Russian Department

About the Majors

Russian Language and Literature

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 Russian Federation to be determined in consultation with the major advisor.

Russian House. Students may choose to live in the Russian House, which 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 a 3-week intensive course in intermediate Russian that Wesleyan offers in mid-May to June.

Study in the Russian Federation. 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. Academic credit (under RUSS465/466) will be given for successful completion of Wesleyan-approved 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.

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
  •   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
  •   RUSS256 Tolstoy's <>Anna Karenina
  •   RUSS260 Dostoevsky’s Brat’ia 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
  •   RUSS277 Gogol and His Legacy: Witches, Con Men, and Runaway Noses
  •   RUSS285 Short Prose of the 20th Century
  •   RUSS303 Advanced Russian: Stylistics