Slavic Languages and Literatures

Almost 30 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, what can we understand about its culture and people, and its impact on the popular imagination in the West? To answer these questions, the course introduces students to canonical literary and cinematic works from the post-Stalin era to the present, with particular attention to the literary and cultural peripheries. Some of the topics will include: Gulag, or Return of the Repressed, Counter-Culture, Space Race, Immigration, Gender, Perestroika, and Putin’s Russia. All readings in English. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

What makes literature ‘visible’? How do the verbal and the visual coexist? This seminar explores the relationship between words and images, texts and pictures through history, in Russia and the West. Special attention will be paid to the figure of the artist. Is it a writer’s alter ego, the incarnation of creativity, or just a character among others? Literary texts (mainly short stories) from Balzac and Gogol to Chekhov and O. Henry, Maugham and Bunin, Nabokov and Camus will be studied along with the paintings of some major 19th-20th century artists. The comparative dimension of the course will help students contextualize Russian literature and think about its relationship with the Western canon. We will also watch some 21st century films about artists (such as Julie Taymor’s Frida [2002], Milos Forman Goya’s Ghosts [2006], and Mike Leigh Mr. Turner [2014]). All texts will be in English. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

In its long history Russia has fought numerous wars, both defensive and offensive, and these wars have inspired a rich, complex, contradictory poetic response. We examine Russian war narratives starting with the medieval period and ending with the Second World War and including epic poetry, songs, stories, novels, paintings, and films. We will study the depiction of war and the image of the soldier (or warrior) in different genres and time periods, as well as the historical circumstances in which the different works were produced and the respective audiences for which they were intended. All texts will be in English. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

The course examines the genesis and evolution of the image of the Jew, central to all European cultures, from the theology and psychology of Christian anti-Judaism to their reflection in folklore, visual, plastic, and verbal arts, and to the survival of the imaginary Jew in secular forms. Special attention is given to the Jews of Slavic and East European imagination. All readings are in English. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

Slav singers of heroic tales about war, lust, honour and revenge have made a special contribution to our appreciation of classical literature and mythology. We will compare Slavic epics and African-American rap songs to reveal the connection between Homer's Iliad and Nas's iconic Illmatic, between the mythical image of the pagan goddess Aphrodite and the mystique of Nicki Minaj, Lauryn Hill, and other iconic singers today. As we read The Iliad closely, we will study songs from the Russian, Bosnian Muslim, Croatian and Serbian traditions. Employing new performance formulaic theory, we will learn that they share much, in melody and message, with the work of today's hip-hop artists, whose roots of rap "flowing" reach back to the beginnings of Western literature and the epic singers of ancient Greece. Students will have the opportunity to interact with a unique online multimedia edition of an epic song by a traditional Slavic singer.

No knowledge of languages other than English is required. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

Galicia was an invented province of Austria-Hungary, created at the first partition of Poland in 1772. From the moment of its creation, it stimulated a very wide range of literary representations. As if to mirror its invented political status, the Galicia that appears in fiction is a world of fantastic wonders, strange delights, and ferocious terrors. Whether in Austrian, Jewish, Polish, or Ukrainian national imaginations, Galicia is a place with a uniquely hybrid culture. We explore this imaginary place through the writings of Ivan Franko, Joseph Roth, Stanislaw Lem, Bruno Shultz, Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch, Andrzej Stasiuk and other authors from a variety of traditions.

The course focuses on the cultural understanding of geography with a specific focus on a place where a variety of national cultures interact.

A number of short assignments offer students an opportunity to develop and polish their writing skills. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

A survey of major East Slavic civilizations through art, architecture, literature and religion. Includes the Scythians, whose battle skills and gold fascinated the ancient world; Kyivan Rus’ and its princes, monks and martyrs; the rise of the Cossacks; and Peter the Great, founder of the Russian Empire and of St. Petersburg. Taught in English, all readings in English.

A survey of Slavic civilizations through literature, art, architecture, and film. Key moments in the development of the cultures of Slavic countries are examined in a comparative framework, juxtaposing the varied historical, cultural, linguistic, religious, social, and political developments of the countries involved. Taught in English, all readings in English.

This course examines the cultural history of Mediterranean ports and cities, with particular emphasis on Croatian cities in dialogue with cities in Italy and Greece, through works of art, architecture, and literature. Readings in English.

Introduction to the issues of the interaction between cultural expression and political life, with a historical focus on 1968 in Central and Eastern Europe. The mutually influential relationship between artistic activity and political dynamics in modern societies is examined through literature, visual arts, drama, music, and film. Taught in English, all materials in English.

How does one cope with loss, be it a nose, a leg, a pet, a name, a lover, a battle, a fortune, or one’s sanity? Through literary texts from Central and Eastern Europe, we explore the trauma and poetics of losing, and the mechanisms of coping with and compensating for the lost object. Taught in English, all readings in English.

Literature about the Jewish community in Slavic countries. How do these Jewish minorities perceive and identify themselves? How are they perceived by others?  Taught in English, all readings in English.

The role of forgery in cultural, national, and personal identities. A scholar “discovering” an “ancient” manuscript, a noblewoman in disguise joining the army, an impostor conning a provincial town, a writer faking political loyalty. Literary texts from Central and Eastern Europe expose the porous boundaries between authenticity and lies, highlighting the artificiality and vulnerability of social and cultural conventions. Taught in English, all readings in English.

A course for students of Czech and Slovak, BCS and Russian. Improve your writing skills in a group of different Slavic language learners. Learn simple creative writing in different genres. This course presents a catalogue of different methods and strategies for individual learners at various stages of writing in a foreign language. Complements rather than substitutes for intermediate and advanced levels of the languages taught.

Both in popular culture and the headlines, Roma (Gypsies) are often depicted as either romantic or negative. Roma and Slavs have interacted for centuries and this course examines the history of that interaction with particular emphasis on linguistic and educational rights. Taught in English, all readings in English.

Beginning with myth and legends of Medieval Central Europe and concluding with discourses of Enlightenment, we explore aspects of oral and written cultures, fine arts and architecture. The class examines myths, legends, and traditions of the region, which will help to illuminate similarities and divergences of several cultural trends.

Exploring the ways artificial creatures are presented on stage and on screen, this course introduces students to major issues in the study of theatre, cinema, and popular culture. Focus on case studies from Central and Eastern Europe. Taught in English, all readings in English.

Evolution of the book and printed media in Central and Eastern Europe: legends (and forgeries) of ancient letters, mediaeval illuminated manuscripts, forbidden and "supernatural" books, hand-written and painted books of modernist and avant-garde artists, books as a way of living and dying. Readings in English.

The course introduces the student to the exploration of linguistic relations among Slavic languages and dialects, as well as to language contacts between Slavic and its neighbours. Language is viewed in connection with history, geography, mythology and religion, family and social structure, literature, and alphabets.  Taught in English.

An introduction to the comparative study of folk narratives – fairy-tales, legends, epics, from Russia, Central and Eastern Europe, and the Balkans. Topics include the structural and psychological analysis and interpretation of oral folk traditions; the cultural specificity of Slavic folklore; its adaptation and treatment in literature, music, and visual arts. Taught in English, all readings in English.

Focusing on great dramatic texts of Russia and Central Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries allows us to address the issues of dramatic form, theatre conventions, and performance practices while placing the texts in their rich cultural contexts. The interplay between literary and theatre and performance analysis returns us to some fundamental theoretical issues related to the questions about drama as an art form.

How are Cossacks depicted in literary and visual works? Were they the agents of a repressive Russian government, the hirelings of Polish kings, the tormentors of Eastern European Jews, the protectors of Europe from the Ottomans, or the liberators of the Ukrainian nation? We read works from the Jewish, Polish, Russian and Ukrainian cultural traditions.

Introduction to geography, languages, people, literature, and the history of Russian Asia. Includes readings in history, exile narratives, articles on the linguistic geography of the languages of Russia including Russian, Siberian languages such as Yakut and Tungus, Turkic languages of Central Asia, Korean and Chinese as minority languages, with a special focus on language contact and language politics.

Shaped by the experience of two world wars, two totalitarianisms, and several revolutions, continental sci-fi is known for its radical and uncompromising thought experiments and daring aesthetics. Discussing works by Evgenii Zamiatin, Karel Capek, Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky, Fritz Lang, HG Wells, Stanislaw Lem, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Jacek Dukaj among others, we examine the consequences of science, technology and social engineering pushing individuals beyond their human limits.

This class investigates the tropes associated with the European south (including the Balkans and the Mediterranean) as it figures in collective northern fantasies – eternal sun, exuberant passion, intransigent honor – and the more somber themes that they obscure including: economic crises, social inequalities, political exploitations, identity conflicts. The course asses how such issues are represented, addressed, negotiated and symbolically resolved in film and literature.

The course examines the genesis and evolution of the image of the Jew, central to all European cultures, from the theology and psychology of Christian anti-Judaism to their reflection in folklore, visual, plastic, and verbal arts, and to the survival of the imaginary Jew in secular forms. Special attention is given to the Jews of Slavic and East European imagination. All readings are in English.

