Russian Courses in Fall 2020
Russian 001: Intensive Elementary Russian
MWF 11:30-12:20 (Tsvetelina Yordanova)
T/Th 11:20-12:35 (Sibelan Forrester, contact <sforres1@swarthmore.edu>)
Embark on the study of the Russian language, key to all kinds of knowledge and aesthetic satisfaction, as well as important and fascinating jobs in the future! Students who begin Russian in their second year at Swarthmore can still major or minor in Russian; students who begin later can use Russian to support work in a whole variety of different disciplines (and can speed up progress with summer study or during study abroad). It’s never too late! Our classes are small, allowing lots of individual attention and responsiveness to students’ interests.
Russian 008A: Russian Phonetics
TBA: half credit class will meet once a week for 75 minutes; taught in English
Tsvetelina Yordanova (contact: <tyordan1@swarthmore.edu>)
A thoughtful introduction to the phonetic system of Russian, useful for students of Linguistics as well as students or heritage speakers of Russian.
Russian 014: The Russian Novel — Revolution, Terror and Resistance (W)
Tu/Th 1:15-2:30 p.m.; taught in English
José Vergara (Contact: jvergar1@swarthmore.edu)
What does a culture look like after it undergoes a series of revolutions—sexual, political, linguistic—in short succession? To answer this question, this course surveys the Russian novel and its contexts through the 20th Century and into the 21st. A battle of values in the early USSR between a rebel and a sausage maker. First love and the Russo-Japanese war through the eyes of a child. A dystopian, Kafkaesque tale of an individual awaiting his execution. Stalin’s purges, Gulag labor camps, and the women who fight for their sons. A murder-mystery in the depths of the Russian provinces. The fall of the Soviet Union and the tragedy of those it left behind. A time traveler born in 1900 who awakens in 1999 and must reconstruct the Russian 20th Century. All are welcome. Taught in translation.
Russian 019: Russian Culture through Music
Cross-listed as MUSI 004C; taught in Russian
MWF 10:30-11:20
Tsvetelina Yordanova (contact: <tyordan1@swarthmore.edu>)
Music has always played a central role in Russian cultural life. Shaping and responding to various cultural, social, and political changes, it has served as a space for the construction and negotiation of individual and national identity. This course will touch on the folk tradition and the beginning of Russian classical music and opera - Glinka, Musorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, et al. We will also examine the development of Russian music through different historical periods, through punk, rap and contemporary popular music, concentrating on the common interests of the students enrolled in the course. How does a piece of music reflect the ideological and political situation of its time? How does it reveal the aesthetic sensibilities and aspirations of the composers, their listeners, and society at large? How has music’s expression of social and cultural values changed in post-Soviet times?
Russian 070/LITR 070R/LING 070: Translation Workshop
M 1:15-4:00 p.m.; taught in English
Sibelan Forrester (contact <sforres1@swarthmore.edu>
This class is open to anyone with at least intermediate proficiency in any foreign language. It combines 1) readings in the history and theory of translation, 2) practical exercises in class, and 3) extensive translation projects, supported by workshopping in class with fellow students and copious comments from the professor. Students more interested in translation studies than in the practice of translation may combine individual projects with academic papers and linguistic analysis of existing texts, and scholarly or scientific translators are as welcome as literary translators. Information on professional opportunities for translators will be provided. We’re also planning to bring wonderful outside speakers on topics like queer translation and the issues and possibilities that come with translating young writers who are not yet fully established in their own cultures.
