Thomas Garza

This course examines the figure of the vampire in the cultures of Russia, Eastern Europe, and the Balkans, including its manifestations in folklore, literature, religion, art, film and common cultural practices from its origins to present day 2019. Texts – from both print and non-print media – will be drawn from original sources. Participants will be asked to separate historical fact from popular fiction, and form their own opinions about the place of the vampire in Slavic and other East European cultures, particularly in contrast to the more familiar portraits in US and Western European cultures. The course is conducted in English with all original source material in Russian or other languages provided in English. No knowledge of Russian required, though readings in Russian and other Slavic languages are available for majors and minors in these related fields from the instructor on request.

Grading:

• Reaction Paper 25%
• Midterm exam 1 25%
• Film Review 25%
• Midterm exam II 25%

This course will engage students in the exploration of Vysotsky’s many and varied “texts,” including his poetry, music, filmic performances, stage roles, and television appearances during his brief – but impressive – lifetime. The goal of the course is to bring together not only these varied and extraordinary texts, but also the original language artifacts and documents of the particular Soviet era of the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s via documentaries, news articles, television broadcasts and epistolary correspondence aimed at increasing participants’ Russian language proficiency and cultural literacy about the Soviet period. With over 700 songs by his pen, in this course we can only scratch the surface of this side of Vysotsky’s talents; but we will examine a chronological sampling of his most significant songs, while covering a brief, but monumental life in Soviet history. As Russian language development is a major goal of this course, all texts – written and aural/oral – will be in Russian, and the course will be conducted entirely in Russian.

Please check back for updates.

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

This course, conducted entirely in Russian, is designed to bring participants to the ACTFL Advanced level of spoken proficiency in Russian, while instructing them on how to construct and deliver an argument in a debate format. They will learn the specialized lexicon & rhetoric of argumentation & debate discourse, while working within subject frames of contemporary global issues: politics, economics, environment, social issues, & human rights. Students in the course will interact via Skype/Zoom with students from the Moscow International University in Russia to conduct subject interviews & receive assistance in preparing for their oral arguments

Description:

Over the past twenty-five years, the image of urban Mexican and Russian men has changed; the physically strong, often violent, and emotionally unavailable male of 1990s film, television, and popular music has been replaced by the more balanced, emotional, and cerebral performances of the 2000s. While still maintaining their mantle of macho, i.e., powerful, attractive, and decisive masculinity, the New Machos of the New Millennium in Mexico and Russia represent cultural transformations of masculinity. They reflect the need for a “feminized,” but not emasculated, male cultural hero to counterbalance the harsh and crude reality of male-dominated criminal life and the men who participate in it. In effect, these recent portraits eschew more traditional popular portraits of machismo, while maintaining the social and cultural status of masculinity in both. And they do so in dialogue with each other. This course undertakes the study of representations of masculinity in products of Mexican and Russian popular culture at the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first centuries.

In both Mexican/Mexican-American and Slavic studies, much recent attention has been focused on the role and place of men in cultural, political, and social environments have appeared and received critical praise. This course juxtaposes these influential cultural portraits of masculinity in popular culture: Mexican and Russian. The course constitutes a comparative study of the performance of masculinity in Russian and Mexican cultures. It provides with provocative cultural perspectives on what it means to be macho in the twenty-first century. The course will engage texts from cultural, gender, ethnic, and media studies, as well from Slavic and Latino studies.

Grading:

Shorter essay (4-5 pp.)                           25%

Film Review (2-3 pp.)                           20%

Seminar presentation                             20%

Longer Paper (8-10)                                          25%

Participation                                                     10%

The country that brought us Sputnik and reinvented the robot also created some of the world's best creations of science fiction and fantasy. From the works of classic writers, to the harsh images of Soviet utopias, to the films of the 20th century, and current post-Soviet works, we'll explore the remarkable world of Russian sci-fi through a variety of media. Whether you're already a sci-fi fan, or a newcomer to the genre, prepare to discover a Brave New World!

Eight hundred years before Bram Stoker gave us the West's most memorable vampire in Dracula (1897) and long before the exploits of Vlad "the Impaler" Tepes horrified Europe (1431-46), the Russian Primary Chronicles write of a Novgorodian priest as Upyr' Likhij, or Wicked Vampire (1047).  The Slavic and Balkan worlds abound in histories, legends, myths and literary portraits of the so-called undead, creatures that literally draw life out of the living. This course examines the vampire in the cultures of Russia and Eastern Europe, including manifestations in literature, religion, art, film and common practices from its origins to 2013.  Texts – both print and non-print media – will be drawn from Russian, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Serbian and Croatian sources.  Participants will be asked to separate historical fact from popular fiction, and form opinions about the place of the vampire in Slavic and East European cultures. 

Prerequisites:  The course is conducted in English.  No knowledge of Russian required, though readings in Russian and other Slavic languages are available for majors and concentrators in these related fields.

Readings:  

• The Vampire in Slavic Culture, Course Reader (CR), T. J. Garza, ed., Cognella Press, San Diego: CA, 2010. [order online]

• The Vampire: A Casebook, Alan Dundes, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998.

Maledicta: (Latin. n., pl. maledictum, sg.), curse words, insults; profane language of all kinds.

When is a word “bad”? Why can one person use a “bad” word with impunity, and another cannot? What marks such usage as acceptable or not?  How do race, socioeconomic class, and gender play into the use of “bad” language in the US? This course undertakes the examination of modern usage of language that has been designated as “bad” through social convention. Usage of forms of obscenities and profanity in popular usage will be examined in an attempt to come to an understanding of how the products of US popular culture portray maledicta in situational contexts. Through an examination of various texts culled from print, film, and music, participants will study the context and use of “bad” language and attempt to determine the underlying principles that dictate its affect and determine its impact on the audience. Though the majority of texts and usage will be taken from English-language sources, several non-English examples of maledicta from Mexican Spanish and Russian will also be examined for contrast and comparison.

NB: This course examines texts that contain usage of obscenities, profanity, and offensive language. Students who do not wish to be exposed to such language in use should not sign up for this course.

Texts:

• Bad Language: Are Some Words Better than Others? Edwin Battistella. Oxford UP, 2007.

• Expletive Deleted: A Good Look at Bad Language. Ruth Wajnryb. Free press, 2005.

• Course packet

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

Most US citizens had not heard Chechnya before the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. This course will consider the history, culture, religions and recent upheaval of the region of the northern Caucasus called Chechnya. Beginning with early Russian depictions of the region in the literary and artistic works of Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy and Vrubel, as well as in the musical compositions of Rubenstein and Shostakovich as well as contemporary popular Russian music, news and documentary footage, television series such as “The Brigade,” Soldiers,” and “Special Forces,” and the modern films of Paradjanov, Balabanov, Konchalovsky, and Bodrov. The goal of the course is to bring this small nation within Russia into much sharper focus for students who wish to understand why it has played such a critical role in the current politics, culture and society in contemporary Russia and the Caucasus. Rather than taking a monolithic approach with only one perspective on the region, Chechnya 360º will attempt to provide an interdisciplinary and multimedia approach to create a full portrait of Chechnya and Chechens.

