This is a TBA course. TBA means "time to be arranged" (to accommodate as many students as we can). We hold an organizational meeting for all TBA courses at the beginning of each semester. The time and place of the meeting are posted at our home page (click Welcome in the navigation bar).

Taught by: Raissa Krivitsky

Variable Credit: 2 credit hours/units if attending 2 meetings per week; 3 credit hours/units if attending 3 meetings per week.

Prerequisites: Russian 3304 or equivalent for non-native speakers of Russian; Russian 3305 or 3306 for native ("heritage") speakers of Russian. For all others with advanced knowledge of Russian, placement by department. Not for fluent native speakers.

Course Objective: Expand the students' vocabulary and their comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing skills, as well as cultural competence, through a mosaic study and discussion of a variety of themes and styles in contemporary Russian popular culture (1970s through current time). The course is taught entirely in Russian.

Suggested Course Themes and Topics for Class Discussions:

• Russian Folklore: traditional characters and their popular incarnations; “pagan metal”
• Russian Western: the "Eastern"; unassuming Russian hero in Turkmenistan and the Caucasus
• Popular Comedy and Stand Up: Russian "Three Stoodges"; Maksim Galkin: “A Citizen Poet”; KVN
• The Ukrainian Streak: a bilingual stand up, a man in the flamboyant female character; a glance at the Odessa culture
• Faces of the Russian rock: the patriotic, the ambiguous, the fiercely opposed
• Children's popular classics: The Good (Soviet period), the Bad (end of the 20-th century), and See What’s Next
• Popular Talk Shows of the last decade

Course Requirements and Grading Policy:

The course requirements and the roughly estimated value of each component of student performance are as follows:

Class discussions: quality of preparation, participation rate - 30%
Recital of cultural material: songs, poetry, anecdotes, film episodes - 30%

Requirement for 2 credits/units - 2 presentations (3 minutes each)
Requirement for 3 credits/units - 3 presentations (3 minutes each)

Reflective writing - 30%

Requirement for 2 credits/units - 2 essays (300-350 words each)
Requirement for 3 credits/units - 3 essays (300-350 words each)

Individual research and oral report (4-5 minutes; one for both 2 and 3 credits/units) - 10%

Visit the Course Site for more specific information about each type of assignment.

Attendance:

Regular attendance is mandatory. Missing classes without a good reason may affect your grade.

Class will meet three times a week. Students who signed up for 2-credits/units should choose in advance the two days on which they are planning to attend this course, and they are expected to stay on that schedule.