Spring 2023 Courses
- For day, time, room, and TA information, see our PDF SCHEDULE or the class search tool https://registrar-apps.ucdavis.edu/courses/search/index.cfm.
- For all courses not described here, please refer to the General Catalog course descriptions: https://catalog.ucdavis.edu/courses-subject-code/rus/
RUS 003 Elementary Russian
Liliana Avramenko
RUS 006 Intermediate Russian
Jekaterina Galmant
Russian 006 is designed as a continuation or Russian 5 and promotes pronunciation and grammar, as well as the development of listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. Students will be exposed to aspects of Russian culture and literature via written texts, interviews, and short stories by the greatest Russian writers. Students will read and translate texts on variety of topics, learn the vocabulary they need to talk about life in the city, read newspaper reports, and learn more about Russian superstitions and customs.
RUS 101C Advanced Russian
Liliana Avramenko
RUS 130 Contemporary Russian Culture
Jenny Kaminer
In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, and Russia appeared poised to embark on a hopeful path of democratization and closer ties with the West. In 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, leaving its population isolated from much of the world and oppressed under an increasingly brutal and totalitarian state. What happened? This course probes the answers to this question by analyzing Russian culture, with a particular focus on film, made since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. Films, readings and class discussion will focus on how various cultural producers have responded to the following (and other) key questions: How did Russians experience the collapse and the transition to capitalism? What does it mean to be Russian after the end of the Soviet Union? What kind of relationship between the individual and the state has developed in Russia since 1991? How is the Soviet past, including World War II and the violence and terror of the Stalin period, imagined in the post-Soviet era? What codes of gendered behavior have emerged? What notions of “ideal” masculinity and femininity are circulating in contemporary Russian culture?
Films screened include: Brother (1997) and Brother 2 (2000) (dir. A. Balabanov); Leviathan (2014) (dir. A. Zvyagintsev); Stalingrad (2013) (dir. F. Bondarchuk); The Student (2016) (dir. K. Serebrennikov).
Taught in English, no knowledge of Russian required. GE: AH; VL; WE; OL.
RUS 141 Tolstoy (In English)
The Seer of the Flesh: Tolstoy's Art and Thoughts
Victoria Juharyan
