Slavic Languages and Literatures

Humanities Quadrangle, 203.432.1300, slavic.department@yale.edu
http://slavic.yale.edu
M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.

Chair
Edyta Bojanowska

Director of Graduate Studies
Marijeta Bozovic

Professors Edyta Bojanowska, Katerina Clark, John MacKay

Associate Professor Marijeta Bozovic, Molly Brunson

Assistant Professors Jinyi Chu, Claire Roosien, Nariman Shelekpayev

Senior Lectors II Irina Dolgova, Constantine Muravnik, Julia Titus

Senior Lectors I Krystyna Illakowicz, Anastasia Selemeneva

Fields of Study

The graduate program of the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures values interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives on Russian, East European, and Eurasian literatures and cultures. While maintaining a foundation in the study and teaching of language and literature, the Department sees both as embedded in a global context and a broad network of cultural production. Students are encouraged to develop their primary fields of study as well as meaningful connections with other disciplines, including comparative literature, history of art, film and media studies, history and the social sciences, gender and sexuality studies, and the digital humanities.

The Department’s primary doctoral track is the Ph.D. in Russian literature and culture, with a strong emphasis on transnational and transmedial approaches. The Department also offers a combined degree in Slavic Languages and Literatures and Film and Media Studies (see below). By special arrangement, the Department will consider individualized ad hoc programs with other departments. Students are encouraged to complement their research and teaching interests with one of Yale’s certificate programs, such as Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Film and Media Studies; Translation Studies; Environmental Humanities; or the MacMillan Center’s Councils on African, European, Latin American and Iberian, and Middle East Studies.

Special Requirements for the Ph.D. Degree

Course Requirements All graduate students are required to take sixteen courses in their first two years of graduate study, which must include RUSS 951, Proseminar: Theory and Methods. In addition to this one mandatory course, students must fulfill the following distributional requirements through graduate-level coursework:

  • Minimum of one course on Slavic literature or culture before the eighteenth century
  • Minimum of one course on eighteenth-century Slavic literature or culture
  • Minimum of two courses on nineteenth-century Slavic literature or culture
  • Minimum of two courses on twentieth-century Slavic literature or culture
  • Minimum of one course on twenty-first-century Slavic literature or culture
  • Minimum of two (but no more than four out of the required sixteen) courses outside the Slavic Department. 

Students who have done graduate-level coursework elsewhere may petition for up to three courses taken at another institution to count toward degree requirements, and may use any course slots freed through prior study to take additional elective courses at Yale. Language courses do not count toward the required sixteen courses.

Language Requirements Entering students are expected to have sufficient knowledge of Russian to allow for satisfactory work at the graduate level and are required to pass a departmental proficiency examination in Russian. Students must also demonstrate competence in a second foreign language, as soon as possible or by the beginning of the fifth term of study. Students may choose to pursue proficiency in a second East European or Eurasian language; in a language useful for broader access to scholarship; or in any language relevant for well-motivated comparative work. Competence in a second foreign language may be demonstrated through coursework or a reading examination.

Minor Field Students are responsible for developing a minor field of specialization in one of the following: (1) a second language or literature; (2) visual culture or one of the other arts; (3) a topic in intellectual history or a specific interdisciplinary approach; or (4) another discipline relevant to their primary interests. To demonstrate competency in their chosen minor field, students are required to submit a minor field portfolio no later than September 1st of their third year of graduate study.

Qualifying Paper Students must submit a qualifying paper (7000–9000 words) no later than September 1 of their third year. The paper, which in many cases will be a revised version of a seminar paper, should be developed in consultation with a faculty adviser.

Comprehensive and Qualifying Examinations In early October of their third year, students will take a comprehensive examination on Russian literature and culture from the nineteenth century to the present. The comprehensive is a twelve-hour take-home exam. This exam is meant to test the students’ knowledge of the broad scope of Russian literature and culture, as well as their ability to analyze various kinds of cultural products and position specific works within their historical, cultural, and critical contexts. Students should use the departmental reading list as a guide in preparing for this exam, but they are also welcome to draw from beyond the list in their answers. In early December of their third year, students will also take a qualifying examination based on two specialized reading lists. This exam is a one-hour oral exam with twenty-five minutes allotted to each list, evaluated by two faculty advisers and the Director of Graduate Studies. The exam is meant to test the student’s knowledge of two specific areas of study, which often serve as important preparation for the development of a dissertation topic.

Pre-Prospectus Colloquium and Prospectus Presentation In early February of their third year, students will present a preliminary version of their dissertation prospectus (the pre-prospectus) at a one-hour colloquium attended by all Slavic ladder faculty. At the colloquium, students will present a brief introduction to their prospective dissertation, which will be followed by discussion and feedback. After the pre-prospectus colloquium, students will ask two faculty members to serve on their dissertation committee. These committee members will oversee the revision of the preliminary prospectus into a final draft (approximately 5000 words plus a detailed bibliography). In early April, students will present the final version of their dissertation prospectus to all students and faculty in the department. The prospectus presentation will take one hour, beginning with a brief introduction by the student and followed by discussion.