Readings:

• The Chechen Wars: Will Russia Go the Way of the Soviet Union?  Matthew Evangelista,

            Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 2002.

• Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power, Anatol Lieven, New Haven: Yale U

            Press, 1999.

• Chechnya: Life in a War Torn Society, Valery Tishkov, Berkeley: U of California Press, 2004.

• A Hero of Our Times, Mikhail Lermontov, New York: Modern Library, 2004.

• The Cossacks, Leo Tolstoy, New York: Modern Library, 2004.

• Hadji Murat, Leo Tolstoy, Washington, D.C.: Orchises Press, 1996.

• Packet of readings

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

Description:

Eight hundred years before Bram Stoker gave us the West's most memorable vampire in Dracula (1897) and long before the exploits of Vlad "the Impaler" Tepes horrified Europe (1431-46), the Russian Primary Chronicles write of a Novgorodian priest as Upyr' Likhij, or Wicked Vampire (1047).  The Slavic and Balkan worlds abound in histories, legends, myths and literary portraits of the so-called undead, creatures that literally draw life out of the living. This course examines the vampire in the cultures of Russia and Eastern Europe, including manifestations in literature, religion, art, film and common practices from its origins to 2013.  Texts – both print and non-print media – will be drawn from Russian, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Serbian and Croatian sources.  Participants will be asked to separate historical fact from popular fiction, and form opinions about the place of the vampire in Slavic and East European cultures. 

Prerequisites:  The course is conducted in English.  No knowledge of Russian required, though readings in Russian and other Slavic languages are available for majors and concentrators in these related fields.

Readings:   • The Vampire in Slavic Culture, Course Reader (CR), T. J. Garza, ed., Cognella Press, San Diego: CA, 2010. [order online]

• The Vampire: A Casebook, Alan Dundes, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998.

[at the UT Co-op]

Grading:         

Short essay I (3-4 pp.)          25%                            

Midterm exam I                    25%

Short essay II (3-4 pp.)         25%                            

RUS 326

This course, conducted entirely in Russian, is designed to bring participants to the ACTFL Advanced level of spoken proficiency in Russian, while instructing them on how to construct and deliver an argument in a debate format. They will learn the specialized lexicon and rhetoric of argumentation and debate discourse, while working within subject frames of contemporary global issues: politics, economics, environment, social issues, and human rights. The course will require students to conduct appropriate research on the topics of thematic debates, outline arguments and evidence for each topic, and debate the subject in a moderated four-person panel.

Students in the course will interact via Skype/Zoom with students from the Moscow International University in Russia to conduct subject interviews and receive assistance in preparing for their oral arguments. Final debates will be judged by classmates, course instructor, and an external native speaker. All final debates will be video recorded for review and critique of speaking style, use of language, argumentation, and overall effect.

Texts:

• Mastering Russian through Global Debate, Brown, et al., Georgetown UP, 2014.

• Course packet of selected articles

Grading: 

Argument outlines (in Russian): 40% (4 @ 10% ea.)

FaceTime recordings with Russians: 20%

Debate presentations: 40%

RUS 380E

This course, conducted entirely in Russian, is designed to bring graduate student participants to the ACTFL Advanced level of spoken and written proficiency in Russian, while instructing them on how to construct and deliver an argument in a debate format. They will learn the specialized lexicon and rhetoric of argumentation and debate discourse, while working within subject frames of contemporary global issues: politics, economics, environment, social issues, and human rights. The course will require graduate students to conduct appropriate research on the topics of thematic debates, construct and write pro and contra position papers, and debate the subject in a moderated four-person panel.

Graduate students in the course will interact via Skype/Zoom with students from the Moscow International University in Russia to conduct subject interviews and receive assistance in preparing for their oral arguments. Final debates will be judged by classmates, course instructor, and an external native speaker. All final debates will be video recorded for review and critique of speaking style, use of language, argumentation, and overall effect. Based on one of the debate topics from the course, graduate participants will also write a final editorial paper representing a position from their oral arguments.

Texts:

• Mastering Russian through Global Debate, Brown, et al., Georgetown UP, 2014.

• Kharizmatichnyi orator: Rukovodstvo k kursu ‘Solvesnaia improvivzatsii’, Shipunov, Universitet

   ritoriki I oratorskogo masterstva, 2014.

 • Course packet of selected articles

Grading: 

Affirmative and Negative Positions: 20% (2 @ 10% ea.)

FaceTime recordings with Russians: 20%

Debate presentations: 40%

Editorial Paper: 20%

Stalin's Moscow, 1936. The Devil and his gang have come to the mortal world to determine how Mankind is faring in the 20th century.  He encounters a motley crew of Soviet bureaucrats, writers, politicians and artists who offer little hope for the future.  Enter the "Master", an unknown writer struggling to finish a novel about the life of Christ told from the perspective of Pontius Pilate.  Can one writer and his work be reason enough to prevent the apocalypse? Enter Margarita, the Master's selfless companion and heroine of Mikhail Bulgakov's masterpiece, The Master and Margarita. Regarded by many readers and critics as one of the greatest novels of our time, The Master and Margarita is a fixed part of Russian culture. This course will explore not only the intricacies of the novel itself, but also its place among Bulgakov’s other literary works, and its varied sources from world literature, music and the visual arts. More importantly, it reveals the brilliance and complexities of art created under a strict totalitarian regime. This course will examine -- within the Stalin-era Soviet context -- the texts and philosophies that significantly influenced Bulgakov in the creation of his novel.  You will examine these various texts (philosophical treatises, stories, folklore, plays, paintings, operas, and films) and discover the ways that they influenced the shape of the novel and how they appear within the dual story lines and the numerous characters. Ultimately, the course will allow you to reexamine your own philosophy of Good and Evil in the 21st century.

Readings:

• The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov, Burgin & O’Connor, trans. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.

• Faust, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, New York: Norton & Co., 2001.

• The Divine Comedy, DanteAlighieri, New York: Everymans, 1995.

• Packet of readings

Grading requirements:

• The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov, Burgin & O’Connor, trans. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.

• Faust, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, New York: Norton & Co., 2001.

• The Divine Comedy, DanteAlighieri, New York: Everymans, 1995.

• Packet of readings

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

Maledicta: (Latin. n., pl. maledictum, sg.), curse words, insults; profane language of all kinds.

When is a word “bad”? Why can one person use a “bad” word with impunity, and another cannot? What marks such usage as acceptable or not?  How do race, socioeconomic class, and gender play into the use of “bad” language in the US? This course undertakes the examination of modern usage of language that has been designated as “bad” through social convention. Usage of forms of obscenities and profanity in popular usage will be examined in an attempt to come to an understanding of how the products of US popular culture portray maledicta in situational contexts. Through an examination of various texts culled from print, film, and music, participants will study the context and use of “bad” language and attempt to determine the underlying principles that dictate its affect and determine its impact on the audience. Though the majority of texts and usage will be taken from English-language sources, several non-English examples of maledicta from Mexican Spanish and Russian will also be examined for contrast and comparison.

