Using selected texts of diverse styles, this class surveys Czech grammar and introduces various aspects of syntax, composition and translation. Special attention will be paid to oral practice.
Using selected texts of diverse styles, this class surveys Czech grammar and introduces various aspects of syntax, composition and translation. Special attention will be paid to oral practice.
Students who completed SLA106H1 and SLA116H1 or who have comparable basic knowledge of Polish further develop their speaking, listening, reading and writing skills by revising, consolidating and building on their knowledge. Upon completion, they will be able to communicate in more advanced everyday situations and have substantial familiarity with Polish grammar.
Students with a general interest in Polish who have completed SLA206H1 or who have a comparable level of Polish further develop their speaking, listening, writing, and reading skills by revising, consolidating, and building on their knowledge. Upon completion, they will be able to communicate in more advanced everyday situations and have substantial familiarity with Polish grammar.
Development of proficiency in speaking, reading, listening, and writing. Mastering grammar and syntax and expanding vocabulary in key practical communication areas (such as family, travel, education). Exposure to contemporary Ukrainian culture and society through annotated literary texts, mass-media materials, and popular culture (song, film and TV, news). Internet language modules complement in-class learning.
This course is designed for students with Russian background, students raised in homes where Russian is/was spoken, who speak or merely understand basic Russian but are otherwise illiterate in Russian (cannot/have difficulty reading or writing). This course helps heritage learners of Russian develop/maintain writing and reading skills as well as develop cultural literacy. (Online course in 2011-2012).
Emphasis on expansion of vocabulary, developing conversational and listening skills, and intensive practice in real-life situations. Offered as part of Summer Program in Russia. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
Introduction to the Russian novelistic tradition at the height of its creative power. We examine the Russian novel’s universal appeal and influence, and its impact on modern art and thought. Authors may include (depending on instructor) Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Belyi, Nabokov, Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn. Taught and read in English.
A course for students of Czech and Slovak, BCS and Russian. Improve your writing skills in a group of different Slavic language learners. Learn simple creative writing in different genres. This course presents a catalogue of different methods and strategies for individual learners at various stages of writing in a foreign language. Complements rather than substitutes for intermediate and advanced levels of the languages taught.
Some of the most important features of Czech and Slovak cultural history are introduced in a survey of the national myths, traditions and cultural trends. (Offered every three years)
Major cultural traditions, historical processes, myths, and figures that have shaped and redefined Polish civilization and national identity are problematized and contextualized with the help of works of literature, history, philosophy, political science, music, visual and performing arts. Readings in English (also available in Polish). (Offered in alternate years)
Works of literature, history, music, and visual arts are examined in order to explore the complex cultural legacy of the Balkans, an area marked by Byzantine, Ottoman, and Austro-Hungarian colonial presence. The course will familiarize students with major cultural traditions, myths, and historical flashpoints. Readings in English.
Starting from the medieval Kyivan Rus' and extending to contemporary Ukraine, the course explores Ukraine's most iconic literary and artistic works and provides insight into the complex historical and cultural legacies and multi-ethnic traditions in Ukrainian lands as they continue to impact contemporary society. Cultural myths critically examined. Literary works aligned with visual arts, film, and media.
Continuation of development of proficiency in speaking, reading, listening and writing. Review the basic and learning of new grammatical and syntactical structures, study of word formation and acquisition of active vocabulary. Reading of classical, contemporary, adapted, and non-adapted literary and mass-media texts. Culture and listening through animation.
Both in popular culture and the headlines, Roma (Gypsies) are often depicted as either romantic or negative. Roma and Slavs have interacted for centuries and this course examines the history of that interaction with particular emphasis on linguistic and educational rights. Taught in English, all readings in English.
This course explores the writings of Russian authors of Jewish origin. Subjects include: assimilation; identity; the existence or non-existence of Russian – Jewish literature. The works studied may vary from year to year.