An exploration of Central and East European authors writing in different languages but united by Jewish ancestry. We examine the responses of artists and intellectuals of Jewish extraction (Sholem Aleichem, Babel, Bialik, Heine, Kafka, Mandelshtam, Sforim, Zhabotinskii, etc.) to cultural secularization and modernity. Taught in English. Readings in English.

Captivating and elusive: the "new Jerusalem," Yehupets, a "Slavic Pompeii" and frontier city. This course examines Kyiv through works of literature, visual arts, architecture, and popular culture that reveal Ukrainian, Russian, Jewish, and Polish versions of the city.  Gogol, Sholem Aleichem, Bulgakov, Vynnychenko, and many others. Taught in English, all readings in English.

Inspired by Angelo Ripellino’s “Magic Prague,” this class explores Prague as a palimpsest of different genres in works by Jan Neruda, Franz Kafka, R.M. Rilke, G. Meyrink, G. Apollinaire, B. Hrabal and others. Selected secondary texts illuminate questions of literary cityscapes, center and margins, multiculturalism and nationalism and magic. Readings in English and for the specialists in the original.

Structure and history of the first Slavic literary language. Reading and linguistic study of Old Slavonic texts.

Synthesis of visual arts, music, and literature in the late Russian Empire-early Soviet Union. Baba Yaga's hut and levitating sculptures; symphony in words and the language of stars; from princesses and puppets to the first peeks into the fourth dimension. Kandinsky, Bely, Zamyatin, Malevich, and many others. Taught and read in English.

Trends in the history of European animated film, focusing on Central and Eastern European cinematic traditions. Aesthetics of animated image and peculiarities of animation as an art form. Films are analyzed in their artistic, cultural and political contexts. Taught in English, English subtitles.

This course examines the era inaugurated by the collapse of the state-socialist regimes in the former Eastern Bloc, marked by political turmoil, major economic restructuring, and social ambivalences. The course investigates topics such as: socialist legacy and nostalgia, mass emigrations and refugee crises, conflicts over national identity and borders, sociocultural anxieties about inclusion in the EU, perspectives on the future of socialist thought and practice in Eastern Europe.

In this course we will examine the multi-faceted nature of language policy, language standardization, language contact and conflict. While focus will be on states that arose from the Former Soviet Union and the languages of Central and Southeastern Europe, discussion will open to cover a broad range of language issues, including, for example orthography shifts here in Canada and around the world, including China, Korea, Japan, and India. We will explore issues such as language standards, language rights, language conflict, languages of education, writing systems and linguistic identity.

A study of the major issues of general aesthetics from the vantage points of Russian Formalism and Prague Structuralism. The course provides students with a theoretical grounding in textual and cultural analysis, introducing them to the history of modern literary and cultural criticism and aspects of artistic conventions and innovations. Taught in English, readings in English.

Prague Linguistic Circle (founded in 1926) has informed a number of current theories of drama, theatre, and cinema. Many concepts of the Prague School semiotics provide tools how to analyze and address modern artistic trends even today. We will apply some of them to selected dramatic and cinematic works.

A year-long research project (primarily for majors in Slavic POSts) on an approved major topic in a Slavic literature or culture, or Slavic linguistics, supervised by one of the Department’s instructors. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

A semester-long research project (primarily for majors in Slavic POSts) on an approved major topic in a Slavic literature or culture, or Slavic linguistics, supervised by one of the Department’s instructors. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

Grammar, composition, and conversation. Readings from Czech literature. Open only to students with little or no knowledge of the language.

Using selected texts of diverse styles, this class surveys Czech grammar and introduces various aspects of syntax, composition and translation. Special attention will be paid to oral practice.

Some of the most important features of Czech and Slovak cultural history are introduced in a survey of the national myths, traditions and cultural trends. (Offered every three years)

Czech and Slovak cinema of the sixties, generally known as the Czechoslovak New Wave, represents the ways the cinematographers viewed the past, examined the present and escaped into the world of fantasy. In addition, we will examine several theoretical, historical and cultural aspects of national culture and international cinematography.

This class explores the subversive power of literary, cinematic, and theatrical experiments of the 1960s and confronts them with the development of Czech culture during the so-called normalization that lasted until 1989. Topics include literary texts, cinema, and fine arts at home and in exile.  Taught in English, readings in English and in the original.

The experiments of the 1920s serve as a point of departure for studies in Czech culture from the early 20th century to the present artistic innovations. Readings include works by Jaroslav Seifert, Karel Teige, Karel _apek, F. Langer, V. Nezval, M. Kundera, V. Linhartová and others. (Offered every three years). Readings in Czech.

Texts of various genres representing several cultural epochs.  Advanced students improve their reading skills.