NB: This course examines texts that contain usage of obscenities, profanity, and offensive language. Students who do not wish to be exposed to such language in use should not sign up for this course.

Texts:

• Bad Language: Are Some Words Better than Others? Edwin Battistella. Oxford UP, 2007.

• Expletive Deleted: A Good Look at Bad Language. Ruth Wajnryb. Free press, 2005.

• Course packet

Requirements and Grading

• Exams (two midterms): 30%

• Film review: 20%

• Reading journal: 20%

• Research paper: 30%

Description:

After establishing theoretical [Butler (2006), Limón (1998), Boym (1994)] and applied [Berg (2009), Albalos (2002), Borenstein (2010), Alonzo (2009)], parameters to discuss marginal masculinities, the course examines products of popular culture (film, music, television) to provide exemplars in both Mexico and Russia. First in the 1990s, and then in the 2000s, each illustrates and interrogates the performances of masculinity. Comparisons of film, television, and musical performance from both periods and in both cultures demonstrate the affinities between Russian and Mexican portrayals of the New Macho. Texts include: For Mexico: Desperado (1996), Amores Perros (2000), Y tu mamá también  (2001), El Mariachi (1992) and Desperado (1995), Sexo, pudor, y lágrimas (1999) Cronos (1992), and El espinazo del diablo (2001). For Russia: Bakenbardy (1990), Luna Park (1992), Vor (1997), Kavkazskii plennik (1994), Brigada (2004),  Potselui babochki (2008)], Dom Durakov, and Obytaemii ostrov (2010). The course offers connections between the violent social and political environments of Russia and Mexico during the 1990s that may have led to the original depiction of urban, middle-class men in popular culture as hyper-masculine, often violent and emotionless, images of machismo. By the 2000s, however, in spite of the continuation of violence and/or corruption in both countries, popular culture offered Russian and Mexican citizens both a respite from the exclusively violent images of macho men in real life, as well as an alternative masculinity: a feminized macho that, while no less attractive and powerful, presents men as capable of feeling and displaying emotion and preferring the company of another person to living a solitary life in isolation.

Course will be conducted in English; readings and films available in Russian and/or Spanish.

Course Description: 

This course examines the development of the Russian fairy tale from its folk origins and its adaptations of the tales of Perrault, Grimm, and other European writers, leading to the creation of the unique classic Russian literary fairy tales of Pushkin, Zhukovsky and Ostrovsky in the nineteenth century.  Contemporary portraits of the tales in film versions, from classical Russian productions to Disney’s and Cocteau’s imaginings will also be examined as the heirs to the original oral fairy tale genre.  Participants will be familiarized with four critical methodologies used in conjunction with the study of folk and fairy tales: Structuralist (Jakobson, Propp), Feminist (Warner, Lieberman), Psychological (Bettelheim, Freud), and Socio-political (Zipes, Lüthi).  We will apply these methodologies to the texts – tales, films and prints – that we examine, and participants will learn to use them to enhance their understanding and appreciation of classic Russian fairy and folk tales.

Textbooks:     

Required Texts (available at UT Co-op or for purchase online):

         • The Russian Fairy Tale. T.J. Garza, ed. Cognella Press, 2013 [online purchase].

         • Russian Fairy Tales,  A. Afanas'ev, New York: Pantheon Books, 1974.      

         • Russian Folk Belief.  Linda J. Ivanits, Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 1992.

         • The Uses of Enchantment, Bruno Bettelheim, ed.  New York: Random

             House/Vintage, 1977.

Recommended Texts (available at UT Co-op):

• The Morphology of the Folktale, Vladimir Propp, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1975.
• Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion, Jack Zipes, New York: Methuen Press, 1983.
• Once Upon a Time: On the Nature of Fairy Tales, Max Lüthi, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1976.

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

FLAGS:   GC

Description:

Eight hundred years before Bram Stoker gave us the West's most memorable vampire in Dracula (1897) and long before the exploits of Vlad "the Impaler" Tepes horrified Europe (1431-46), the Russian Primary Chronicles write of a Novgorodian priest as Upyr' Likhij, or Wicked Vampire (1047).  The Slavic and Balkan worlds abound in histories, legends, myths and literary portraits of the so-called undead, creatures that literally draw life out of the living. This course examines the vampire in the cultures of Russia and Eastern Europe, including manifestations in literature, religion, art, film and common practices from its origins to 2013.  Texts – both print and non-print media – will be drawn from Russian, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Serbian and Croatian sources.  Participants will be asked to separate historical fact from popular fiction, and form opinions about the place of the vampire in Slavic and East European cultures. 

Prerequisites:  The course is conducted in English.  No knowledge of Russian required, though readings in Russian and other Slavic languages are available for majors and concentrators in these related fields.

Readings:   • The Vampire in Slavic Culture, Course Reader (CR), T. J. Garza, ed., Cognella Press, San Diego: CA, 2010. [order online]

• The Vampire: A Casebook, Alan Dundes, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998.

[at the UT Co-op]

Grading:         

Short essay I (3-4 pp.)          25%                            

Midterm exam I                    25%

Short essay II (3-4 pp.)         25%                            

Midterm exam II                  25%

FLAGS:   GC  |  CD

Description:

Over the past twenty-five years, the image of urban Mexican and Russian men has changed; the physically strong, often violent, and emotionally unavailable male of 1990s film, television, and popular music has been replaced by the more balanced, emotional, and cerebral performances of the 2000s. While still maintaining their mantle of macho, i.e., powerful, attractive, and decisive masculinity, the New Machos of the New Millennium in Mexico and Russia represent cultural transformations of masculinity. They reflect the need for a “feminized,” but not emasculated, male cultural hero to counterbalance the harsh and crude reality of male-dominated criminal life and the men who participate in it. In effect, these recent portraits eschew more traditional popular portraits of machismo, while maintaining the social and cultural status of masculinity in both. And they do so in dialogue with each other. This course undertakes the study of representations of masculinity in products of Mexican and Russian popular culture at the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first centuries.

In both Mexican/Mexican-American and Slavic studies, much recent attention has been focused on the role and place of men in cultural, political, and social environments have appeared and received critical praise. This course juxtaposes these influential cultural portraits of masculinity in popular culture: Mexican and Russian. The course constitutes a comparative study of the performance of masculinity in Russian and Mexican cultures. It provides with provocative cultural perspectives on what it means to be macho in the twenty-first century. The course will engage texts from cultural, gender, ethnic, and media studies, as well from Slavic and Latino studies.

Readings:

• Adams, Rachel and David Savran, eds. 2002. The Masculinity Studies Reader. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

• Kimmel, Michael. 2010. Misframing Men: The Politics of Contemporary Masculinities. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

• Gutmann, Matthew C., ed. 2003. Changing Men and Masculinities in Latin America. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

• Macías-Gonzalez, Victor M. and Rubenstein, Anne, eds. 2012. Masculinity and Sexuality in Modern Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

• Borenstein, Eliot. 2008. Overkill: Sex and Violence in Contemporary Russian Popular Culture. Ithica: Cornell University Press.