Dissertation The dissertation committee should include at least three faculty members: a chair (who must be a ladder faculty member from Slavic), one additional ladder faculty member from Slavic, and one faculty member either from Slavic, another department, or outside Yale. Students can petition to add additional committee members. Students must determine the constitution of their committee by October 1 of their fourth year. The dissertation is the culmination of the student’s work in the doctoral program and an important emblem of professional competence, intellectual rigor, and academic potential. As such, it should demonstrate mastery of a defined field of research and should articulate an original and substantive contribution to knowledge. While all dissertations should have clearly defined empirical and theoretical stakes and be grounded in appropriate methodological choices, each project will approach its central questions in necessarily distinct ways: some based more heavily in archival research, others shaped more profoundly by theoretical discussions, and still others determined by entirely different disciplinary or interdisciplinary demands.

First Chapter Talk During the spring semester of the fourth year, students will deliver a forty-five-minute talk on their first chapter to the entire department. Students will revise their chapter after the talk, submitting a final draft to their dissertation committee no later than May 1.

Teaching All graduate students are expected to teach for a minimum of four semesters, typically in the third and fourth years of study. Teaching is required to receive additional sixth-year funding. Students are usually assigned at least two semesters of language teaching and two semesters of literature/culture teaching.

Combined Ph.D. Program with Film and Media Studies

The Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures also offers, in conjunction with the Film and Media Studies Program, a combined Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures and Film and Media Studies. For further details, see Film and Media Studies in this bulletin and the department’s website. Applicants to the combined program must indicate on their application that they are applying both to Film and Media Studies and to Slavic Languages and Literatures. All documentation within the application should include this information.

Master's Degrees

M.Phil. See Degree Requirements under Policies and Regulations.

M.A. The Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures does not admit students for the terminal M.A. degree, nor does it award an M.A. en route to the Ph.D. degree. If, however, a student admitted for the Ph.D. leaves the program prior to completion of the doctoral degree, the student may be eligible to receive a terminal master’s degree. The student must have completed at least fifteen term courses in Russian literature and language, chosen in consultation with the DGS. A grade of Honors in at least two term courses and an average of High Pass in the remaining courses must be attained. Candidates must pass a departmental proficiency examination in Russian, and prove competency in a second foreign language.

More information is available on the department’s website, http://slavic.yale.edu.

Courses

RUSS 605a / CPLT 612a / EALL 588a / EAST 616a / RSEE 605a, Socialist '80s: Aesthetics of Reform in China and the Soviet UnionJinyi Chu

This course offers an interdisciplinary introduction to the study of the complex cultural and political paradigms of late socialism from a transnational perspective by focusing on the literature, cinema, and popular culture of the Soviet Union and China in 1980s. How were intellectual and everyday life in the Soviet Union and China distinct from and similar to that of the West of the same era? How do we parse “the cultural logic of late socialism?” What can today’s America learn from it? Examining two major socialist cultures together in a global context, this course queries the ethnographic, ideological, and socio-economic constituents of late socialism. Students analyze cultural materials in the context of Soviet and Chinese history. Along the way, we explore themes of identity, nationalism, globalization, capitalism, and the Cold War. Students with knowledge of Russian and Chinese are encouraged to read in original. All readings are available in English.
M 3:30pm-5:20pm

RUSS 609a / CPLT 549a, Memory and Memoir in Russian CultureJinyi Chu

How do we remember and forget? How does memory transform into narrative? Why do we read and write memoirs and autobiography? What can they tell us about the past? How do we analyze the roles of the narrator, the author, and the protagonist? How should we understand the ideological tensions between official historiography and personal reminiscences, especially in twentieth-century Russia? This course aims to answer these questions through close readings of a few cultural celebrities’ memoirs and autobiographical writings that are also widely acknowledged as the best representatives of twentieth-century Russian prose. Along the way, we read literary texts in dialogue with theories of memory, historiography, and narratology. Students acquire the theoretical apparatus that will enable them to analyze the complex ideas, e.g., cultural memory and trauma, historicity and narrativity, and fiction and nonfiction. Students acquire an in-depth knowledge of the major themes of twentieth-century Russian history—e.g., empire, revolution, war, Stalinism, and exilic experience—as well as increased skills in the analysis of literary texts. Students with knowledge of Russian are encouraged to read in the original. All readings are available in English.
T 3:30pm-5:20pm

RUSS 610a, Academic Russian: Stylistics and PracticeConstantine Muravnik

This course is for graduate students and qualified undergraduates who have reached the “advanced mid” level of oral, written, and reading proficiency in Russian and who need to improve their linguistic skills for effective use in research and professional communications, including job interviews. We read sophisticated academic prose in Russian and Eurasian studies, and we discuss it in the target language. Students work with a selection of academic texts by celebrated past and contemporary scholars in the field. Special attention is paid to the formal aspects of academic writing and speaking, as well as to the terminological and linguistic apparatus. Students learn to present on topics of their interest, provide structured responses, construct hypotheses, support their opinions, and argue their point of view. The course includes an introduction to Russian paleography and prosody that further develops students’ oral and aural skills.
MW 1pm-2:15pm

RUSS 613a / CPLT 689a / E&RS 629a / RSEE 613a / SLAV 613a, Art and Resistance in Belarus, Russia, and UkraineStaff

This interdisciplinary seminar is devoted to the study of protest art as part of the struggle of society against authoritarianism and totalitarianism. It focuses on the example of the Soviet and post-Soviet transformation of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. The period under discussion begins after the death of Stalin in 1953 and ends with the art of protest against the modern post-Soviet dictatorships of Alexander Lukashenka in Belarus and Vladimir Putin in Russia, the protest art of the Ukrainian Maidan, and the anti-war movement of artists against the Russian-Ukrainian war. The course begins by looking at the influence of the “Khrushchev Thaw” on literature and cinema, which opened the way for protest art to a wide Soviet audience. We explore different approaches to protest art in conditions of political unfreedom: “nonconformism,” “dissidence,” “mimicry,” “rebellion.” The course investigates the existential conflict of artistic freedom and the political machine of authoritarianism. These themes are explored at different levels through specific examples from the works and biographies of artists. Students immerse themselves in works of different genres: films, songs, performances, plays, and literary works.
Th 3:30pm-5:20pm

RUSS 648b, The Russian Nineteenth Century, Remediated and ReimaginedEdyta Bojanowska

This is a course about nineteenth-century Russian classics and their enduring potential to provoke and inspire. We study adaptations and transpositions as modes of critical insight into the original works they stage, interpret, and rewrite. How do texts by Pushkin, Gogol, Lermontov, Turgenev, Ostrovsky, Goncharov, Tolstoy, and Leskov, among others, speak to contemporary artists, audiences, and humanists? Focused close readings of the original works are coupled with the new transnational art they generated beyond their time and place in a variety of media (rewritings, transmedial transpositions, television and cinema, performance). Nearly all readings and films are available in the English translation; students with proficiency in Russian are encouraged to read Russian texts in the original.
Th 3:30pm-5:20pm

RUSS 649a, Advanced Research Methods in Nineteenth-Century Russian CultureMolly Brunson

This workshop is intended to serve advanced graduate students in their fourth, fifth, sixth, or seventh year of the Ph.D. program, who are working on topics related to nineteenth-century Russian culture. Students discuss scholarly methods, research practices, and matters of professionalization (including the job market) in small groups or one-on-one with the instructor. Prior permission of the instructor is required.
HTBA

RUSS 670a / E&RS 618a, Empire in Russian CultureEdyta Bojanowska

Interdisciplinary exploration of Russia’s modern imperial culture, especially of the nineteenth century. How did this culture reflect, shape, and challenge imperial reality? How did the multiethnic and multiconfessional empire figure in negotiations of Russian national identity? Other topics include versions of Russian and Soviet Orientalism and colonialism, representations of peripheral regions, relations between ethnic groups, and the role of gender and race in Russia’s imperial imagination. Materials combine fiction, poetry, travel writing, painting, and film, with readings in postcolonial studies, history, political science, and anthropology. Most readings are assigned in translation, although students with a knowledge of Russian are encouraged to read the primary texts in the original; the language of seminar discussions will be English. Students with an interest in comparative studies of empire are welcome.
Th 1:30pm-3:20pm

RUSS 851b, Proseminar in Slavic LiteratureMolly Brunson

Introduction to the graduate study of Russian literature. Topics include literary theory, methodology, introduction to the profession.
M 1:30pm-3:20pm

SLAV 613a / CPLT 689a / E&RS 629a / RSEE 613a / RUSS 613a, Art and Resistance in Belarus, Russia, and UkraineStaff

This interdisciplinary seminar is devoted to the study of protest art as part of the struggle of society against authoritarianism and totalitarianism. It focuses on the example of the Soviet and post-Soviet transformation of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. The period under discussion begins after the death of Stalin in 1953 and ends with the art of protest against the modern post-Soviet dictatorships of Alexander Lukashenka in Belarus and Vladimir Putin in Russia, the protest art of the Ukrainian Maidan, and the anti-war movement of artists against the Russian-Ukrainian war. The course begins by looking at the influence of the “Khrushchev Thaw” on literature and cinema, which opened the way for protest art to a wide Soviet audience. We explore different approaches to protest art in conditions of political unfreedom: “nonconformism,” “dissidence,” “mimicry,” “rebellion.” The course investigates the existential conflict of artistic freedom and the political machine of authoritarianism. These themes are explored at different levels through specific examples from the works and biographies of artists. Students immerse themselves in works of different genres: films, songs, performances, plays, and literary works.
Th 3:30pm-5:20pm

SLAV 900a or b, Directed ReadingStaff

By arrangement with faculty.
HTBA