For 2016 Winter: Václav Havel - a thinker, politician, and writer. Havel is one of the most complex European characters on political and theatrical stage. His multifaceted oeuvre includes essays, plays and speeches. This class will approach the complexity of his oeuvre and explore his development as a writer, public figure and a politician in the context of the recent political, literary and cultural history. 

Readings in English (Czech for majors).

The course focuses on the topic of public places and private spaces in the works of 19th- and 20th-century Czech writers. A variety of texts by modern Czech authors are explored through the prism of contemporary narrative theory. Special attention to differences in styles and epochs.

This course explores the role of theatre and drama in Czech society by focusing on the most important modern Czech plays as well as on the concepts of the modern Czech theatre as represented by directors such as Burian, Honzl, Krej_a and Radok. We will discuss seminal theoretical studies and topics such as dialogue, dramatic text, and puppet theatre. Taught in English, readings in English.

The course is aimed at a wide range of students with a general interest in Polish but no prior knowledge. A communicative based approach will be used throughout the course, where all four skills (speaking, reading, listening, and writing) will be practised, with the main emphasis on speaking. Students will engage in interactive language activities, participating in group and pair work according to a syllabus based on systematic grammatical progression.

The course is aimed at a wide range of students with a general interest in Polish who have already completed SLA106H or who have comparable basic knowledge of Pol. A communicative based approach will be used throughout the course, where all four skills (speaking, reading, listening, and writing) will be practised, with the main emphasis on speaking. Students will engage in interactive language activities, participating in group and pair work according to a syllabus based on systematic grammatical progression.   

Students who completed SLA106H and SLA116H or who have comparable basic knowledge of Polish further develop their speaking, listening, reading and writing skills by revising, consolidating and building on their knowledge. Upon completion, they will be able to communicate in more advanced everyday situations and have substantial familiarity with Polish grammar.

Students with a general interest in Polish who have completed SLA206H1 or who have a comparable level of Polish further develop their speaking, listening, writing, and reading skills by revising, consolidating, and building on their knowledge. Upon completion, they will be able to communicate in more advanced everyday situations and have substantial familiarity with Polish grammar. 

Major cultural traditions, historical processes, myths, and figures that have shaped and redefined Polish civilization and national identity are problematized and contextualized with the help of works of literature, history, philosophy, political science, music, visual and performing arts. Readings in English (also available in Polish). (Offered in alternate years)

The Polish School in cinema, its predecessors and successors, their artistic accomplishments, major theoretical and thematic concerns, and their place on the map of European cinema. Films of Ford, Wajda, Polanski, Konwicki, Borowczyk, Has, Kawalerowicz, Zanussi, Kieslowski, and of the new generation of Polish film makers. Films and discussions in English. (Offered every three years)

We examine the most important aspects of Polish historical experience and cultural identity by looking at ten iconic images from Polish culture. These images may include a historical painting by Matejko, a photo of the Solidarity strikes in 1980, a screenshot from a Wajda film, or a literary passage from a Gombrowicz novel. Apart from serving as an introduction to Polish cultural studies, this course provides students with analytical tools to read diverse cultural texts. This is a blended course combining online modules with four on-site discussion meetings per semester.

Poland and Europe 1914-1945.  As we commemorate the centenary of the outbrake of WWI, this cataclysmic event that launched the 20th century and was followed by another total war soon after still defines our view of the world and understanding of it. It may be time now to look anew at how various forms of expression, including literature, film, theatre, painting and sculpture produced during the two wars, between them or many decades later deal with the extreme and everyday experiences, with shattered worlds of individuals, ethnicities, and nations.

Through a series of thematic modules based on everyday communicative situations in contemporary Poland students develop Polish language skills in the four linguistic competencies: listening, reading, writing, and speaking. The course is based on a communicative-functional approach to language. It means that even though students are regularly exposed to new grammatical structures, their work focuses primarily on practical, diverse uses of language in real-life situations. 

Students expand their practical knowledge of Polish by engaging with online media and current issues in culture and society. They enrich their vocabulary, grammatical structures, and use of diverse stylistic registers while fine-tuning reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills.

Probes the paradoxes of politics, culture and everyday life by analyzing the complex coexistence of art and literature with changing cultural politics in a totalitarian and post-totalitarian system, with simplistic ideology and political dissent, and with prevailing myths about the West and the East. Readings in English (Polish for majors).

The amazing cultural transformations of Poland in the last fifteen years within a changing Europe. The impact of these changes on Poland's social consciousness and perception of identity, history, and nationhood. The most recent literature, fine arts, music, and popular culture. Readings in English (Polish for majors).