• Clements, Barbara Evans, Friedman, Rebecca and Healey, Dan, eds. Russian Masculinities in History and Culture. 2002. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

• Norris, Stephen M. and Zara M. Torlone, eds. 2008. Insiders and Outsiders in Russian Cinema. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Grading:

Shorter essay (4-5 pp.)                                25%

Film Review (2-3 pp.)                                   20%

Seminar presentation                                   20%

Longer Paper (8-10)                                     25%

Participation                                               10%

Course Content: The social and political upheaval that shook the Soviet Union in the late 1980s has fascinated and puzzled the Western media to the present day. But how well do we understand the causes and effects of the dramatic cultural changes that mark the new Russia of the 1990s and the 21st century?  Do UT's “Millennials” have anything to learn from the Soviet experience of a disenfranchised generation of Young Marxists choosing to embrace Capitalism and Coldplay instead of Communism and Cold War?

This course will provide participants with the materials to construct an ethnographic portrait of Russia’s contemporary youth and their culture, drawing from a variety of print, audio and video sources.  In addition to reading extensively from diverse genres, including the Russian press, editorials, contemporary prose and non-fiction, students in the course should be prepared to immerse themselves in the non-print media coming directly out of Moscow and Saint-Petersburg in the wake of post-Soviet reforms.  Using popular depictions of Russia’s own “twentysomethings” from recent films, documentaries, rock music lyrics, and art, students will try to come to understand how the youth movement effected and continues to affect the changing course of one of the world’s superpowers of the twentieth century. 

Readings and media presentations will focus on the current attitudes of Russian youth toward politics, music, drugs, sex, money and the military from the period of Gorbachev’s perestroika to 2011.  This course will be conducted -- as much as possible -- seminar style, with student interaction constituting a significant part of the usual "lecture" quotient of the course.  Though all required readings for the course are in English, additional readings in Russian for majors and graduate students in Slavic studies will be made available by topic.

Course Description:

An intensive Russian language instruction course developing functional proficiency in listening, speaking, and reading. Writing will be developed primarily through workbook and computer-based home assignments.  We will cover all of Volumes One and Two of the textbooks, Units One through Unit Fourteen in the textbooks, spending about one week on each unit. In addition, this course aims to develop computer literacy skills – in Russian – for you to be truly functional and competitive in the language.

The entire first-year sequence is covered in one semester.

Readings:

Textbook: 

• Davidson, Gor, and Lekic.  Russian: Stage One: Live from Russia! 2nd ed., vols. 1 and 2, (Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co. 2008 and 2009). These packaged sets comprise two basic textbooks, two workbooks, two audio CDs, and two DVDs. Available at the University Co-op.

Recommended:           

• Russian/English Dictionary
• Gerhart, G., The Russian’s World, Orlando: Houghton Mifflin, 1994.
• Garza, T., Fundamentals of Russian Verbal Conjugation for Teachers  and Students, Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt and ACTR Publications, 1993.

Grading:

There are five components of your final course grade.  These components and their relative weights are:

1.  Testing:  35%

Unit tests: 15%

Final exam: 20%

2.  Homework:  15% 

3.  Participation:  15% 

4.  Portfolio:  15%

5.  Oral Presentation:  20%

Stalin's Moscow, 1936. The Devil and his gang have come to the mortal world to determine how Mankind is faring in the 20th century.  He encounters a motley crew of Soviet bureaucrats, writers, politicians and artists who offer little hope for the future.  Enter the "Master", an unknown writer struggling to finish a novel about the life of Christ told from the perspective of Pontius Pilate.  Can one writer and his work be reason enough to prevent the apocalypse? Enter Margarita, the Master's selfless companion and heroine of Mikhail Bulgakov's masterpiece, The Master and Margarita. Regarded by many readers and critics as one of the greatest novels of our time, The Master and Margarita is a fixed part of Russian culture. This course will explore not only the intricacies of the novel itself, but also its place among Bulgakov’s other literary works, and its varied sources from world literature, music and the visual arts. More importantly, it reveals the brilliance and complexities of art created under a strict totalitarian regime. This course will examine -- within the Stalin-era Soviet context -- the texts and philosophies that significantly influenced Bulgakov in the creation of his novel.  You will examine these various texts (philosophical treatises, stories, folklore, plays, paintings, operas, and films) and discover the ways that they influenced the shape of the novel and how they appear within the dual story lines and the numerous characters. Ultimately, the course will allow you to reexamine your own philosophy of Good and Evil in the 21st century.

Readings:

• The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov, Burgin & O’Connor, trans. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.

• Faust, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, New York: Norton & Co., 2001.

• The Divine Comedy, DanteAlighieri, New York: Everymans, 1995.

• Packet of readings

Grading requirements:

• The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov, Burgin & O’Connor, trans. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.

• Faust, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, New York: Norton & Co., 2001.

• The Divine Comedy, DanteAlighieri, New York: Everymans, 1995.

• Packet of readings

Course prerequisite: Upper division standing.

Most US citizens had not heard Chechnya before the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. This course will consider the history, culture, religions and recent upheaval of the region of the northern Caucasus called Chechnya. Beginning with early Russian depictions of the region in the literary and artistic works of Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy and Vrubel, as well as in the musical compositions of Rubenstein and Shostakovich as well as contemporary popular Russian music, news and documentary footage, television series such as “The Brigade,” Soldiers,” and “Special Forces,” and the modern films of Paradjanov, Balabanov, Konchalovsky, and Bodrov. The goal of the course is to bring this small nation within Russia into much sharper focus for students who wish to understand why it has played such a critical role in the current politics, culture and society in contemporary Russia and the Caucasus. Rather than taking a monolithic approach with only one perspective on the region, Chechnya 360º will attempt to provide an interdisciplinary and multimedia approach to create a full portrait of Chechnya and Chechens.

Readings:

• The Chechen Wars: Will Russia Go the Way of the Soviet Union?  Matthew Evangelista,

            Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 2002.

• Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power, Anatol Lieven, New Haven: Yale U

            Press, 1999.

• Chechnya: Life in a War Torn Society, Valery Tishkov, Berkeley: U of California Press, 2004.

• A Hero of Our Times, Mikhail Lermontov, New York: Modern Library, 2004.

• The Cossacks, Leo Tolstoy, New York: Modern Library, 2004.

• Hadji Murat, Leo Tolstoy, Washington, D.C.: Orchises Press, 1996.

• Packet of readings

Grading requirements:

Reaction paper (5 pp.)                                   15%

Short critical essay (5-7 pp.)                           20%

Longer paper (10-15 pp.)                               30%

Seminar presentation                                     20%

Participation                                                 15%

Course prerequisite: Upper division standing.

Eight hundred years before Bram Stoker gave us the West's most memorable vampire in Dracula (1897) and long before the exploits of Vlad "the Impaler" Tepes horrified Europe (1431-46), the Russian Primary Chronicles write of a Novgorodian priest as Upyr' Likhij, or Wicked Vampire (1047).  The Slavic and Balkan worlds abound in histories, legends, myths and literary portraits of the so-called undead, creatures that literally draw life out of the living. This course examines the vampire in the cultures of Russia and Eastern Europe, including manifestations in literature, religion, art, film and common practices from its origins to 2013.  Texts – both print and non-print media – will be drawn from Russian, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Serbian and Croatian sources.  Participants will be asked to separate historical fact from popular fiction, and form opinions about the place of the vampire in Slavic and East European cultures. 

