty-first century. Includes hands-on sessions on Russian food preparation. In English. 6 credits; HI, IS; Winter; Laura Goering
RUSS 239 The Warped Soul of Putin's Russia What is Russia’s problem? Why is the country famous for its great “soul” and culture waging a bloody war and becoming increasingly anti-Western? This course explores the cultural mythology that characterizes the state of contemporary Russian society and its “soul,” using critical approaches from trauma and memory studies, as well as theories of ressentiment and nostalgia. Authors to be studied include ideologues of Putin’s Russia (Surkov, Prilepin), its critics (Sorokin), and other writers, artists, and filmmakers who reflect, define, question, and challenge the direction in which country is moving and give it a cultural diagnosis. In English. 6 credits; LA, IS; Winter; Victoria Y Thorstensson
RUSS 244 The Rise of the Russian Novel From the terse elegance of Pushkin to the psychological probing of Dostoevsky to the finely wrought realism of Tolstoy, this course examines the evolution of the genre over the course of the nineteenth century, ending with a glimpse of things to come on the eve of the Russian Revolution. Close textual analysis of the works will be combined with exploration of their historical and cultural context. No prior knowledge of Russian or Russian history is required. 6 credits; LA, WR2, IS; Not offered 2022-23
RUSS 261 Lolita Rejected by every major publisher, first released in France in 1955 by a press known for pornographic trash, Vladimir Nabokov's scandalous novel about a middle-aged immigrant college professor obsessed with a twelve-year-old girl continues to feed controversy as well as to challenge and delight readers with its labyrinthian narrative, endless wordplay, innumerable intertextual allusions, and troublesome eroticism. In addition to reading the novel, we will focus on critical approaches that address the cultural clash underlying the ostensible plot, changing reception, and reception of the novel outside the US. Thus warned, you are invited to join the jury in deliberating the designs and delights of this twentieth-century literary classic. 3 credits; LA, WR2; Not offered 2022-23
RUSS 266 The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoevsky’s last novel, The Brothers Karamazov, is many things: a riveting murder mystery, a probing philosophical treatise, one of the best known novels in world literature, and a complex book worth reading and discussing with serious readers of diverse backgrounds. We will familiarize ourselves with the historical and philosophical context in which it was written, while grappling with the fundamental questions it raises: What does it mean to act morally? Why do humans so often act against their own best interest? How do we reconcile a world of chaos and suffering with the notion of a benevolent god? Conducted in English. Prerequisite: No prerequisites and no knowledge of Russian literature or history required. 3 credits; LA, IS; Spring; Laura Goering
RUSS 267 War and Peace Against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, Lev Tolstoy challenges readers to confront some of the most confounding questions of human existence: How can we reconcile the notion of free will with the seemingly ineluctable forces of history? Is individual moral action possible in war? How can we live a meaningful life in the face of inevitable death? And what might lie after death? In this course we read War and Peace in its cultural and historical context, while also considering how it continues to be relevant to our lives today. Conducted in English. Prerequisite: No prerequisites and no knowledge of Russian literature or history required. 3 credits; LA, IS; Spring; Laura Goering
RUSS 280 1917 Short texts in a variety of genres connected with the momentous events of 1917 provide the basis for continued development of reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. Prerequisite: Instructor permission required. Waitlist only. Russian 205 or 293 required. Not open to students who have received credit for a 300-level Russian course. 2 credits; NE, IS; Not offered 2022-23
RUSS 290 Russian at a Cultural Crossroads Program: Reading for Qazaqstan 3 credits; NE; Spring; Victoria Y Thorstensson
RUSS 301 Current Events in the Russophone Media In weekly meetings we will discuss in Russian current events taking place in Russia and around the world as reported by the Russophone online media. Emphasis will be on reading, listening, and conversation. Vocabulary building by topics; grammar as needed. Prerequisite: Completion of or concurrent registration in Russian 205 or instructor consent. 3 credits; NE, IS; Not offered 2022-23