Study of drama as a literary and theatrical genre in its thematic and formal diversity in Polish literature from the 16th to the 20th century is combined with investigations of the role of the theatre as cultural institution in different periods of Polish history. Readings in English (in Polish for students in the major program). (Offered every three years)

Polish language course for heritage speakers and advanced students who want to master the language through interactions with broad and diverse cultural materials such as mass and popular culture, contemporary literature, film, and theatre, mass media and the Internet.

The fourth year seminar whose specific topic is decided depending on the needs of the students and the interests of guest and permanent instructors.

An advanced course on artistic, political, aesthetic, philosophical, and ideological dissenters who questioned, undermined, and redefined the main traditions in Polish culture from the 18th to the 21st centuries.Readings in English (Polish for majors).

Basic features of the grammar. Acquisition of essential vocabulary for practical conversation and for comprehension. Development of reading and writing skills. (May not be taken by students who, in the judgment of the Department, qualify for entry into SLA210H1 or SLA220Y1).

Basic features of the grammar. Acquisition of essential vocabulary for practical conversation and for comprehension. Development of reading and writing skills. (May not be taken by students who, in the judgment of the Department, qualify for entry into SLA210H1 or SLA220Y1).

Russian Cultural History in Twelve Images An introductory survey of Russian cultural history through key images, exploring the historical, intellectual, artistic, and mythical significance of these images in Russian cultural identity and in foreign perceptions. Among the images are: Rublev’s “Trinity,” The Bronze Horseman, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, and Tatlin’s Tower. Taught in English, readings in English. No prior familiarity with Russian language or culture is expected.

This course is designed for students with Russian background, students raised in homes where Russian is/was spoken, who speak or merely understand basic Russian but are otherwise illiterate in Russian (cannot/have difficulty reading or writing). This course helps heritage learners of Russian develop/maintain writing and reading skills as well as develop cultural literacy. (Online course in 2011-2012).

Emphasis on expansion of vocabulary, developing conversational and listening skills, and intensive practice in real-life situations. Offered as part of Summer Program in Russia. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

Introduction to the Russian novelistic tradition at the height of its creative power. We examine the Russian novel’s universal appeal and influence, and its impact on modern art and thought. Authors may include (depending on instructor) Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Belyi, Nabokov, Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn. Taught and read in English.

Continuation of development of proficiency in speaking, reading, listening and writing.  Review the basic and learning of new grammatical and syntactical structures, study of word formation and acquisition of active vocabulary. Reading of classical, contemporary, adapted, and non-adapted literary and mass-media texts. Culture and listening through animation.

A course on practical phonetics. Get your Russian sounds right. Improve your intonation. Reduce your foreign accent.

This course explores the writings of Russian authors of Jewish origin. Subjects include: assimilation; identity; the existence or non-existence of Russian – Jewish literature. The works studied may vary from year to year.

Usually offered during the summer through the Woodsworth Summer Abroad program. Content varies from year to year based on instructor. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

A survey of the Russian cinematic tradition from its beginnings through the first decade following the disintegration of the USSR. The course examines the avant-garde cinema and film theory of the 1920s; the totalitarian esthetics of the 1920s-1940s and the ideological uses of film art; the revolution in film theory and practice in the 1950s-1960s; cinema as medium of cultural dissent and as witness to social change. Students also acquire basic skills of film analysis. Taught in English, all films subtitled in English.

The course examines the development of the nineteenth-century European novel in terms of changing representations of the family, with the Russian literary tradition as a case study. Topics include the aristocratic family, illegitimacy, adultery, social and political conflict, and the family as locus of inherited madness, degeneracy, and criminality. All readings in English.

A survey of Russian literature from1820-1900. Topics include: Romanticism and Realism; the myth of St. Petersburg; the Russian Empire and its borders; the individual and society; man and nature; the “woman question”; freedom and rationality. Readings may include: Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Goncharov, Tolstoi, Turgenev, Dostoevskii, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Chekhov. Taught and read in English.

An exploration of the elements of the short story through close readings of works by 19th and 20th century writers. Stories in translation by Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Olesha, Babel, and others.  All readings in English.

Chronologically organized and covering a period of ten centuries, from the eleventh to the twenty-first, the course has a special focus, the rendering of space and perspective. Beginning with the so-called “reverse perspective” of Russian Icons and the devotional world of churches and cathedrals, continuing with the geometrically organized, rational space of the 18th century and St. Petersburg, and moving on to the distorted reality of the Russian avant-garde and Socialist Realism’s attempt at reproducing reality “as it is,” the course concludes by asking where this oscillating acceptance and rejection of illusion leaves us in the 21st century. Consideration of paintings, buildings, sculptures, selected literary texts and films.