Prerequisites:  The course is conducted in English.  No knowledge of Russian required, though readings in Russian and other Slavic languages are available for majors and concentrators in these related fields.

Readings:   • The Vampire in Slavic Culture, Course Reader (CR), T. J. Garza, ed., Cognella Press, San Diego: CA, 2010. [order online]

• The Vampire: A Casebook, Alan Dundes, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998.

[at the UT Co-op]

Grading:         

Short essay I (3-4 pp.)          25%                            

Midterm exam I                    25%

Short essay II (3-4 pp.)         25%                            

Midterm exam II                  25%

2013 marks the 75th anniversary of the birth of Russia’s premiere bard, Vladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky. Bard, stage actor, poet, film star – Vysotsky captured the imagination of a generation of Soviet citizens in the height of Brezhnev’s so-called “period of stagnation” in the 1970s. Significantly, virtually no Russian alive even today is unfamiliar with the life and work of Russia’s leading leading man. This course will engage students in the exploration of Vysotsky’s “texts,” including his poetry, lyric verse, filmic portraits, stage roles, and television appearances during his brief lifetime. The goal of the course is to bring together not only these varied and extraordinary texts, but also the artifacts and documents of the particular Soviet era of the 1960s and ‘70s via documentaries, news articles, television broadcasts and epistolary correspondence. All texts – written and aural/oral – will be in Russian, and the course will be in conducted in Russian. Final papers, however, may be written in either English or Russian.

Readings:

• ????????.  ?.?. ???????. ??????: ?????? ???????, 2003.

• ???????? ????????? ? ????? ????. ?.?. ????????. ??????: ?????-?????, 2011.

• Packet of readings available at Speedway Printers (First floor, Dobie Mall)

Course requirements:

Class presentation (in Russian)                    20%

Editorial/review          (in Russian)                20%

Final Essay (in English or Russian)                40%

Active Participation                                     20%

Course prerequisite: At least two years of Russian; Upper-division standing

 This course will consider the development of the Russian fairy tale and its adaptations of the tales of Perrault, Grimm, and other European writers, leading to the creation of the Russian literary fairy tales of Pushkin, Zhukovsky and Ostrovsky in the 19th century.  Also, contemporary filmic portraits of the tales from classical Russian productions to Disney and Cocteau will be examined as the heir to the original fairy tale genre.  Students will be familiarized with four critical methodologies used in the study of folk and fairy tales: Structuralist (Jakobson, Propp), Feminist (Warner, Lieberman), Psychological (Bettelheim, Freud), and Sociological (Zipes, Lüthi).  We will apply various of these methodologies to the texts – tales, films and prints – that we examine.

Texts:

Required Texts:

• Russian Folk Belief.  Linda J. Ivanits, Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 1992.

• Russian Fairy Tales,  A. Afanas'ev, New York: Pantheon Books, 1974.

• The Uses of Enchantment, Bruno Bettelheim, ed.  New York: Random House/Vintage, 1977.

• Packet of readings available at Speedway Printers in Dobie Mall

            Recommended Texts:

• The Morphology of the Folktale, Vladimir Propp, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1975.

• Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion, Jack Zipes, New York: Methuen Press, 1983.

• Once Upon a Time: On the Nature of Fairy Tales, Max Lüthi, Bloomington: Indiana U P, 1976.

Requirements and Grading

            Reaction paper (5 pp.)                                           20%

                        Midterm exam I                                        25%

                        Short critical essay (5-7 pp.)                       20%

                        Midterm exam II                                       25%

                        Participation                                              10%

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

Course Description

Maledicta: (Latin. n., pl. maledictum, sg.), curse words, insults; profane language of all kinds.

When is a word “bad”? Why can one person use a “bad” word with impunity, and another cannot? What marks such usage as acceptable or not?  How do race, socioeconomic class, and gender play into the use of “bad” language in the US? This course undertakes the examination of modern usage of language that has been designated as “bad” through social convention. Usage of forms of obscenities and profanity in popular usage will be examined in an attempt to come to an understanding of how the products of US popular culture portray maledicta in situational contexts. Through an examination of various texts culled from print, film, and music, participants will study the context and use of “bad” language and attempt to determine the underlying principles that dictate its affect and determine its impact on the audience. Though the majority of texts and usage will be taken from English-language sources, several non-English examples of maledicta from Mexican Spanish and Russian will also be examined for contrast and comparison.

NB: This course examines texts that contain usage of obscenities, profanity, and offensive language. Students who do not wish to be exposed to such language in use should not sign up for this course.

Texts:

• Bad Language: Are Some Words Better than Others? Edwin Battistella.

Oxford UP, 2007.

• Expletive Deleted: A Good Look at Bad Language. Ruth Wajnryb. Free press,

2005.

• Course packet

Requirements and Grading

• Exams (two midterms):             30%

• Film review:                            20%

• Reading journal:                        20%

• Research paper:                        30%

This course is the second semester of intensive Russian language instruction developing functional proficiency in listening, speaking, and reading. Writing will be developed both through workbook home assignments and brief reviews and summaries of your reading material.  We will cover all of the basic textbook, Units One through Unit Ten, plus an introductory unit, in the textbook, spending about seven class days on each unit. In addition, this course aims to develop your reading skills through both in-class reading assignments, and individual “free reading” based on a text of your choosing. Portfolio exercises will continue to develop your computer literacy skills – in Russian – for you to be truly functionally proficient and competitive in the language, as well as chronicle your progress in your independent reading project throughout the course. 

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

Description

Eight hundred years before Bram Stoker gave us the West's most memorable vampire in his novel Dracula and long before the exploits of Vlad "the Impaler" Tepes horrified Europe, the Russian Primary Chronicles tell of a Novgorodian prince as Upyr' Lichyj, or Wicked Vampire.  The Slavic and Balkan worlds abound in histories, legends, myths and literary portraits of the so-called un-dead, creatures which draw life out of the living.

This course examines the vampire in the history and cultures of Russia, the Balkans and Central and Eastern Europe, including manifestations in literature, religion, art, film and common practices.  Texts – both print and non-print media, both Slavic and non-Slavic – will be drawn from Russian, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Romany, Serbian and Croatian sources.  Participants will be asked to separate historical fact from popular fiction (where possible!), and form opinions about the place and importance of the vampire in Slavic and other Central European cultures. 

The course is conducted in English.  No knowledge of Russian required, though readings in Russian and other Slavic languages are available for majors and concentrators in the field.

Texts

 The Darkling: A Treatise on Slavic Vampirism.  Jan L. Perkowski, Columbus, OH: Slavica Publishers, 1989. [photocopy]

 The Vampire Casebook, Alan Dundes, Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998.

 Packet of readings

Recommended Text

Blood Read: The Vampire as Metaphor in Contemporary Culture, Joan Gordon and

Veronica Hollinger, eds., Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press,  1997.

