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Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular term. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

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  • CAS LR 280: Dostoevsky (in English translation)
    Dostoevsky's evolution as novelist and philosopher. Explore major novels, including Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and Demons, within cultural and political contexts; consider the significance of literary innovations and meditations on questions of morality, personality, freedom, health, justice, and evil. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Aesthetic Exploration.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
  • CAS LR 281: Tolstoy (in English translation)
    Tolstoy's evolution as novelist and moral philosopher. Explore major works, including War and Peace and Anna Karenina, within cultural and political contexts; consider the significance of literary innovations and meditations on questions of morality, death, freedom, justice, meaning, and happiness. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Aesthetic Exploration.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
  • CAS LR 282: Russian Prose Classics of the Twentieth Century (in English translation)
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120). - Introduction to the major writers of twentieth-century Russian prose and to the literary traditions that they represent through a close reading of selected texts. Authors include Chekhov, Tolstoy, Babel, Bulgakov, Kharms, Pasternak, Shalamov, Solzhenitsyn, Petrushevskaya, Sorokin. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Writing- Intensive Course.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS LR 288: Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov
    Close, careful study of Dostoevsky's masterpiece, with eye to historical, philosophical, theological, cultural, and literary significance; explores Dostoevsky's reinvention of the novel alongside questions of morality, justice, modernity, community, personality, and the meaning of life. Taught in English. Effective Spring 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Aesthetic Exploration.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
  • CAS LR 289: Russian Culture (in English translation)
    Introduction (in English) to Russian culture. Traces its development from legendary beginnings to today, focusing on such topics as everyday life, pop culture, national identity, and the woman question. Effective Spring 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Critical Thinking
    • Historical Consciousness
  • CAS LR 303: Third-Year Russian 1: Reading, Grammar Review, and Conversation
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASLR212) - Reading original unabridged Russian prose and poetry. Intensive work on improvement of fluency and quality of expression; special attention to pronunciation.
  • CAS LR 304: Third-Year Russian 2: Reading, Grammar Review, and Conversation
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASLR303 or placement) - Reading original unabridged Russian prose and poetry. Intensive work on improvement of fluency and quality of expression; special attention to pronunciation.
  • CAS LR 311: Russian Youth Culture
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: CASLR 212 or placement. - Explores the literature, culture, politics, and art of contemporary Russian youth throughout the former Soviet world; includes short stories, poems, paintings, photographs, and cinema. Consolidates and builds competencies in listening, speaking, reading, and writing Russian. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Oral and/or Signed Communication.
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Oral and/or Signed Communication
  • CAS LR 312: Russia on Screen
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: CASLR 311 or placement. - Watch original unabridged Russian films and read scripts. Intensive work on improvement of fluency and quality of expression in Russian; special attention to pronunciation. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Digital/Multimedia Expression.
    • Digital/Multimedia Expression
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • CAS LR 327: Immigrant Women in Literature: Found in Translation?
    This course explores literature about migration created by women primarily from Eastern Europe. We read autobiographical narratives that focus on the shaping of transcultural identity with an eye to the problem of translation as a linguistic, cultural, and personal phenomenon. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking.
    • Critical Thinking
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Historical Consciousness
  • CAS LR 353: Stalin's Crimes: Gulag and Genocide
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar CAS WR 100 or 120 or equivalent. - History, poetry and prose written in the genocidal conditions of Stalinist Russia, when the revolutionary euphoria and artistic innovation of the 1920s came up against the political repression and violence of the modern totalitarian state. Readings and films from some of the greatest poets, directors and prose writers of the 20th century display the richness of modern Russian literature as well as the complex interplay of political power, cinema and the written word, of murderous history and the creative imagination, during the Ukraine famine-genocide and the gulags. Effective Spring 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Ethical Reasoning, Historical Consciousness.
    • Ethical Reasoning
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS LR 355: Chekhov: The Stories and Plays (in English translation)
    Explores Chekhov's major plays and a wide selection from his prose (in English translation); studies the arc of his career, his aesthetic innovations, moral psychology, philosophical perspective. Includes practicum in which students produce a play composed of scenes from Chekhov. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Aesthetic Exploration, Teamwork/Collaboration.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
    • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • CAS LR 401: Senior Independent Work
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: approval of WLL Director of Undergraduate Studies. - SR INDEP WORK
  • CAS LR 402: Senior Independent Work
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: approval of WLL Director of Undergraduate Studies. - SR INDEP WORK
  • CAS LR 403: Advanced Russian Grammar
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASLR 312 or placement) - Subtleties of grammar and usage. Written projects, including English to Russian translations. Contemporary journalistic and literary sources.
  • CAS LR 404: Advanced Russian Conversation
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: CASLR 403 or placement. - Developing of advanced conversational skills through class discussions that stress contemporary vocabulary, idioms, and register. Student oral presentations related to such topics as nationality, religion, women's rights, crime, and politics. Frequent short essays.
  • CAS LR 442: Russian Media
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: CASLR 312 or placement. - A multimedia exploration of post-Soviet Russian mass media and pop culture. Engages in collaborative and in-depth study of contemporary Russian media sources (including print, music, television, film, and internet) while building and strengthening Russian proficiency. Taught in Russian. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Digital/Multimedia Expression.
    • Digital/Multimedia Expression
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • CAS LR 444: Advanced Russian: Folklore
    Undergraduate prerequisites: (CASLR 312 or placement) - Explores the continuing influence of folktales and folk belief on Russian literature, music, film, popular culture, and everyday life. Reading a wide selection of folktales in the original Russian, students examine the aesthetic, social, and psychological significance of both text and adaptation.
  • CAS LR 445: Russian in Boston: Advanced Experiential Russian
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASLR 311) or consent of instructor. - In this immersive experiential course, students connect classroom learning to hands-on work in the community. Students are expected to help and learn from members of the Boston Russian community, and to reflect creatively on real- life experiences. Taught entirely in Russian. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Teamwork/Collaboration.
    • The Individual in Community
    • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • CAS LR 457: Advanced Russian Language and Literature
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120) - Introduces students to major works of Russian literature in the original: stories, poems, and prose excerpts from writers such as Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Akhmatova, Kharms, Shalamov, Petrushevskaya. Emphasis on speaking and writing. Discussions provide historical and cultural context.? Effective Spring 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Writing-Intensive Course.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Writing-Intensive Course

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