A survey of Russian-French intellectual, literary, and artistic contacts and mutual influences, from the 18th through the 20th centuries. Topics may include: transnational circulation of genres, styles, aesthetic programs, philosophical concepts, and political ideas; cultural tourism; cultural appropriation and misreading; direct contacts between French and Russian intellectual and artistic elites. Lectures in English. Students taking the course from the French Department will read the texts in French, have tutorials in French, and write assignments in French. All others will read texts in English, have tutorials in English, and write assignments in English.

History and Literature were always interconnected in Russia. Writers not only sought to reflect the society around them, but were themselves often social critics and political figures. The course examines key texts in Russian literary tradition both as works of art and as primary sources for the historian. All readings in English.

Survey of major movements and institutions, familiar and less studied writers and intellectuals of the first half of the nineteenth century. Imperial culture between and within Europe and Asia. Romanticism as literary movement, cultural ideology, and lifestyle. Emergence of literature as profession and public sphere. Literature and nationalism. Taught in English, all readings in English.

Survey of major movements and institutions, genres, familiar and less studied writers and intellectuals of the second half of the nineteenth century. Imperial culture in the reform era. Realism as literary movement, professionalization of literature and criticism, the novel and serialization, the short story and drama. Taught in English, all readings in English.

Fantastic and grotesque works by the most hilarious, obsessive, and delusional character in Russian literature, who teased, fascinated, and polarized readers. Gogol’s writings are examined through various theoretical approaches. Includes cinematic (Taras Bulba, Viy, Overcoat) and musical (Shostakovich’s “Nose”) re-creations of Gogol’s works. Taught in English, all readings in English.

A study of Vladimir Nabokov's novels written in Europe and the United States. Special attention is paid to the nature and evolution of Nabokov's aesthetics; the place of his novels in European and American literary traditions; Nabokov's creative uses of exile to artistic, philosophical and ideological ends; the aesthetic and cultural implications of the writers' switch from Russian to English. Novels studied: Defense, Despair, The Gift, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, Lolita, Pnin, Pale Fire. Taught in English, all readings in English.

Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, and short works. Dostoevsky's political, psychological, and religious ideas as they shape and are shaped by his literary art. Readings in English. Taught in English, all readings in English.

War and Peace or Anna Karenina, and some shorter works. Tolstoy's political, psychological, and religious ideas as they shape and are shaped by his literary art. Taught in English, all readings in English.

A survey of Russian culture and history of the 20th century through non-adapted readings and film. Development of advanced speaking, reading, listening and writing skills on a wide variety of topics. Work on grammar and vocabulary building. Subordinate and relative clauses, aspect, verbs of motion, participles and gerunds. Class is conducted primarily in Russian.

Expansion of vocabulary and development of conversational skills. Discussion of a variety of topics (history, culture, art, politics, law, social and economic problems, contemporary events). Class is taught in round-table format.

Language, life and the media in contemporary Russia. The course will be based on reading Russian newspapers, listening to Russian media, and discussing contemporary events in Russia.

This course introduces Russian's sounds, structures, and alternations.  Russian’s tricky morphologic alternations and their historical causes are explored while students master the hidden encoding of forms through study of the writing system, root structures, and variation.

An examination of the understanding and practice of film genre in Russian and Soviet cinema. Various genres and generic hybrids – comedy, melodrama, action, war, horror, fantasy, etc. – are studied in the context of critical literature on the problem of film genre and against the backdrop of international cinematic traditions. Taught in English, all films subtitled in English.

We will study Russian public spectacles from the eighteenth century imperial court festivities all the way through the Revolutionary festivals of the 1920s. We will also look at the 2003 celebration of the 300 year anniversary of St. Petersburg and the 2014 Sochi Olympics.  Special emphasis on those figures who influenced twentieth century theatre and film in the West (such as Konstantin Stanislavsky, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Sergei Diagilev).  All readings in English.  No knowledge of Russian required.

A survey of artistic and intellectual life in the USSR from the post-Stalinist “Thaw” period to the collapse of the Soviet empire and its cultural aftermath in the 1990s. Topics include: the recovery of suppressed cultural memory; the fluid boundaries between official and unofficial cultures; internal and external exile; Aesopian language; alternative modes of creation and dissemination (samizdat, tamizdat, unauthorized exhibitions and concerts, etc.); Russian conceptualism and post-modernism. Taught in English, readings in English.

A history of Russian modernist culture from the 1890s to 1940. Topics include: Russia’s fin-de-siècle art and thought in European context; the aesthetic and philosophical evolution of Russian modernism as a cultural community; modernist experiments in literature; conservative reactions to modernism before and after the communist takeover in Russia; the modernist strategies of survival. Taught and read in English.