Requirements and grading

Short essay I (5 pp.)                            20%

Midterm exam                                      20%

Short essay II (5 pp.)                            20%

Text journal                                          20%

Final exam                                            20%

Course Description:

This course is the first semester of intensive Russian language instruction developing functional proficiency in listening, speaking, and reading. Writing will be developed primarily through workbook and computer-based home assignments.  We will cover all of Volumes One and Two of the textbooks, Units One through Unit Fourteen in the textbooks, spending about one week on each unit. In addition, this course aims to develop computer literacy skills – in Russian – for you to be truly functional and competitive in the language.

Readings:

Textbook: • Davidson, Gor, and Lekic.  Russian: Stage One: Live from Russia! 2^nd ed., vols. 1 and 2, (Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co. 2008 and 2009). These packaged sets comprise two basic textbooks, two workbooks, two audio CDs, and two DVDs. Available at the University Co-op.

Recommended:            • Russian/English Dictionary

• Gerhart, G., The Russian’s World, Orlando: Houghton Mifflin, 1994.

• Garza, T., Fundamentals of Russian Verbal Conjugation for Teachers
  and Students, Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt and ACTR Publications, 1993.

Grading:

There are five components of your final course grade.  These components and their relative weights are:

1.  Testing:  35%

Unit tests: 15%

Final exam: 20%

2.  Homework:  15% 

3.  Participation:  15% 

4.  Portfolio:  15%

5.  Oral Presentation:  20%

Course Content: The social and political upheaval that shook the Soviet Union in the late 1980s has fascinated and puzzled the Western media to the present day. But how well do we understand the causes and effects of the dramatic cultural changes that mark the new Russia of the 1990s and the 21st century?  Do UT's “Millennials” have anything to learn from the Soviet experience of a disenfranchised generation of Young Marxists choosing to embrace Capitalism and Coldplay instead of Communism and Cold War?

This course will provide participants with the materials to construct an ethnographic portrait of Russia’s contemporary youth and their culture, drawing from a variety of print, audio and video sources.  In addition to reading extensively from diverse genres, including the Russian press, editorials, contemporary prose and non-fiction, students in the course should be prepared to immerse themselves in the non-print media coming directly out of Moscow and Saint-Petersburg in the wake of post-Soviet reforms.  Using popular depictions of Russia’s own “twentysomethings” from recent films, documentaries, rock music lyrics, and art, students will try to come to understand how the youth movement effected and continues to affect the changing course of one of the world’s superpowers of the twentieth century. 

Readings and media presentations will focus on the current attitudes of Russian youth toward politics, music, drugs, sex, money and the military from the period of Gorbachev’s perestroika to 2011.  This course will be conducted -- as much as possible -- seminar style, with student interaction constituting a significant part of the usual "lecture" quotient of the course.  Though all required readings for the course are in English, additional readings in Russian for majors and graduate students in Slavic studies will be made available by topic.

This course is the second semester of intensive Russian language instruction developing functional proficiency in listening, speaking, and reading. Writing will be developed both through workbook home assignments and brief reviews and summaries of your reading material.  We will cover all of the basic textbook, Units One through Unit Ten, plus an introductory unit, in the textbook, spending about seven class days on each unit. In addition, this course aims to develop your reading skills through both in-class reading assignments, and individual “free reading” based on a text of your choosing. Portfolio exercises will continue to develop your computer literacy skills – in Russian – for you to be truly functionally proficient and competitive in the language, as well as chronicle your progress in your independent reading project throughout the course. 

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

Course Description

Stalin’s Moscow, 1936, The Devil and his gang have come to the mortal world to determine how Mankind is faring in the 20^th century.  He encounters a motley crew of Soviet bureaucrats, writers, politicians and arts who offer little hope for the future.  Enter the “Master”, an unknown writer struggling to finish a novel about the life of Christ told from the perspective of Pontius Pilate.  Can one writer and his work be reason enough to prevent the apocalypse? Enter Margarita, the Master’s selfless companion and heroine of Mikhail Bulgakov’s masterpiece, The Master and Margarita.  Regarded by many readers and critics as one of the greatest novels of our time, The Master and Margarita is a fixed part of Russian culture.  This course will explore not only the intricacies of the novel itself, but also its place among Bulgakov’s other literary works, and its varied sources from world literature, music and the visual arts.  More importantly, it reveals the brilliance and complexities of art created under a strict totalitarian regime.  This course will examine—within the Stalin-era Soviet context—the texts and philosophies that significantly influenced Bulgakov in the creation of his novel.  You will examine these various texts (philosophical treatises, stories, folklore, plays, paintings, opera, and films) and discover the ways that they influenced the shape of the novel and how they appear within the dual story lines and the numerous characters.  Ultimately, the course will allow you to reexamine your own philosophy of good and Evil in the 21^st century.

Text

The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov, Burgin & O’Connor, trans. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.

Faust, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, New York: Norton & Co. 2001.

The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri, New York; Everymans, 1995.

Packet of Readings (available at Speedway Printers in Dobie Mall).

Requirements and Grading Undergraduate

Short Essay (5 pp)                                                20%

Longer essay (10-12 pp)                                    30%

Final Examination                                                30%

Active enthusiastic participation                         20%

Course Description

This course provides a very intensive introduction to Russian language and culture. The in-class quotient of the course will be heavily based on active listening and speaking practice, with much use of various print, video, and web-based media. This course will require students to commit to undertaking intensive methods of instruction, which require their active participation in class and considerable attention to the language outside of class.  The goal of the course is to bring students to a level of functional proficiency in speaking and reading in a short-term course that will prepare them for intermediate Russian, or to engage in study abroad.  Students successfully completing this course may continue to RUS 611c in the spring to fulfill the Foreign Language Requirement in one year.

Text

Russian Stage One: Live from Russia! Vols 1 and 2

Katner,  Russian-English/English-Russian Dictionary

Garza, Fundamentals of Russian Verbal Conjugation

Gerhardt, The Russian World.

Requirements and Grading

In-class tests:                        25%

Homework:                        25%

Portfolios:                        25%

Participation                        25%

Prerequisite:

None

Required texts:

• The Vampire in Slavic Culture, Course Reader (CR), T. J. Garza, ed., University Readers, San Diego: CA, 2009.

• The Vampire: A Casebook, Alan Dundes, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998.

Recommended texts:

 • The Darkling: A Treatise on Slavic Vampirism, Jan L. Perkowski, Columbus: Slavica Publishers, 1989.

• Vampire Lore: From the Writings of Jan Louis Perkowski. Jan L. Perkowski, Bloomington: Slavica Publishers, 2006.

•Blood Read: The Vampire as Metaphor in Contemporary Culture, J. Gordon and V. Hollinger, Philadelphia: UPenn Press, 1997.

• Dracula, Bram Stoker, New York: Signet, 1997.