Czech and Slovak cinema of the sixties, generally known as the Czechoslovak New Wave, represents the ways the cinematographers viewed the past, examined the present and escaped into the world of fantasy. In addition, we will examine several theoretical, historical and cultural aspects of national culture and international cinematography.
The Polish School in cinema, its predecessors and successors, their artistic accomplishments, major theoretical and thematic concerns, and their place on the map of European cinema. Films of Ford, Wajda, Polanski, Konwicki, Borowczyk, Has, Kawalerowicz, Zanussi, Kieslowski, and of the new generation of Polish film makers. Films and discussions in English. (Offered every three years)
A survey of the most significant twentieth-century novels from Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia through a chronological selection of literary texts (poems, plays, novels) from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. The course places South Slavic literary developments within the broader context of European intellectual history as well as Balkan cultural and political life. Taught in English, all readings in English.
Most influential and daring works in English translation. From modernist sensibilities and avant-garde fervor of the revolutionary era, through socialist realism and dissident writing, to the internationally acclaimed experimental prose of contemporary Ukraine. Authors include Kotsiubynsky, Vynnychenko, Pidmohylny, Khvyliovy, Andrukhovych, Zabuzhko, and Zhadan.
This course examines how East and Central European graphic novelists retell the history of the 20th century in images and words. Our focus is the medium. How do comics effect the relationship between the personal and national? Can graphic novels substitute history textbooks?
This Slavic Languages and Cultures core course teaches the skills of basic analysis of Slavic and East European cultural texts including prose fiction, drama, poetry, folklore and films. May also include visual arts and/or digital cultural texts. Looking at a different kind of cultural text each week, the course focuses on close reading, formal and structural analysis, representation, figurative language and metaphor across different media and develops foundational skills for cultural textual interpretation. Readings from throughout the Slavic and East European regions.
In this course we will examine the multi-faceted nature of language policy, language standardization, language contact, language maintenance, language conflict and language loss. In addition, we will explore issues such as language rights, languages of education and linguistic identity. While the focus will be on languages in the Slavic, East European, Nordic and Baltic regions, the discourse in this class will also relate to a broad range of language issues globally.
A survey of the Russian cinematic tradition from its beginnings through the first decade following the disintegration of the USSR. The course examines the avant-garde cinema and film theory of the 1920s; the totalitarian esthetics of the 1920s-1940s and the ideological uses of film art; the revolution in film theory and practice in the 1950s-1960s; cinema as medium of cultural dissent and as witness to social change. Students also acquire basic skills of film analysis. Taught in English, all films subtitled in English.
This course examines the era inaugurated by the collapse of the state-socialist regimes in the former Eastern Bloc, marked by political turmoil, major economic restructuring, and social ambivalences. The course investigates topics such as: socialist legacy and nostalgia, mass emigrations and refugee crises, conflicts over national identity and borders, sociocultural anxieties about inclusion in the EU, perspectives on the future of socialist thought and practice in Eastern Europe.
We examine the most important aspects of Polish historical experience and cultural identity by looking at ten iconic images from Polish culture. These images may include a historical painting by Matejko, a photo of the Solidarity strikes in 1980, a screenshot from a Wajda film, or a literary passage from a Gombrowicz novel. Apart from serving as an introduction to Polish cultural studies, this course provides students with analytical tools to read diverse cultural texts. This is a blended course combining online modules with four on-site discussion meetings per semester.
A selection of literary texts depicting the experience and perceptions of Ukrainians in Canada from the first immigrants to the present. Texts include works originally written in English, French and Ukrainian, but all readings are in English. Authors include: Kiriak, Kostash, Ryga, Galay, Suknaski, Kulyk Keefer.
A survey of Russian literature from1820-1900. Topics include: Romanticism and Realism; the myth of St. Petersburg; the Russian Empire and its borders; the individual and society; man and nature; the “woman question”; freedom and rationality. Readings may include: Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Goncharov, Tolstoi, Turgenev, Dostoevskii, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Chekhov. Taught and read in English.