Selected stories, plays; stylistic, structural, and thematic analysis, literary and historical context, influence in Russia and the West.  Taught in English, all readings in English.

Explores the development of the types of writing (e.g. chronicles, vitae, epics, tales, poetry) used to capture the cultural, political, religious, and aesthetic experiences of Mediaeval Rus' from the 11th to 17th century. Readings in English. Where appropriate, majors will read some excerpts in the original.

A survey of Russian Culture from the tenth century to the early nineteenth century. Topics may vary by year. Includes literature, music, art, architecture, dance, film, history and politics. Taught in Russian, all readings are in Russian. Fosters advanced language skills of conversational fluency, listening comprehension, writing and composition, expanded vocabulary, recognition of stylistic registers, and advanced syntax. Students will read literary and non-literary texts as well as watching contemporary films and television programs.

The course helps advanced heritage learners further to develop their active command of Russian. Special focus on speaking and writing skills, as well as cultural competence. Taught in Russian, all materials in Russian.

Historical phonology, morphology, accentuation of Russian in its East Slavic context. Further topics include dialectology and historical syntax. Readings of a variety of Old Russian-East Slavic texts in the original.

Select lyrical poetry, narrative poems, drama, and prose. Topics may include: poet and society; poetry, nation, and empire; Pushkin’s life, death, afterlife, and cultural mythologies; Pushkin in visual arts, music, and film. Readings in Russian.

A continuation of SLA404H1. Survey of Russian culture from 1917 to the present. Topics may vary by year. Includes material on literature, music, art, architecture, dance, film, history and politics. Taught in Russian, all readings in Russian. The course fosters advanced language skills of conversational fluency, listening comprehension, writing and composition, expanded vocabulary, recognition of stylistic registers, and advanced syntax. Students will read literary and non-literary texts and watch contemporary films and television programs.

The prose, poetry and dramaturgy of the most prominent literary figures of the eighteenth century, including Karamzin, Lomonosov, Fonvizin, Derzhavin and Krylov; aspects of literature during the reign of Peter I; literature and satirical journalism during the reign of Catherine II. (Taught in Russian)

Syntactic structures and their relation to meaning and style, word order, intonation. Consolidation of morphology, vocabulary building through extensive reading. Translation, composition, and oral practice.

A study of the main principles of Russian prosody (meter, rhythm, rhyme, phonetic instrumentation, verse, stanza, genre) in relation to the creation of meaning of a poetic text. The formal aspects of Russian versification are examined in their historical evolution from the 18th century to the present, in both "classical" and "experimental" poetic modes. Taught in Russian, readings in Russian and English.

A survey of the golden age of Russian poetry with special attention to the evolution of verse forms and poetic genres. In this course students acquire advanced skills in the close reading of poetic forms and in their contextual historical analysis and interpretation. Taught in Russian, readings in Russian and English.

War and Peace in depth, and from various points of view, literary, political, philosophical, historical, and psychological. Various critical approaches; cognate literary works. Students are expected to have read the novel before the course begins. Readings in English.

The course will support students in gaining proficiency in presentational mode and in improvement of language competence for communication in academic contexts. Students will elevate their skills to the advanced level. Emphasis is on grammatical structures, syntax, lexicon, content organization, construction of complex presentation and expression of scholarly ideas and critical thought with accuracy and consistency in use of the Russian language. Offered online only.

Anna Karenina in depth, and from various points of view, literary, political, philosophical, historical, and psychological. Various critical approaches; cognate literary works. Students are expected to have read the novel before the course begins. Readings in English.

Explores Dostoevsky’s works through the lens of Russian and Western novel theory. Theorists include: Viacheslav Ivanov, Georg Lukacs and Mikhail Bakhtin. Topics include: genre, history and modernity; the novelistic narrator; novelistic plot; novelistic narrative; time and space; the generic history and prehistory of the novel; the novel and the self; the novel’s relation to the present; novelistic subgenres including the Bildungsroman; the novel’s simultaneous status as fragment and totality; and the particular and the universal in novelistic representation. Taught in English, readings in either Russian or English.

Social and political change, national and spiritual destiny in philosophical, journalistic and critical writings. From Slavophiles and Westernizers to revolutionary and apocalyptic thought.  Reflections on Russia's position between Europe and Asia and on the place of Russia's East Asian neighbors in its history and culture. Taught in English, readings in English.

What is distinctive about Russian realism? The course will examine nineteenth century Russian realist fiction in relation to various theoretical approaches, from Erich Auerbach to Roman Jakobson. We will read contemporary works of criticism and thought from Russia and Europe that may have influenced it.