 I.         General

            Eight hundred years before Bram Stoker gave us the West's most memorable vampire in Dracula (1897) and long before the exploits of Vlad "the Impaler" Tepes horrified Europe (1431-46), the Russian Primary Chronicles write of a Novgorodian priest as Upyr' Likhij, or Wicked Vampire (1047).  The Slavic and Balkan worlds abound in histories, legends, myths and literary portraits of the so-called undead, creatures which draw life out of the living.

            This course examines the vampire in the cultures of Russia and Eastern Europe, including manifestations in literature, religion, art, film and common practices from its origins to 2009.  Texts – both print and non-print media – will be drawn from Russian, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Serbian and Croatian sources.  Participants will be asked to separate historical fact from popular fiction, and form opinions about the place of the vampire in Slavic and East European cultures. 

The course is conducted in English.  No knowledge of Russian required, though readings in Russian and other Slavic languages are available for majors and concentrators in related fields.

II.        Course Requirements

 Attendance and Participation: You are expected to attend class meetings regularly, participate actively in discussions, do all assigned readings and film viewings, and prepare written assignments. Because the readings and critical approaches covered in this course are cumulative in design, your regular participation is required.  Students missing more than three (3) class sessions will receive a reduction of their final grade.  Students who miss more than five (5) classes, or who do not complete all four of the required components of the syllabus cannot pass the course. In extreme circumstances, the instructor may excuse absences.

Short Essays: Two brief (4-5 pages) reaction papers to one of the readings or media presentations covered in class are due by Thursday, October 1, and Thursday, November 5.  While these essays are not research based, they may contain references or support from external sources.

Midterm Exam: A comprehensive midterm exam over all material covered (readings, films, slides, and lectures) in the first half of the course will be given on Thursday, October 22.  The specific format of the midterm will be announced well before the exam date.

Final exam: An exam – comparable in format to the midterm – covering the material (readings, films, slides, lectures) from the second half of the course -- will be given during the University exam period on Wednesday, December 9 from 2:00 – 5:00 pm.

Special Accommodations: Any student with disabilities may request appropriate academic accommodations fro the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, Services for Students with Disabilities at 471-6259. Any necessary accommodations should be presented to the instructor in written form.

 III.      Grading

In addition to regular attendance and participation, there are four components of the final course grade.  These components and their relative weights are:

Short essay I (4-5 pp.)          25%                            

Midterm exam                    25%

Short essay II (4-5 pp.)        25%                            

Final exam                         25%

All grades for this course will be assigned using the plus/minus system as follows:

A (4.00)?A- (3.67)?B+ (3.33)?B (3.00)?B- (2.67)?C+ (2.33)?C (2.00)?C- (1.67)?D+ (1.33)?D (1.00)?D- (.67)?F (0.00)

COURSE OUTLINE

Thursday, August 27           Introduction to SLA 301

                                                Overview of syllabus and course design for 301

                           • Definition of terms:  “Slavic” and “Vampire”

                           • Establishment of scene: the Carpathians and the Balkans

                                    View scene from Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula.’

For next meeting, read definitions of term “vampire” in the CR pp. 5-28, and “The History of the Word Vampire” in Dundes, pp. 3-11.

Tuesday, September 1         On Vampires and Upyri 

                           • The relationship between Slavic upyr and European vampire

For next session, read  “Poetic Views of the Slavs Regarding Nature” by

Afanasiev, “Heretics as Vampires and Demons in Russia” by Oinas , “Vampirism: Old World Folklore” by McNally & Floresçu,  “The Need Fire” by Fraser and“’Spoiling’ and ‘Healing’” by Ivanits in the CR pp. 29-66.

Thursday, September 3       Origins of Vampire Beliefs in the

                                                Slavic World

                           • Understanding the place of the vampire in the Slavic world

For the next session, read “The Epic of Gilgemesh: Prologue” by Kramer , “Lilith” by Guiley,  “Tlahuelpuchi” by Fraser and “Sirin” in the CR pp. 67-80.

Tuesday, September 8         From Folktales and Myths: Harpies and Sirin

                           • Folk belief, folklore and demons in the Slavic world

                           • Relationship between religion, paganism, and the vampire

For next meeting, read “Lycanthropy among the Ancients” by Baring-Gould, “The Werewolf: An Introduction” by Ashley, and “Lycanthropy and the Undead Corpse,” by Keyworth in CR pp. 81-118.

Thursday, September 11     Are Werewolves Vampires, Too?

                           • Werewolves, the undead and vampires

                           • The meaning behind the “vukodlak” in Slavic

 For next meeting, read “A Journey into Dracula Country” by Mascetti and “The Historical Dracula: Tyrant from Transylvania” by McNally and Floresçu in CR pp. 119-136.

Tuesday, September 15       Finding the Real “Dracula”

                           • Getting to know Transylvania

                           • The life and times of Vlad Tepes

For next meeting, read “Crusader Against the Turks” by McNally and Floresçu, and “Epilogue: The Imprisonment and Final Reign of Dracula” in CR pp. 137-158.

Thursday, September 17     Vlad “The Impaler” Dracula

                        • Who was the real Dracula?

                        • Why does the “myth” live on in Transylvania?

For next meeting, read “Bathory, Elizabeth,” by Melton, “Bathory, Elizabeth,” by Bunson, and “The Passion of Bathory: Bloody Christmas 1610,” by McNally in CR pp. 159-178.

Tuesday, September 22       Elizabeth Bathory

• How “vampirization” reports became part of the European tradition

For next meeting, read “Slavs, Vampires and the” in CR pp. 181-186.

Thursday, September 24     Vampires in the Slavic Lands

                           • The Balkans as backdrop for the vampire

                           • The vampire myth behind nationalism

For next meeting, read “In Defense of Vampires” in Dundes, pp. 57-66; and “Of Magic, Witches and Vampires in the Balkans,” “Bulgaria, Vampires in,” and “Southern Slavs, Vampires and the” in the CR pp. 187-204.

Tuesday, September 29       South Slavic Vampires

                           • The vampire as part of Balkan identity

For the next meeting, read “Gypsies , Vampires and the” in CR pp. 205-210.  First Reaction Paper is due on Thursday!

Thursday, October 1            Gypsies (Roma) and Vampires

                           • A culture within a culture

                        • Dispelling and creating racial prejudices

                        • Short Essay I due today

For the next meeting, read Oinas’ “East European Vampires” in Dundes, pp. 47-56; and “Russia, Vampires in,” by Melton, and “Tale of a Russian Vampire” by Blavatsky in CR pp. 211-220.

Tuesday, October 6              Russian Vampires

                           • Differences in East Slavic from the South Slavic Balkans

For next meeting, read Summers’ “Russia, Roumania and Bulgaria,” and Melton’s “Romania, Vampires in” in CR pp. 221-262.

Thursday, October 8            Central European Vampires, I

                        • The vampire in its historical home

                        • Issues of language and culture difference

For next meeting, read Murgoci’s and Perkowski’s “The Roumanian Folkloric Vampire” in Dundes pp. 12-34; and “Hungary, Vampires in,” “Czech Republic and Slovakia, Vampires in the” by Melton, and “The Golem” by DeBartolo in CR pp. 263-276.

