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, Laura Engelstein (History),
Harvey Goldblatt,
Benjamin Harshav (Comparative Literature), Michael Holquist
(Comparative Literature), Tomas Venclova
Associate Professor
Hilary Fink, Robert Greenberg (Adjunct)
Assistant Professors
John MacKay
Senior Lector
Irina Dolgova, Rita Lipson
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, and the prospectus defense must take place no later
than December 1 of the same term. Upon completion of all predissertation
requirements, including the prospectus and its defense, students
are admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D.
The faculty considers teaching to be an important part of
the professional preparation of graduate students. Students
in Slavic normally teach in their third and fourth years.
Joint Ph.D. Program
The Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures also offers,
in conjunction with the Program in Film Studies, a joint Ph.D.
in Slavic Languages and Literatures and Film Studies. For
further details, see Film Studies on page 177. Applicants
to the joint program must indicate on their application that
they are applying both to Film Studies and to Slavic Languages
and Literatures. All documentation within the application
should include this information.
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. The Department of Slavic
Languages and Literatures does not admit students for the
terminal M.A. degree, nor does it award an M.A. en route to
the Ph.D. degree. If, however, a student admitted for the
Ph.D. leaves the program prior to completion of the doctoral
degree, he or she may be eligible to receive a terminal master’s
degree. He or she must have completed at least fifteen term
courses in Russian literature and linguistics, chosen in consultation
with the director of graduate studies. A grade of Honors in
at least two term courses and an average of High Pass in the
remaining courses must be attained. A reading knowledge of
French or German is required, and candidates must pass departmental
proficiency examinations in Russian.
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 652a, Nineteenth-Century Russian Lyric Poetry. Tomas
Venclova. T 3.30–5.20
Textual analysis of selected poems from major nineteenth-century
Russian lyric poets Zhukovskij, Batjushkov, Baratynskij, Tjutchev,
Lermontov, Fet, and Nekrasov. As well as acquainting students
with nineteenth-century Russian lyric poetry, the course aims
at evolving a meaningful approach to poetry in general. Open
to qualified undergraduates.
RUSS 653b, Tolstoy. Vladimir Alexandrov. Th 3.30–5.20
A seminar surveying the early, middle, and late periods
of Leo Tolstoy’s legacy, including selected short stories,
novels, and discursive writings. Primary attention to the
development of his artistic themes, formal characteristics,
and ideology. All readings in Russian.
RUSS 675a, Promised Lands: Slavery, Literature, and Modernity
in Russia and the United States. John MacKay. T 1.30–3.20
Close, comparative, contextualized examination of literary
and other forms of cultural production associated with U.S.
slavery and Russian serfdom. Special attention is paid to
the relation between bondage and national, cultural, and personal
identity; the role of bondage in definitions of “aesthetic
experience” in the pre- and post-emancipation periods;
the relation between literacy and the literary; literature
of protest in the two countries; and connections between geographical
and subjective space within cultures of enslavement. We examine
works by Pushkin, Aksakov, Gogol, Simms, Cooper, Crèvecoeur,
Radishchev, Karamzin, Goncharov, Tolstoy, Kennedy, and the
“plantation novelists,” Stowe, Melville, Turgenev,
slave and serf autobiographers, freedman’s textbooks,
Fet, Lanier, Page, Chesnutt, and Bunin; historical treatments
by Kolchin, Genovese, and others; theoretical works by Said,
Jameson, Saidiya Hartman, Bakhtin, and others. Requirements:
in-class presentations; research paper. No knowledge of Russian
required. Also AMST 926a, CPLT 571a.
RUSS 678b, Brodsky. Tomas Venclova. W 10.30–12.20
An investigation of Joseph Brodsky’s poetic work
against the background of contemporary Russian poetry. Close
readings of approximately twenty selected poems.
RUSS 695a, Soviet Literature of the 1920s and 1930s. Katerina
Clark. W 1.30–3.20
The 1920s were 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 699b, Performing Arts in the Twentieth Century:
The Russian Stage. Katerina
Clark. W 1.30–3.20
Covers most of the performing arts: ballet, opera, theater,
mass spectacle, and film. Theory of the performing arts, including
selections from the writings of some of the most famous Rus-sian
directors such as Stanislavsky, Meierhold, Eisenstein, and
Balanchine. Their major productions and some of the major
Russian plays of the twentieth century (e.g., by Chekhov,
Mayakovsky, Bulgakov, and contemporary dramatists). No knowledge
of Russian required. Students taking the course for credit
in Comparative Literature can write their papers on texts
in other languages. Also CPLT 677b.
RUSS 833, Advanced Russian Conversation and Composition:
Topics in Contemporary Russian Press and Media. Rita
Lipson. MW 12.30–1.20
A course designed to equip students with advanced language
skills necessary to comprehend complexities of contemporary
Russian press and media. Accompanied by a grammar review.
Fall and spring.
RUSS 834b, Aspects of Russian Grammar and Teaching Methodologies.
Irina Dolgova. T 12.30–2.20
The course examines various aspects of Russian grammar
and the use of different teaching methodologies. Special emphasis
is placed on the connection between linguistic knowledge and
its application for
teaching Russian in an English-speaking classroom. Different
types of language learners, diverse teaching strategies, and
existing resources for teaching Russian are discussed.
RUSS 851a, Proseminar in Russian Literature. Vladimir
Alexandrov.th 3.30–5.20
Introduction to the graduate study of Russian literature.
Topics include literary theory, meth-odology, introduction
to the profession.
SLAV 754au, Old Church Slavic. Harvey Goldblatt.tth
11.30–12.45
The study of OCS and its place in the history of Church
Slavic. The main features and the grammar of OCS. The Glagolitic
and Cyrillic writing systems. Close readings from the “canon”
of OCS literary monuments. OCS in relation to modern Slavic
languages (especially Russian).
SLAV 785bu, Language, Nationalism, and Ethnic Conflict
in the Balkans.Robert Greenberg. MW 4–5.15
This course explores the role of linguistic controversies
in the polarization of ethnic relations within the former
Yugoslavia. Topics include language and nationalism, the integration
and disintegration of Yugoslavia, and the Balkans in the context
of other charged ethno-linguistic controversies from the United
States to India.
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