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Major Descriptions

Russian | Russian and East European Studies Program

Russian

Major program. The major is designed to provide students with an advanced level of fluency in the Russian language, a knowledge of Russian literature (with emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries), and a basic understanding of the historical and cultural context in which it developed. To be accepted into the major, the student must have an average of B in Russian-related courses.

Russian-language classes are conducted in small groups that meet from four to five times per week with required work in the language lab. Survey courses in Russian prose (RUSS205, 206, 251, 252, etc.) are offered in translation. Students in advanced seminars conducted in Russian do close readings of poetry and prose.

Requirements. Seven courses in Russian language and literature are required beyond the third-year level of language study. These must include RUSS205 and 206 and one seminar on Russian prose, poetry, or drama (conducted in Russian). Students may receive credit toward the major for some course work done in the former Soviet Union (FSU) to be determined in consultation with the major advisor.

Russian House. Students may choose to live in the Russian House, whose inhabitants organize department events, cooperative dining, and Russian conversation hours, with the participation of native speakers.

Intensive summer study. Students are encouraged to accelerate their learning of Russian by attending intensive summer programs, including an intensive course in intermediate Russian that Wesleyan offers in June.

Study in the FSU. Russian majors are encouraged to spend a summer and/or a semester studying in the FSU after completing at least two years of language study or the equivalent. Some scholarship money is available for summer study, and academic credit (under RUSS465) will be given for successful completion of Wesleyan-sponsored programs.

Departmental honors. To qualify to receive honors or high honors in the Russian Department, a student must write a senior thesis to be submitted for evaluation to a committee consisting of the tutor, a second reader with expertise in Russian literature or history, and one additional faculty reader. This committee makes the final decision on departmental honors.

Last updated: March 31, 2008.

Contact wesmaps@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions.

Russian and East European Studies Program

The major in Russian and East European studies is designed to provide a broad background in Russian, Soviet, and East European history, politics, economics, and literature. To be accepted into the program, students must have a minimum overall average of B in courses related to the major.

Major requirements. Majors must complete three years of college-level Russian or the equivalent. Each student, in consultation with an advisor, will work out an individual program consisting of at least one course from each of the fields listed below (politics and economics, history, and literature) and four more courses in the three fields (distributed as agreed with the advisor).

Study abroad. Majors are strongly encouraged to participate in either a summer or a semester program of study in the former Soviet Union (FSU), for which academic credit will be given.

Departmental honors. To qualify to receive honors or high honors in Russian and East European studies, a student must write a senior thesis that will be evaluated by a committee consisting of the tutor, a second reader from the Russian and East European studies faculty, and one additional reader from the faculty at large. This committee makes the final decision on departmental honors.

Politics and Economics

ECON265 Economies in Transition
GOVT274 Russian Politics

History

HIST155 The Intelligentsia and Power: The Struggle for Socialism in the Early Soviet Period
HIST156 East European Jewish Experience
HIST218 Russian History to 1881
HIST219 Russian and Soviet History 1881 to Present

Language and Literature

RUSS101/102 Elementary Russian
RUSS201/202 Intermediate Russian
RUSS301/302 Third-Year Russian
RUSS205 The 19th-Century Russian Novel
RUSS206 A Matter of Life and Death: Fiction in the Soviet Era
RUSS207 Popular Culture in Russia
RUSS209 The Poor Clerk: Origins of the Petersburg Tale
RUSS220 Speak, Memory: Autobiography and Memoir in Russian Literature
RUSS222 Doubles in Literature
RUSS240 Reading Stories
RUSS250 Pushkin
RUSS251 Dostoevsky
RUSS252 Tolstoy
RUSS253 Gogol and the Short Story
RUSS254 Murder and Adultery: The French and Russian Novel
RUSS255 The Central and East European Novel
RUSS260 Dostoevsky's Bratia Karamazovy
RUSS263 Nabokov and Cultural Synthesis
RUSS265 Kino: Russia at the Movies
RUSS266 Architects and Inventors of the Word: Russian Modernist Poetry
RUSS267 Parody: Russian and Western, Theory and Practice
RUSS285 Short Prose of the 20th Century
RUSS290 The Fantastic in Narrative Imagination
RUSS303 Advanced Russian: Stylistics

Last updated: April 10, 2008

Contact wesmaps@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions.