Courses in Slavic Linguistics, Literary Theory, Film, and Surveys (Division 474)

Winter Term, 1999 (January 6-April 29, 1999)

Take me to the Winter Term '99 Time Schedule for Slavic Linguistics, Literary Theory, Film, and Surveys.

Instructor(s): Benjamin Stolz (bastolz@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (HU).

Credits: (3).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

The course aims to give beginning students a background for the study of folklore in general, as well as special insight into the folklore and folklife of the Slavic peoples (including dress, music, dance, cooking, customs, ritual). Lectures, readings, and discussions will provide an introduction to the varied folklore of the Slavs, who form the largest population of Central and Eastern Europe, encompassing the West Slavs (Poles, Czechs, Slovaks), East Slavs (Russians, Belorussians, Ukrainians), and South Slavs (Slovenes, Croats, Serbs, Bosnian Muslims, Macedonians, Bulgarians). Within the wide range of traditional oral verse and prose, primary emphasis will be placed on the epic, ballad, lyric, and folktale including the highly developed vampire tale of the South Slavs. Finally, the course will examine survival and adaptation of folkloric forms in contemporary society. No specialized background required. All reading in English. Short papers, midterm, and final examination.

Section 001 – Race, Ethnicity and Gender Issues

Instructor(s): Herbert Eagle (hjeagle@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: A knowledge of Russian is not required. (3). (HU). Laboratory fee ($50) required.

Credits: (3).

Lab Fee: Laboratory fee ($50) required.

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

During four decades of Communist Party rule, the film industries of Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia were under state control. One positive result of this was ample funding for serious films about social and political topics; one serious drawback was the existence of a censorship apparatus which made criticism of the policies of the existing regimes very difficult (though not impossible). Nonetheless, in certain thematic areas, particularly those dealing with racial and ethnic intolerance and with the plight of women in patriarchal societies, filmmakers in East Central Europe were able to be more incisive, frank and provocative than is generally possible within the profit-driven, entertainment-oriented Hollywood film industry. This is not to say that the Communist regimes themselves gave priority to ameliorating the living conditions of their ethnic minorities or of women. But talented and committed filmmakers were able to take advantage of the progressive official pronouncements of these regimes with regard to ethnic and gender issues in order to craft powerful films, films which the regimes had no grounds to suppress or censor.This course will study some of the most important films made in four thematic categories: (1) the Holocaust – the reactions of people in East Central Europe to the genocidal plans of the Nazis, from indifference and collaboration to heroic acts of altruism; (2) ethnic discrimination and its consequences in more recent years – the depressed economic status of the Roma (Gypsies); animosity among Croats, Serbs, Moslem Bosnians and Albanians, leading to Yugoslavia's past and present civil wars – as well as the countervailing examples of a commonality of humanistic values and peaceful coexistence among people of these ethnicities; (3) women's lives under state socialism – women in the work force in large numbers, but plagued by a "double" or "triple" burden, with continued primary responsibility for domestic work and child care, as well as by persistent patriarchal attitudes toward sex and marriage in society as a whole; (4) the response of Central Europe's leading women filmmakers, who, in different contexts and with different stylistic approaches, have presented heroines who rebel and struggle against the patriarchal order.We will view and discuss films from Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, the former Yugoslavia, Bosnia, and Macedonia dealing with the above issues. We will also give attention to the artistic structure of the films – how they go about transmitting their themes with power and emotion. Evaluation will be based on class participation and three short (5-6 page) papers; all students must write a paper for Unit I, and then for two of the remaining three units (the course is divided into four units).

Instructor(s): Benjamin Stolz (bastolz@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (Excl).

Credits: (3).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

The course provides a general survey of linguistic approaches to the Slavic languages. Topics include the fundamentals of phonetic, phonological, morphological, and syntactic analysis. A modern theoretical approach will be used, and the presentation will be balanced between diachronic (historical) and synchronic (descriptive) treatment of the languages, including adequate discussion of standardization. The course is also appropriate for undergraduate Russian concentrators in both junior and senior years. Grading will be based on class participation, oral reports, and written tests.

Section 003 – The Czech New Wave. Meets January 19, 26 and February 2, 9, 16, 23. Meets With REES 405.001. Drop/Add deadline: February 1

Instructor(s): Herbert Eagle (hjeagle@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: (1). (Excl). May be repeated for a total of four credits.

Mini/short

Credits: (1).

Lab Fee: Laboratory fee ($10) required.

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

See Russian and East European Studies (REES) 405.001.

Section 004 – Polish Film. Meets March 9, 16, 23, 30, and April 6, 13. Meets With REES 410.001. Films will be shown from 7-9 P.M. Drop/Add deadline: March 15

Instructor(s): Herbert Eagle (hjeagle@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: (1). (Excl). May be repeated for a total of four credits.

Mini/short

Credits: (1).

Lab Fee: Laboratory fee ($10) required.

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

See Russian and East European Studies (REES) 410.001.

Section 005 – Poetics of the Verse Text: Technique of Analysis and Interpretation. Taught in Russian. Meets Tuesdays and Thursdays: March 9, 11, 16, 18, 23, 25, and 30. Drop/Add deadline: March 12

Instructor(s): Boris Gasparov

Prerequisites & Distribution: (1). (Excl). May be repeated for a total of four credits.

Mini/short

Credits: (1).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This course will discuss:

1. Immanent poetics and intertextual poetics. The former describes "simple" poems; the later, "complex" ones; the former presupposes analysis; the latter, interpretation.
2. A chapter from the history of Russian poetics: B.I. Iarkho (1899-1942) and his outline of literary criticism as an exact science. The levels of construction; sounds and verse; language and style; images and ideas. Computing the units of every level. Composition at every level, and the overall composition of a work as a whole.
3. Practical strategy of analysis: how to begin; how to go on; how to face possible difficulties (material for study; "simple" poems by Pushkin and Fet).
4. Practical strategy of interpretation: how to begin, how to proceed, and where to stop (material for study: "complex" poems by Briusov (of the later period), Mandelstam, and Pasternak).

University of Michigan | College of LS&A | Student Academic Affairs | LS&A Bulletin Index

This page maintained by LS&A Academic Information and Publications, 1228 Angell Hall

Copyright © 1999 The Regents of the University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA +1 734 764-1817

Trademarks of the University of Michigan may not be electronically or otherwise altered or separated from this document or used for any non-University purpose.

This page was created at 11:31 AM on Fri, Feb 5, 1999.