Courses

RUSS 101. Elementary Russian I. An introduction to Russian language and culture with an emphasis on communicative skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students also experience the variety and richness of modern Russia through authentic texts including music, film and television excerpts, and selected items from recent newspapers. Conducted in Russian. Normally offered every year. D. Browne. Concentrations.

RUSS 101-102. Elementary Russian I and II. An introduction to Russian language and culture with an emphasis on communicative skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students also experience the variety and richness of modern Russia through authentic texts including music, film and television excerpts, and selected items from recent newspapers. Conducted in Russian. Normally offered every year. D. Browne. Concentrations.

RUSS 102. Elementary Russian II. An introduction to Russian language and culture with an emphasis on communicative skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students also experience the variety and richness of modern Russia through authentic texts including music, film and television excerpts, and selected items from recent newspapers. Conducted in Russian. Normally offered every year. D. Browne. Concentrations.

RUSS 201. Intermediate Russian I. A continuation of Russian 101-102 focusing on vocabulary acquisition and greater control of more complex and extended forms of discourse. Greater emphasis is placed on students' creative use of Russian to express themselves orally and in writing. Prerequisite(s): Russian 102. Conducted in Russian. Open to first-year students. Normally offered every year. J. Costlow. Concentrations.

RUSS 201-202. Intermediate Russian I and II. A continuation of Russian 101-102 focusing on vocabulary acquisition and greater control of more complex and extended forms of discourse. Greater emphasis is placed on students' creative use of Russian to express themselves orally and in writing. Prerequisite(s): Russian 102. Conducted in Russian. Open to first-year students. Normally offered every year. J. Costlow. Concentrations.

RUSS 202. Intermediate Russian II. A continuation of Russian 201 focusing on vocabulary acquisition and greater control of more complex and extended forms of discourse. Greater emphasis is placed on students' creative use of Russian to express themselves orally and in writing. Prerequisite(s): Russian 102. Conducted in Russian. Open to first-year students. Normally offered every year. J. Costlow. Concentrations.

ES/RU 216. Nature in Russian Culture. How does a given culture understand and represent its relationship to the specific geography of its place in the world? This course explores the cultural landscape of Russia through a broad range of literary works, visual images, and ethnographic studies. Students examine some of the following issues: the relationship between geography and national identity; the political uses of cultural landscape; the interaction of agriculture, official religion, and traditional belief in peasant culture; and the role of class and revolutionary reimaginings of nature in the Soviet era. Conducted in English. Not open to students who have received credit for Environmental Studies/Russian 314. Open to first-year students. [W2] J. Costlow. Concentrations.

RUSS 220. Twentieth-Century Russian Novel. This course focuses on major Russian novels from the twentieth century, which may include Bely's Petersburg, Platonov's The Foundation Pit, Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago, Grossman's Life and Fate, and Solzhenitsyn's The First Circle. Students consider the ways these novels explore poetry, revolution, moral life, and cultural continuity in times of war and revolution; how they make innovative or traditional use of literary form and narrative voice; and how their authors shaped challenges to Soviet identity in literary works that were censored or repressed until the late twentieth century. Conducted in English. J. Costlow.

RU/WS 240. Women and Russia. How did Russian women leave their mark on the twentieth century and how has it shaped their lives? Why are contemporary Russian women inheritors of a complicated legacy of Soviet "emancipation" so resistant to Western feminism? What sources of nourishment and challenge do Russian women find in their own cultural traditions? This course examines some of the great works of twentieth-century Russian writing (autobiography, poetry, novellas, and short fiction) and considers central representations of women in film, in order to understand how women have lived through the upheavals of what Anna Akhmatova called the "true twentieth century." Conducted in English. Not open to students who have received credit for Russian 240. Open to first-year students. J. Costlow. Concentrations.

INDS 256. Rites of Spring. Le Sacre du printemps or The Rite of Spring, began as a ballet, with music by Igor Stravinsky, choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky, and sets and costumes by Nicholas Roerich. Premiered in 1913 to riots in Paris, The Rite of Spring has lived on to become one of the most important pieces of music in the Western canon and the zenith of stature and daring for choreographers. This course examines where it came from and how it has evolved over time through dance works, music, and cultural context. Cross-listed in dance, music, and Russian. [W2] C. Dilley. Concentrations.