RUSS 307 Russian at a Cultural Crossroad Program: Advanced Grammar This course combines advanced work in Russian grammar (largely corrective) and fundamentals in composition, with conversational Russian. Prerequisite: Six credits of Russian at the 300 level and participation in Russian OCS Program. 3 credits; NE; Spring; Victoria Y Thorstensson
RUSS 308 Russian at a Cultural Crossroad Program: Advanced Phonetics and Intonation This course is taken in combination with Russian 307. Students focus on corrective pronunciation and theory and practice of Russian intonation. This course is conducted by members of Kazakh National University Philological Faculty and supervised by the program director. Prerequisite: Six credits of Russian at the 300 level and Participation in Russian OCS program. 3 credits; NE; Spring; Victoria Y Thorstensson
RUSS 309 Russian at a Cultural Crossroad Program: Advanced Practicum This course aims at skill development in speaking and oral presentation as well as in limited forms of composition. It is taken in combination with Russian 307 and conducted by members of Kazakh National University Philological Faculty and supervised by the program director. Prerequisite: Six credits of Russian at the 300 level. 3 credits; NE; Spring; Victoria Y Thorstensson
RUSS 331 The Wonderful World of Russian Animation Beginning in the 1910’s, Russian and then the Soviet Union was home to some of the most creative and innovative animated films in the world. In this course we will examine selected animated shorts in the context of Russian history and culture. Topics to be considered include the roots of animated film in the folk tale, the role of cartoons in educating the model Soviet child, the language of Soviet colonial discourse, and the ways in which post-Soviet animated films perpetuated or subverted past traditions. Prerequisite: Russian 205 or consent of the instructor. 3 credits; LA, IS; Fall; Anna M Dotlibova
RUSS 332 Chekhov in Film, Film in Chekhov Chekhov’s literary oeuvre appeared at the same moment as the birth of cinematography, and the two are closely intertwined. His art rests on what Sergei Eisenstein called the central principle of film: montage, visuality, the constant changing of shots, and dislocation in time and space. It is no wonder that Chekhov’s stories were adapted for the screen in record numbers: to date we count 235 film adapatations plus 10 animated films. In this course we will read several of his best short stories, view films based on his works, and analyze the cinematographic qualities of Chekhov’s prose. Prerequisite: Russian 205 (previous or concurrent) or instructor's permission. 3 credits; LA, IS; Winter; Anna M Dotlibova
RUSS 341 From Folktale to Fanfiction: Russian Short Prose In addition to its well-known “doorstop novels,” Russia has a rich tradition of short fiction. This course presents a sampling of prose genres, from nineteenth-century classic folktales and short stories to contemporary works in which twentieth- and twenty first-century writers play with tradition. Conducted in Russian. Prerequisite: Russian 205 or the equivalent. 6 credits; LA, IS; Not offered 2022-23
RUSS 342 Post-Soviet Film This course focuses on the question of collective identity in post-Soviet cinema. Topics include the marginalization of “the other,” whether disabled, gay, hipster, migrant or elderly; the breaking down of the boundary between civil society and the criminal world; and the transformation of former “brothers” into outsiders. In light of current events in Ukraine, particular emphasis will be placed on films dealing with war. Conducted in Russian. Prerequisite: Russian 205 or instructor consent. 6 credits; LA, IS; Not offered 2022-23
RUSS 345 Russian Cultural Idioms of the Nineteenth Century An introduction to the names, quotations, and events that every Russian knows--knowledge which is essential to understanding Russian literature, history, and culture of the last two centuries. We will study the works of Russian writers (Griboedov and Pushkin, Leskov and Dostoevsky), composers (Glinka, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Tchaikovsky), artists (Briullov, Ivanov, the Itinerants) and actors (Mochalov, Shchepkin) in the context of social thought and the social movements of the nineteenth century. Conducted in Russian. Prerequisite: Russian 205 or permission of the instructor. 6 credits; IS, LA; Not offered 2022-23
RUSS 351 Chekhov A study of Chekhov's short fiction, both as an object of literary analysis and in the interpretation of critics, stage directors and filmmakers of the twentieth century. We will also examine the continuation of the Chekhovian tradition in the works of writers such as Bunin, Petrushevskaia and Pietsukh. Conducted in Russian. Prerequisite: Russian 205 or permission of the instructor. 6 credits; LA, IS; Not offered 2022-23