Slavic Languages and Literatures

2710 Hall of Graduate Studies, 432.1300, slavic.department@yale.edu
M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.

Chair
Harvey Goldblatt

Director of Graduate Studies
Katerina Clark (451 College, Rm 203, 432.0712, katerina.clark@yale.edu)

Professors
Vladimir Alexandrov, Katerina Clark, Harvey Goldblatt, Benjamin Harshav (Comparative Literature), Michael Holquist (Comparative Literature), Riccardo Picchio (Emeritus), Tomas Venclova

Associate Professor
Vladimir Golstein

Assistant Professors
Hilary Fink, John MacKay

Senior Lector
Rita Lipson

Lector
Nike Agman

Fields of Study
Fields include Russian literature, medieval Slavic literature and philology (by special arrangement), Polish literature (by special arrangement).

Special Admissions Requirement
An advanced-level command of the Russian language is required.

Special Requirements for the Ph.D. Degree
All entering graduate students must pass departmental proficiency examinations in Russian. During their residence, students specializing in Russian literature take a minimum of sixteen term courses (including three courses in linguistics) and are expected to acquire a comprehensive knowledge in all periods of Russian literature, a familiarity with medieval Slavic literature, a thorough command of the Russian language, and a mastery of a field of concentration within Russian literature. The student's course work, with the approval of the director of graduate studies, may be selected from the offerings of the department and any other department of the University. In addition, the student will be responsible for developing a minor field of specialization in one of the following: (1) a Western literature; (2) another Slavic literature; (3) Slavic linguistics; (4) a topic in intellectual history. (A special curriculum may be arranged for students wishing to specialize in either medieval Slavic literature and philology or Polish literature; a minimum of sixteen term courses will be required for each.) A reading examination in either French or German, administered and evaluated by the department, must be passed by all graduate students by the beginning of the fifth term of study. The qualifying examinations, based on specific fields of concentration and on topics designed by the student in consultation with the faculty, should be passed by the end of the sixth term of study. A dissertation prospectus must be submitted no later than September 15 of the seventh term of study. Upon completion of all predissertation requirements, including the prospectus, students are admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D.

Master's Degrees
M.Phil. See Graduate School requirements. Alternatively, the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures offers, in conjunction with the Medieval Studies program, a joint M.Phil. degree. For further details, see Medieval Studies.

M.A. (en route to the Ph.D.). The M.A. degree will be recommended by the department upon satisfactory completion of one year of full-time (eight graduate term courses) study in the Ph.D. program.

Master's Degree Program. Candidates for the terminal master's degree will be required to take selected courses in Russian literature and linguistics, in consultation with the director of graduate studies. The program will consist of eight term courses and an M.A. essay. A grade of Honors in at least two courses and an average of High Pass in the remaining courses must be attained. A reading knowledge of French or German is required. An M.A. degree in the department does not guarantee admission to the Ph.D. program.

Program materials are available upon request to the Chair, Slavic Languages and Literatures, Yale University, PO Box 208236, New Haven CT 06520-8236.

Courses
RUSS 602a, Old Russian Literature: Muscovite Period. Riccardo Picchio. Tuesday 10.30-12.20
This course treats the evolution of Old Russian literary civilization from the late-medieval period (fourteenth and fifteenth centuries) to the pre-modern (sixteenth and seventeenth centuries). Through the reading of selected texts, special attention is devoted to religious and ideological movements as well as to the problems of language and style.

RUSS 666b, Pushkin. Vladimir Golstein. Wednesday 1.30-3.20
A study of Pushkin's evolution through the analysis of his major texts. Examination of the key critical issues that surround Pushkin's oeuvre (e.g., genre, parody, influence, the treatment of time, history).

RUSS 671a, Russian Literature in the Context of Western Philosophy. Hilary Fink. Thursday 10.30-12.20
An intensive analysis of Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground, Tolstoy's Death of Ivan Il'ich and The Cossacks, and selected short stories by Chekhov. These works are examined first in their own right and then through the prism of such Western philosophers as Rousseau, Schiller, Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Bergson, and Heidegger. Some attention given to Russian philosophy in its relation to the Russian literary tradition.

RUSS 673b, Tolstoy, Novelness, and World Literature. Michael Holquist. Tuesday 1.30-3.20
Although he created works in many different genres, Tolstoy is primordially associated with the novel. There are those who think of him as the novelist. And yet Tolstoy himself despised generic thinking in general, and normative concepts of "the novel" in particular. In this seminar we examine some of the contradictions concerning the idea of the novel as it is complicated by the case of Tolstoy. We of course read War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and Resurrection, as well as some of Tolstoy's short fiction and polemical essays. In addition, we examine theoretical speculation about novels that might be helpful in understanding their peculiarity in shaping Tolstoy's achievement. In particular, we meditate questions about the relation between the novel and its complex filiation with concepts of "Europe." Readings and discussion in English, but Russian, German, and French texts are read in the original by those having the relevant languages. Also CPLT 977b.

RUSS 680b, Acmeism. Tomas Venclova.
Acmeist ideas and values within their historical and cultural context. Close readings of poems by Gumilev, Mandelstam, Akhmatova, and others.

RUSS 689a, Russian Symbolist Poetry. Tomas Venclova. Tuesday 1.30-3.20
Theory and history of symbolism. Close readings of poems by Bryusov, Blok, Ivanov, Annensky, and others.

RUSS 695a, Soviet Literature of the 1920s and 1930s. Katerina Clark. Wednesday 1.30-3.20
The 1920s was both the most fertile and the most fateful period in Soviet literature. The period ended in 1932 with the imposition of Socialist Realism, but that resolution represented only a small fraction of the possibilities that had emerged during the decade. This course presents an historical overview, incorporating some of the main landmarks of the 1920s and 1930s including works by Pilnyak, Bakhtin, the Formalists, Eisenstein, Platonov, Mayakovsky, Bulgakov, and Zoshchenko.

RUSS 747b, Eisenstein, Pudovkin, Vertov. John MacKay. Monday 1.30-3.20

RUSS 833, Advanced Russian Conversation and Composition: Topics in Contemporary Russian Press and Media. Rita Lipson. Mon/Wed 12.30-1.20
A course designed to equip students with advanced language skills necessary to comprehend the complexities of contemporary Russian press and media. Accompanied by a grammar review. Fall and spring.

RUSS 851b, Proseminar in Russian Literature. Vladimir Alexandrov. Thursday 3.30-5.20
Introduction to the graduate study of Russian literature. Topics include literary theory, methodology, introduction to the profession.

SLAV 754au, Old Church Slavic. Nike Agman. Tues/Thurs 4-5.15
Rudiments of Old Church Slavic, the oldest Slavic literary language. Introduction to glagolitic and cyrillic as early writing systems. Study of grammar, both as attested in the Old Church Slavic literary canon and in its relationship to the modern Slavic languages, especially Russian. Close readings of selected Old Church Slavic texts from the tenth and early eleventh centuries.

SLAV 805b, History of the Russian Literary Language. Harvey Goldblatt. Wednesday 10.30-12.20
This course traces the different types of literary language used in the Russian lands from the medieval period to modern times. Special attention is devoted to the relations between language and culture in general and literary codification and formal techniques in particular.

SLAV 900, Directed Reading.
By arrangement with faculty.

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