RUSS 261. Russian Culture. A topical survey of Russian culture as realized in a number of social institutions including the family, the church, the popular media, and the arts. Particular attention is given to texts emphasizing both the real and imagined role the urban environment plays in shaping Russian identity. Conducted in English. Open to first-year students. [W2] D. Browne.

RUSS 270. Nineteenth-Century Russian Literature. Russia's great prose writers raise "accursed questions" about social justice, religious truth, and the meanings of life. Their critiques of modernity and vividly imagined and often unorthodox characters continue to resonate and challenge. Readings are drawn from such writers as Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Gogol, Pushkin, and Chekhov. Conducted in English. Open to first-year students. J. Costlow. Concentrations.

RUSS 271. Modern Russian Literature. The Devil comes to Soviet Moscow to do good! A cosmonaut discovers that the Soviet space program is a hoax carried out underground! Jesus Christ leads a march through revolutionary St. Petersburg! Who needs fantastic realism? Russian writers of the twentieth century continued to build on a world-class literary tradition established in the nineteenth century. They did so as their country experienced unparalleled political and social revolutions, and even when they were directly targeted by one of the twentieth century's most powerful and terrifying political regimes. This course looks at ways in which writers have responded to political, social, and cultural upheaval, and how they provide spiritual strength to a beleaguered population. Conducted in English. Open to first-year students. D. Browne. Concentrations.

RUSS 276. Dostoevsky and the Culture of Crisis. The works of Fyodor Dostoevsky describe a world on the edge of catastrophe or transformation, in which madmen, prostitutes, saints, and seekers lay claim to visions of revolution or redemption. This course introduces students to the work of Dostoevsky within the context of Russian cultural and political history. Reading includes two major novels (one of them being The Brothers Karamazov) and a selection of his shorter prose works, memoirs, and polemical pieces. Conducted in English. Open to first-year students. J. Costlow. Concentrations.

RUSS 301. Advanced Russian I. This sequence completes the essentials of contemporary colloquial Russian. Students read short unabridged texts in both literary and journalistic styles, and write one- and two-page papers on a variety of topics. Conducted in Russian. Prerequisite(s): Russian 202. Open to first-year students. Normally offered every year. D. Browne. Concentrations.

RUSS 301-302. Advanced Russian I and II. This sequence completes the essentials of contemporary colloquial Russian. Students read short unabridged texts in both literary and journalistic styles, and write one- and two-page papers on a variety of topics. Conducted in Russian. Prerequisite(s): Russian 202. Open to first-year students. Normally offered every year. D. Browne. Concentrations.

RUSS 302. Advanced Russian II. This sequence completes the essentials of contemporary colloquial Russian. Students read short unabridged texts in both literary and journalistic styles, and write one- and two-page papers on a variety of topics. Conducted in Russian. Prerequisite(s): Russian 202. Normally offered every year. D. Browne. Concentrations.

RUSS 306. Advanced Russian Culture and Language. This course develops oral fluency and aural acuity as well as reading and writing skills through directed and spontaneous classroom activities and individual and collaborative written assignments. Conversations and compositions are based on literary and nonliterary texts, feature films, and documentary films. Conducted in Russian. Prerequisite(s): Russian 202. Open to first-year students. Staff. Concentrations.

RUSS 310. No Certainties: Film and Literature in Russia Today. In the decade and a half since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia has been confronted with overwhelming economic, social, and environmental problems. At the same time, many Russians celebrate the possibilities of the post-Soviet world. The ideologies and social structures that generations of Soviets fought for are crumbling away, and Russia enters a post-Soviet reality at a moment when globalization and strife along its southern border are reshaping the world context. What have been the responses of thinkers and poets, novelists, and filmmakers? How does culture address the contemporary world? Most readings and discussions are in Russian. Prerequisite(s): Russian 202 or permission of the instructor. Normally offered every year. J. Costlow.

RUSS 360. Independent Study. Students, in consultation with a faculty advisor, individually design and plan a course of study or research not offered in the curriculum. Course work includes a reflective component, evaluation, and completion of an agreed-upon product. Sponsorship by a faculty member in the program/department, a course prospectus, and permission of the chair are required. Students may register for no more than one independent study per semester. Normally offered every semester. Staff.

RUSS 365. Special Topics. Designed for the small seminar group of students who may have particular interests in areas of study that go beyond the regular course offerings. Periodic conferences and papers are required. Conducted in Russian. Instructor permission is required. Staff.