Basic phonology, orthography, morphology and syntax of Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian. Development of the four basic language skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Acquisition of essential vocabulary for practical conversation and for comprehension.

The basic features of the grammar of the Macedonian literary language. Acquisition of essential vocabulary for practical conversation and for comprehension. Development of reading and writing skills. Open only to students with little or no knowledge of the literary language. (Offered in alternate years).

This course completes the basics of Macedonian grammar including the wide variety of past tenses, complex sentence structures, and word formation.

This course explores Macedonian culture as read through its literature, film, cuisine, music, folklore, architecture, and new media.

Works of literature, history, music, and visual arts are examined in order to explore the complex cultural legacy of the Balkans, an area marked by Byzantine, Ottoman, and Austro-Hungarian colonial presence. The course will familiarize students with major cultural traditions, myths, and historical flashpoints. Readings in English.

A survey of the most significant twentieth-century novels from Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia through a chronological selection of literary texts (poems, plays, novels) from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. The course places South Slavic literary developments within the broader context of European intellectual history as well as Balkan cultural and political life. Taught in English, all readings in English.

An overview of the Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav cinematic tradition from the 1960s to the present. Topics include revolution and socialism; cinema as activism; ideology and politics; sex and gender; war and trauma. Taught in English. All films with subtitles.

Systematic study of morphology and syntax. Intermediate composition and oral practice. Reading and translation of contemporary and more complex texts in BCS.

A survey of Croatian culture in literature, science, philosophy, and the fine arts. Topics include: the legacy of the Roman Empires; the medieval Croatian states; the Dalmatian Renaissance and Baroque; Humanism and Reformation: and national rebirth and Romanticism. Taught in English and readings in English.

An overview of Croatian literature from the middle ages to the present day, including drama, poetry and prose. Course follows a chronological order and focuses on the central currents in the literary history of Croatian literature. All classes and readings in English.

Continuation of SLA257H1.  Systematic study of morphology and syntax.  Intermediate composition and oral practice.  Reading and translation of contemporary texts in BCS.

Morphology, syntax, composition and translation, oral practice. Extensive reading, translation and analysis of contemporary Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian texts representing diverse styles.

This course examines novels and short stories by writers from the former Yugoslavia (including Dubravka Ugrešić, Aleksandar Hemon) that thematize exile, migration, and displacement. Alongside literary works, we will read theoretical essays that speak to concepts of home, nation, and language. Taught in English. Readings in English.

Basic vocabulary, simple sentence patterns, essential morphology. Internet language laboratory drills. Intended for students with little or no knowledge of the language.

Study of morphology through grammar drills; oral practice; reading of texts from Ukrainian literature.

A general survey of Ukrainian culture through an examination of selected literary works and their social, political, historical, philosophical, and aesthetic contexts. The course covers the period from Kyivan Rus to the present. Readings in English. (Offered in alternate years)

A selection of twentieth century Ukrainian novels and short prose in English translation. From the avant-garde intellectual novel of the 1920s, through socialist realism, to the post-modernist prose of the 1990s. Authors include Pidmohylny, Antonenko-Davydovych, Honchar, Shevchuk, Andrukhovych and Zabuzhko. 

A selection of literary texts depicting the experience and perceptions of Ukrainians in Canada from the first immigrants to the present. Texts include works originally written in English, French and Ukrainian, but all readings are in English. Authors include: Kiriak, Kostash, Ryga, Galay, Suknaski, Kulyk Keefer. 

This course examines the presentation of women and women's themes in works of Ukrainian literature. The subjects covered include: role models, freedom, socialism, nationalism, feminism, and sexuality.

Contemporary Ukraine is an amalgam of various cultural traditions. This course examines its languages, religions, nationalities, literature, cinema, arts, print and broadcast media, regions, education, and social groups. Special attention is given to the factors that influence public perceptions of identity. All readings are in English.

Ivan Franko is one of the most important and innovative figures in the history of Ukrainian literature. This seminar explores a selection of the belletristic writings by this fascinating and prolific poet and novelist in the context of Ukrainian culture and politics in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Taught in English. All readings are in English.

This course traces the extraordianry development of Ukrainian prose since the collapse of the Soviet Union. We will explore post-modernist _uphoria, colonial angst, cultural entropy, hooliganism, national identity, gender issues, and other aspects of modern Ukraine. All readings in English.

Major works by Kulish, Nechui-Levytsky, Myrny, Franko, Kotsiubynsky, Kobylianska, Vynnychenko, Ianovsky, Pidmohylny, Honchar, Andrukhovych, and Zabuzhko. Readings in Ukrainian. (Offered every four years)

A critical study of Taras Shevchenko. Life, works, and significance. Readings in Ukrainian.