Slavic Languages & Literatures
- Congratulations to Professor Valeria Sobol, who was awarded a BRIDGE grant from the U of I for a collaborative project with the University of Birmingham entitled "Russophone Literary Diversity and Peripheries." Her co-PI from Birmingham is Prof. Natalya Rulyova and she is joined on the grant by... Read full story Sobol wins BRIDGE grant
Events
More News
- Emeritus Professor Michael Finke has published Flights in the Cahier Series of Sylph Editions, which publishes "new explorations in writing, in translating, and in the areas linking these two activities."...
- The publication of Slavic Department Head David Cooper's The Czech Manuscripts was celebrated by the University of Illinois with a front-page story by Jodi Heckel on December 12. The full story can be found...
- Professor Harriet Murav appeared with Dr. Gennady Estraikh on The New Books in Jewish Studies Podcast with host Ari Barbalat to discuss their work Soviet Jews in World War II: Fighting, Witnessing, Remembering...
UKR 498: Problems in Ukrainian Literature
Critical survey of major works in Ukrainian literature from the beginnings to the modern period in light of their historical and cultural background; lectures and readings in English. The course focuses on major works in Ukrainian literature of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Among the authors included in the readings are Lesia Ukrainka, Olha Kobylianska, Pavlo Tychyna, Mykola Khvyliovyi, Valerian Pidmohylnyi, Iryna Vilde, Vasyl Barka, Oleksandr Dovzhenko, Askold Melnychuk, Yuri Andrukhovych, Oksana Zabuzhko, Marianna Kiyanovska, and Oleksandr Averbuch. The concluding topic will explore contemporary war literature in Ukraine. The main theoretical concepts of the course include modernism, socialist realism, postmodernism, postcolonialism, decolonization, identity, and trauma. No knowledge of Ukrainian required. All readings available in English.
RUSS 219 Soviet/Russian Film: Propaganda and Otherness
The course focuses on propaganda and cinematic representation of the Other (regarding race, class, and gender) in Soviet and Russian film tradition. You will analyze the mechanisms of propaganda and see how it works by depicting "good" and "evil" and how it changes with a new political agenda of the Soviet/Russian state. You will broaden your knowledge of the main historical events in Russia during the 20th and 21st centuries. During class discussions, you will compare the Western paradigms of propaganda and alterity to Soviet and post-Soviet. Upon completing the course, you will learn about prominent film directors and the major masterpieces of Soviet and post-Soviet cinema of the 20th century. During the course, we will analyze how the major historical events were represented on the screen and what message they delivered to the audience. No knowledge of Russian required. No class prerequisites.
RUSS 323/CWL 323/ENG 323/: Tolstoy
The course will trace Tolstoy’s development as a writer and a deeply conflicted if fascinating thinker. Readings include Childhood, The Sevastopol Stories, The Cossacks, Anna Karenina, The Death of Ivan Il’ich, The Kreutzer Sonata, as well as some of Tolstoy’s philosophical and political works. No knowledge of Russian is necessary.