RUSS 401. Contemporary Russian I. The course is designed to perfect students' ability to understand and speak contemporary, idiomatic Russian. Included are readings from Aksyonov, Dovlatov, Shukshin, and Baranskaya and viewings of contemporary Russian films. Conducted in Russian. Prerequisite(s): Russian 302. Staff. Concentrations.

RUSS 401-402. Contemporary Russian I and II. The course is designed to perfect students' ability to understand and speak contemporary, idiomatic Russian. Included are readings from Aksyonov, Dovlatov, Shukshin, and Baranskaya and viewings of contemporary Russian films. Conducted in Russian. Prerequisite(s): Russian 302. Staff. Concentrations.

RUSS 402. Contemporary Russian II. The course is designed to perfect students' ability to understand and speak contemporary, idiomatic Russian. Included are readings from Aksyonov, Dovlatov, Shukshin, and Baranskaya and viewings of contemporary Russian films. Conducted in Russian. Prerequisite(s): Russian 302. Staff. Concentrations.

RUSS 457. Senior Thesis. Open only to senior majors, with departmental permission. Students register for Russian 457 in the fall semester and for Russian 458 in the winter semester. Before registering for 457 or 458 a student must present to the department an acceptable plan, including an outline and a tentative bibliography, after discussion with a department member. Majors writing an honors thesis register for both Russian 457 and 458. [W3] Normally offered every year. Staff.

RUSS 457, 458. Senior Thesis. Open only to senior majors, with departmental permission. Students register for Russian 457 in the fall semester and for Russian 458 in the winter semester. Before registering for 457 or 458 a student must present to the department an acceptable plan, including an outline and a tentative bibliography, after discussion with a department member. Majors writing an honors thesis register for both Russian 457 and 458. [W3] Normally offered every year. Staff.

RUSS 458. Senior Thesis. Open only to senior majors, with departmental permission. Students register for Russian 458 in the winter semester. Before registering for 457 or 458 a student must present to the department an acceptable plan, including an outline and a tentative bibliography, after discussion with a department member. Majors writing an honors thesis register for both Russian 457 and 458. Department chair permission is required. [W3] Normally offered every year. Staff.

Short Term Courses

RUSS s19. Radical Tolstoy. During his long lifetime Leo Tolstoy launched fundamental critiques of many of his culture's most precious assumptions and institutions: he denounced established religion; attacked imperialism and war; renounced sex, hunting, and the privileges of his class. He also searched for positive rules of life, grounded in agrarian simplicity, nonviolence, and an undying commitment to speaking truth. In this course, students engage with Tolstoy's writings on topics ranging from education to nonviolence, Christianity, class, and sexuality. Tolstoy is read in company with other thinkers, from Gandhi and Martin Luther King to Wendell Berry and Andrea Dworkin, whose writings resonate with the fundamental Tolstoyan question: How then must we live? Conducted in English. Enrollment limited to 20. J. Costlow.

ES/RU s20. Environment and Culture in Russia. This course introduces a broad range of environmental issues in contemporary Russia and invites students to consider those issues in cultural and historical context. Students spend three and one-half weeks at different locations in European Russia and the Urals, visiting sites ranging from privatized farms and peasant markets to industrial centers and conservation areas. A period of intensive preparation at Bates is followed by visits and conversations in Russia that acquaint students with ecologists, activists, governmental officials, and ordinary Russian citizens. Recommended background: one course in Russian studies or environmental studies. Enrollment limited to 12. Instructor permission is required. J. Costlow.

RUSS s26. Russian and Soviet Film. From the early years of the Soviet avant-garde to the post-Stalinist era of covert critique, Russian film of the twentieth century offers an intriguing and important perspective on Soviet and post-Soviet life. This course explores the avant-garde cinema of Eisenstein and Pudovkin, the propaganda films of the 1930s, the representation of World War II in Soviet film, the aesthetic and moral quests of post-Stalinist filmmakers, and new directions in filmmaking of the last decade. Films are in Russian and other Soviet languages, with subtitles. All reading and writing is in English. D. Browne, J. Costlow. Concentrations.

RUSS s50. Independent Study. Students, in consultation with a faculty advisor, individually design and plan a course of study or research not offered in the curriculum. Course work includes a reflective component, evaluation, and completion of an agreed-upon product. Sponsorship by a faculty member in the program/department, a course prospectus, and permission of the chair are required. Students may register for no more than one independent study during a Short Term. Normally offered every semester. Staff.