A history of ballet from its origins in the French courts through its development into a large-scale theatrical spectacle in the 19th century and its modernist re- and de-formation. Emphasis will be placed on seminal dancers, choreographers, and composers, nationalist tradition, and socio-political context.

An introduction to the cinematic tradition of Russia and the Soviet Union. This course will offer close, contextualized, and comparative analysis of major Russian films from the 1920s to the present. We will examine the films in terms of their formal structures and their reception, and in light of the epochal social, political and cultural changes that took place over Russia's last, turbulent century. Filmmakers to be studied include Eisenstein, Vertov, Tarkovsky, Sokurov, Zvyagintsev, and others. No prior knowledge of Russian culture or language is required.

In this course, we will discuss ghost stories written by prominent Russian writers. We will also discuss various representations of the supernatural phenomena in Western and Russian spirit photography, music, and film. We will consider the concept of the apparition as a cultural myth which tells us about the "hidden side" of the Russian historical imagination and about political and ideological conflicts which have haunted Russian society from the 18th c. to our days. The class is designed as a series of *intellectual seances* focused on a certain work considered within a broad historical context. All readings will be in English translation.

An examination of significant trends in Russian literature from the 2nd half of the 19th century to the Russian Revolution and a bit beyond. The course focuses on many masterpieces of 19th & 20th-century Russian literature. The works (mostly novels) are considered from a stylistic point of view and in the context of Russian historical and cultural developments. The course also focuses on questions of values and on the eternal "big questions" of life that are raised in the literature. Authors read include Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Bely, Nabokov, and Kharms.

A study of media informed by the idea of social revolution. We will consider how filmmakers, photographers, artists, and writers engaged with Marxist ideas in the wake of Russia's 1917 Revolution, and how they aimed to shape, influence, and involve new audiences in their political project. We will examine how the development of "new" media (radio, film, documentary) was informed by ideology, and compare/contrast this Soviet media with its Western counterparts. Topics to be addressed include propaganda and agitation; masses, classes, collectivities; ownership of media; and gender and political change.

What unites the diverse movement of Existentialism is a focus on concrete human existence. While other schools of art and thought often distract one from personal existence, Existentialism forces one to grapple personally with life's big questions. Franz Kafka puts it well: 'A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us' Topics include desire, grief, deception, anxiety, despair, nihilism, authenticity, freedom, responsibility, guilt, the leap of faith, the absurd, the problem of evil, death, and the meaningful life. With focus on Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky, readings also include Nietzsche, Tolstoy, Heidegger, Sartre, Camus, and Kafka.

The course introduces students to stories that every Russian is exposed to as a child. Seemingly simple, these narratives bear deep cultural significance. We will sample a dozen of Russian fairy tales belonging to the oral tradition. We will also read and discuss two fairy tales by Alexander Pushkin, as well as short excerpts from the works by the foremost Russian scholar of folklore Vladimir Propp. Readings and discussion will be in Russian. This course is envisioned as both a language and literature course.

We start with Tolstoy's artistic stimuli and narrative strategies, explore the author's provocative visions of war, gender, sex, art, social institutions, death, and religion. The emphasis is placed here on the role of a written word in Tolstoy's search for truth and power. The main part is a close reading of his masterwork The War and Peace (1863-68) - a quintessence of both his artistic method and philosophical insights. Each student will be assigned to keep a "hero's diary" and speak on behalf of one or two major heroes of the epic (including the Spirit of History). The roles will be distributed in accordance with the will of fate.

Taking as its foundation modern Church Slavonic, whose grammar and orthography will be studied in detail, this course will look back to the development of Old Church Slavonic as the first Slavic literary language, and, further, to Proto-Slavic. As we describe the development of Church Slavonic, we will also consider the historical development of the various Slavic languages, with special emphasis on Russian, and the influence of Church Slavonic forms on literary Russian. We will also touch on such aspects of Eastern Orthodox culture as liturgy, iconography, and music.

The topic for Spring 2022 is Bakhtin in Context, Then and Now, a close chronological reading of Mikhail Bakhtin's central texts. Context is supplied by several early Formalist essays and by Yuri Lotman's semiotic theory of culture. Each session discusses one set of Bakhtinian ideas weighed against a later strong critic, both pro and contra. Our objective: to reassess the inflated residue of the global "Bakhtin Boom" of the 1970s-90s and its usefulness today by examining portions of Bakhtin's most important texts (now reconstituted in authoritative annotated versions), together with the wisest objections and most productive expansions.

The course has four objectives: (1) an investigation of Dostoevsky's evolution as a writer, (2) an intensive analysis of his fiction and non-fiction, (3) an exploration of his religious, philosophical, political, and aesthetic ideas in the context of 19th, 20th, and now, 21st-century Russian intellectual and cultural history, and (4) an examination of 19th, 20th, and now, 21st-century Russian, Soviet, and Western critical approaches to Dostoevsky's writings.

Trauma is often seen as an event that blocks the victim's expressive capacities. It leaves people speechless, manifesting itself in various symptoms and post-traumatic disorders. Yet, it also generates a stream of narratives, textual, visual, or oral. This course explores this dual nature of trauma: trauma as a tool of repression and silencing, and trauma as a prerequisite for a talking cure. We see how traumatic events are worked through storytelling by creating narratives of loss, suffering, and displacement.