Russian

The Russian program at Swarthmore College aims to give students the key to the nation that Winston Churchill in 1939 called “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” Historically, the Russian people have made enormous contributions to world culture in music, literature, the arts, film, engineering and the sciences. With its sheer size and wealth of natural resources, today’s increasingly aggressive and powerful Russia is an important global player, for better or worse, making the study of Russia’s language and culture of continuing strategic importance.

It may surprise you to learn that Russian is the sixth most widely-spoken language in the world, with more than 275 million speakers. Russian serves as the lingua franca for much of Central Asia, and is still widely spoken in other former republics of the Soviet Union. Over 3 million persons claiming Russian heritage live in the United States. Today you can hear Russian spoken in a number of large American cities, including New York and right here in Northeast Philadelphia!

Students of Russian can take advantage of a rich environment for language study, including intensive introductory language courses, language tables, multimedia resources, and opportunities for study abroad. Our rigorous four-year language sequence is designed to bring students at minimum to an ACTFL- rated level of Advanced in all four modalities (reading, writing, listening, and speaking). This prepares our students for potential participation in the prestigious Flagship Program. One of only four such programs in the nation, this year-long post-graduation program is designed to bring students up to the ACTFL-rated Superior level proficiency, allowing them to fully function in the professional sphere. The Flagship Program is an extraordinary opportunity for Swarthmore students; you can find more information on the Flagship Program here.

Our content courses in literature and culture are taught in English and span the history of Russia, ranging from the medieval era through Russia’s Golden Age of the nineteenth century and on to the Soviet and Post-Soviet Era. We also offer interdisciplinary courses such as Nature and Industry in Russia and The Muslim in Russia. Students of Russian language can take a Russian-language attachment to any of our literature-in-translation courses and read selections of works in the original Russian. Additionally, courses from the History Department support our program.

The small size of the Russian section means a great deal of one-on-one attention for our students as well as flexibility in our offerings. So join us and be one of the few who have the key to the enigma that is Russia!

Featured Courses

Fall 2018

RUSS 014/LITR 014R (W)
The Russian Novel: Revolution, Terror, Resistance

Tu/Th 1.15-2.30 p.m.

What does a culture look like after it undergoes a series of revolutions—sexual, linguistic, political—in short succession? To answer this question, this course surveys the Russian novel from the years leading up to the Bolshevik Revolution, through the Soviet period, and into the post-Cold War era. We will consider literary, social, and historical contexts and will address such issues as revolution, repression, emigration, trauma, forms of resistance, and the artist’s role in society. Works include Zamiatin’s We, Olesha’s Envy, Nabokov’s The Gift, Bulgakov’s Master & Margarita, Tertz’s The Trial Begins, Sokolov’s Between Dog & Wolf, Petrushevskaya’s Time: Night, and Shishkin’s Maidenhair.

For more information or the syllabus, please contact José Vergara (jvergar1@swarthmore.edu).

RUSS 070/LITR 070R/LING 070
Translation Workshop

M 1.15-4.00 p.m.

This workshop in literary translation will concentrate on both theory and practice, working in poetry, prose, and drama as well as editing. Students will participate in an associated series of bilingual readings and will produce a substantial portfolio of work. Students taking the course for linguistics credit will write a final paper supported by a smaller portfolio of translations. No prerequisites exist, but excellent knowledge of a language other than English (equivalent to a 004 course at Swarthmore or higher) is highly recommended or, failing that, access to at least one very patient speaker of a foreign language.

For more information, please contact Sibelan Forrester (sforres1@swarthmore.edu).

RUSS 086/LITR 086R
Nature and Industry in Russian Literature and Culture

Tu/Th 2.40-3.55 p.m.

From pre-Christian religion and folklore based in forest, steppe and tundra and the enduring role of peasant culture to today's Neo-Pagans, Russian culture has been closely bound to nature, developing sustainable agricultural practices, honoring "Moist Mother Earth" and (even sophisticated city dwellers) heading out to gather berries and mushrooms. But the Soviet era pursued science-fictional plans to redesign whole landscapes, make rivers flow backwards and even revolutionize plant genetics (Trofim Lysenko). In practice, such projects led to a shrinking Aral Sea, massive pollution of industrial and agricultural sites, and the worst nuclear disaster in human history (Chernobyl) - at great human cost. Writers have both supported industrial transformation and resisted industrialization. This course will trace the evolution of these elements of Russian culture, focusing on expressions of ideology in literature. No knowledge of Russian is necessary, but students with the language may do some reading in the original.

For more information, please contact Sibelan Forrester (sforres1@swarthmore.edu).