Tuesday, October 13            Central European Vampires, II

                       • Beginnings of a literary tradition in vampire tales

                       • View and discuss The Golem

For next meeting, read “Peter Plogojowitz,” “The Shoemaker of Silesia,” and “Visum et Repertum” by Barber, and “Russian Stories” in CR pp. 277-306.

Thursday, October 15          Early Vampire Stories

                           • Connections between Vlad Tepes and European literature

                           • How the vampire legend reached Stoker in literature       

For next meeting, read Polidori’s/Byron’s “The Vampyre,” Chapter 2 from Stoker’s Dracula, and “From Dracula to Nosferatu” in CR pp. 309-330.

Tuesday, October 20            The Literary Vampire: From Byron to

Bram Stoker’s Dracula 

               • Connections between Vlad Tepes and European literature

               • How the vampire legend reached Stoker in literature       

 For next meeting, prepare for Midterm Exam (No new reading.).

Thursday, October 22          Midterm Exam

                           • In-class written exam over material (texts, films, slides, lectures)

For next meeting, read  Gibson’s “Dracula and the Eastern Question” in CR pp. 337-348, and watch and watch F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu.

Thursday, October 27          The Literary Vampire: Film and the Slavic Tradition

                           • The vampire as the “Other” in film

                           • View scenes from Nosferatu (1922)

For next meeting, and Neruda’s “The Vampire” in CR pp. 349-352; and watch Todd Browning’s film Dracula (1931) with Bela Lugosi.

Thursday, October 29          The Vampire in Czech Literature

                           • Comparison of cultural tradition and literary works

                           • View scenes from Dracula (1931)

For next meeting, read Karamzin’s “The Island of Bornholm,” Pushkin’s “The Bridegroom” (two versions), “Evil Spirits,” and “The Drowned Man,” in CR pp. 353-382.

Tuesday, November 3        The Vampire in Russian Literature, I

               • Creating a literary standard for Russian for horror

For next meeting, read Tolstoy’s “The Family of the Vurdalak” in CR pp. 383-400. 

Second Reaction Paper is due on Thursday! 

Thursday, November 5      The Vampire in Russian Literature, II

               • A return to folk motifs in literary Russian

                           • View selection from Mario Bava’s Black Sunday

                           • Short Essay II due today.

 For next meeting, read Gogol’s “Viy,” and Turgenev’s “Phantoms: A Fantasy,” in CR pp. 401-456.

Thursday, November 5      The Vampire in Russian Literature, II

               • A return to folk motifs in literary Russian

                           • View selection from Mario Bava’s Black Sunday

                           • Short Essay II due today.

For next meeting, read Gogol’s “Viy,” and Turgenev’s “Phantoms: A Fantasy,” in CR pp. 401-456.

Thursday, November 12    The Vampire in Russian Literature, IV

                           • Fantasy moves from the 19^th to the 20^th century

                           • View selection from Bortko’s Master and Margarita 

For next meeting, read Pelevin’s “A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia,” and selection from Night Watch by Lukyanenko in CR pp. 471-508.

Tuesday, November 17      Russian Vampires for the New Century

                           • The Postmodern Slavic vampire in literature and film

                           • View scenes from Night Watch (2004)

For next meeting, read Barber’s “Forensic Pathology and the European Vampire” in Dundes, and “Protection from Blood Drinkers,” by Konstantinos and “The Rational Slayer” by McClelland in CR pp. 511-536.

Thursday, November 19    How to Kill a (Slavic) Vampire

                           • Death of the undead?

                           • More folk mythology in eliminating the vampire

For next meeting, read song lyrics for Vysotsky, Lika, Linda, and Detsl in CR pp. 539-550.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tuesday, December 1          Vampires and Russian Pop Music

                           • View Russian music videos of the ‘90s and ‘00s

                           • Incorporating vampires into pop culture

For last meeting, read lyrics for The Leg Cramps, B-2, Uma2rman,

Night Snipers, and Grigoriy Leps in CR pp. 551-561.

Thursday, December 3        Russian Rock, Goths and Vamps

                           • View Russian music videos of the 2000s

                           •Examine web-based Russian gothic movement

                           • Final exam format

Prepare for Final Examination

???????:

•Cinema for Russian Conversation, Vol. 2 (????), Mara Kashper, Olga Kagan and Yuliya Morozova.  Newburyport, MA: Focus Publishing, 2005 [copy available at the UT Co-Op, or on amazon.com].

• Course packet/????? ?????? (??)

I.         ????? 

Course Content: You know the grammar, lots of words; you’ve maybe even been to Russia on an exchange program.  Now what?  This course is the seventh semester (4th year) of Russian language instruction developing proficiency in listening and speaking through exposure to authentic Russian print, audio and video materials based on recent Russian cinema – now classics in their own right!  You will have the opportunity to express yourself through a wide variety of discourse strategies, including persuasion (e.g., convince your friend to watch «?????? ??????» with you), oration (e.g., give a lecture in a Russian school on your favorite American film, actor, or director), explication (explain to a Russian in Moscow why Tarkovsky is a better director than Mikhalkov) and others.   We will cover volume two of the textbook series, spending approximately two weeks on each film/unit, allowing additional time for review; however, the textbook will provide only the basis for classroom interaction during each session.  The classic Russian films themselves will provide a variety of related Russia realia (print, video, audio) to supplement the themes of each film to enhance your communication skills.  The films covered in the fall semester are: «???????? ??????», «????? ?????», «?????????? ???????», «???», «????????? ?? ?????», «??????–?????», and «????????? ?????????». The course is conducted entirely in Russian – of course!  ? ???, ???????? ? ????! 

?????????:

 ???????????? ? ???????? ???????: You are required to attend class meetings regularly, participate actively in discussions, do all assigned readings and film viewings, and prepare assigned written and oral presentations. Students will be penalized for excessive absences and/or chronic tardiness.

 ???????? ?? ??????: Each student will present two film reviews orally (from notes) in class. The review should last approximately five minutes and must state specific and concrete opinions about the film, actors, director, and/or cinematography, etc.  Following the presentation, the reviewer must be prepared to take questions from the group.

 ???????? ???????: Assignments given from the textbooks may include Internet research, outside reading, film viewing, translations, etc., and should be turned in during the following class meeting. Please hand in all work on time so that it may be returned to you promptly.

 ???????? ????????:  A final written review (2-3 pages) of the last film will be turned in on the last day of the course.

 ??????????????: Any student with disabilities may request appropriate academic accommodations fro the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, Services for Students with Disabilities at 471-6259. Any necessary accommodations should be presented to the instructor in written form.

 II.        ??????

 There are four components of the final course grade.  These components and their relative weights are:

???????????? ? ???????? ???????                    30%

???????? ?? ??????                                                    30%

???????? ???????                                                        20%

???????? ????????                                                        20%

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

This is the introductory seminar to Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies.  It consists of a series of guest lectures by a   diverse cast of CREEES faculty in order to give the students as  broad an overview of the field as possible.

Prerequisites: graduate standing. 

Readings:  Distributed by visiting lecturers a week before each lecture

Grading:   Participation:             10%

              Oral presentation:       40%

               Final research paper:  50%

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.