Thomas Garza

2013 marks the 75th anniversary of the birth of Russia’s premiere bard, Vladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky. Bard, stage actor, poet, film star – Vysotsky captured the imagination of a generation of Soviet citizens in the height of Brezhnev’s so-called “period of stagnation” in the 1970s. Significantly, virtually no Russian alive even today is unfamiliar with the life and work of Russia’s leading leading man. This course will engage students in the exploration of Vysotsky’s “texts,” including his poetry, lyric verse, filmic portraits, stage roles, and television appearances during his brief lifetime. The goal of the course is to bring together not only these varied and extraordinary texts, but also the artifacts and documents of the particular Soviet era of the 1960s and ‘70s via documentaries, news articles, television broadcasts and epistolary correspondence. All texts – written and aural/oral – will be in Russian, and the course will be in conducted in Russian. Final papers, however, may be written in either English or Russian.

Readings:

• Высоцкий.  В.И. Новиков. Москва: Молдая гвардия, 2003.

• Собрание сочинений в одном томе. В.В. Высоцкий. Москва: Альфа-книга, 2011.

• Packet of readings available at Speedway Printers (First floor, Dobie Mall)

Course requirements:

Class presentation (in Russian)                    20%

Editorial/review          (in Russian)                20%

Final Essay (in English or Russian)                40%

Active Participation                                     20%

Course prerequisite: At least two years of Russian; Upper-division standing

Eight hundred years before Bram Stoker gave us the West's most memorable vampire in Dracula (1897) and long before the exploits of Vlad "the Impaler" Tepes horrified Europe (1431-46), the Russian Primary Chronicles write of a Novgorodian priest as Upyr' Likhij, or Wicked Vampire (1047).  The Slavic and Balkan worlds abound in histories, legends, myths and literary portraits of the so-called undead, creatures that literally draw life out of the living. This course examines the vampire in the cultures of Russia and Eastern Europe, including manifestations in literature, religion, art, film and common practices from its origins to 2013.  Texts – both print and non-print media – will be drawn from Russian, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Serbian and Croatian sources.  Participants will be asked to separate historical fact from popular fiction, and form opinions about the place of the vampire in Slavic and East European cultures. 

Prerequisites:  The course is conducted in English.  No knowledge of Russian required, though readings in Russian and other Slavic languages are available for majors and concentrators in these related fields.

Readings:   • The Vampire in Slavic Culture, Course Reader (CR), T. J. Garza, ed., Cognella Press, San Diego: CA, 2010. [order online]

• The Vampire: A Casebook, Alan Dundes, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998.

[at the UT Co-op]

Grading:         

Short essay I (3-4 pp.)          25%                            

Midterm exam I                    25%

Short essay II (3-4 pp.)         25%                            

Midterm exam II                  25%

 This course will consider the development of the Russian fairy tale and its adaptations of the tales of Perrault, Grimm, and other European writers, leading to the creation of the Russian literary fairy tales of Pushkin, Zhukovsky and Ostrovsky in the 19th century.  Also, contemporary filmic portraits of the tales from classical Russian productions to Disney and Cocteau will be examined as the heir to the original fairy tale genre.  Students will be familiarized with four critical methodologies used in the study of folk and fairy tales: Structuralist (Jakobson, Propp), Feminist (Warner, Lieberman), Psychological (Bettelheim, Freud), and Sociological (Zipes, Lüthi).  We will apply various of these methodologies to the texts – tales, films and prints – that we examine.

Texts:

Required Texts:

• Russian Folk Belief.  Linda J. Ivanits, Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 1992.

• Russian Fairy Tales,  A. Afanas'ev, New York: Pantheon Books, 1974.

• The Uses of Enchantment, Bruno Bettelheim, ed.  New York: Random House/Vintage, 1977.

• Packet of readings available at Speedway Printers in Dobie Mall

            Recommended Texts:

• The Morphology of the Folktale, Vladimir Propp, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1975.

• Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion, Jack Zipes, New York: Methuen Press, 1983.

• Once Upon a Time: On the Nature of Fairy Tales, Max Lüthi, Bloomington: Indiana U P, 1976.

Requirements and Grading

            Reaction paper (5 pp.)                                           20%

                        Midterm exam I                                        25%

                        Short critical essay (5-7 pp.)                       20%

                        Midterm exam II                                       25%

                        Participation                                              10%

This course is the second semester of intensive Russian language instruction developing functional proficiency in listening, speaking, and reading. Writing will be developed both through workbook home assignments and brief reviews and summaries of your reading material.  We will cover all of the basic textbook, Units One through Unit Ten, plus an introductory unit, in the textbook, spending about seven class days on each unit. In addition, this course aims to develop your reading skills through both in-class reading assignments, and individual “free reading” based on a text of your choosing. Portfolio exercises will continue to develop your computer literacy skills – in Russian – for you to be truly functionally proficient and competitive in the language, as well as chronicle your progress in your independent reading project throughout the course. 

Course Description

Maledicta: (Latin. n., pl. maledictum, sg.), curse words, insults; profane language of all kinds.

When is a word “bad”? Why can one person use a “bad” word with impunity, and another cannot? What marks such usage as acceptable or not?  How do race, socioeconomic class, and gender play into the use of “bad” language in the US? This course undertakes the examination of modern usage of language that has been designated as “bad” through social convention. Usage of forms of obscenities and profanity in popular usage will be examined in an attempt to come to an understanding of how the products of US popular culture portray maledicta in situational contexts. Through an examination of various texts culled from print, film, and music, participants will study the context and use of “bad” language and attempt to determine the underlying principles that dictate its affect and determine its impact on the audience. Though the majority of texts and usage will be taken from English-language sources, several non-English examples of maledicta from Mexican Spanish and Russian will also be examined for contrast and comparison.

NB: This course examines texts that contain usage of obscenities, profanity, and offensive language. Students who do not wish to be exposed to such language in use should not sign up for this course.

Texts:

• Bad Language: Are Some Words Better than Others? Edwin Battistella.

Oxford UP, 2007.

• Expletive Deleted: A Good Look at Bad Language. Ruth Wajnryb. Free press,

2005.

• Course packet

Requirements and Grading

• Exams (two midterms):             30%

• Film review:                            20%

• Reading journal:                        20%

• Research paper:                        30%

Course Description:

This course is the first semester of intensive Russian language instruction developing functional proficiency in listening, speaking, and reading. Writing will be developed primarily through workbook and computer-based home assignments.  We will cover all of Volumes One and Two of the textbooks, Units One through Unit Fourteen in the textbooks, spending about one week on each unit. In addition, this course aims to develop computer literacy skills – in Russian – for you to be truly functional and competitive in the language.

Readings:

Textbook: • Davidson, Gor, and Lekic.  Russian: Stage One: Live from Russia! 2^nd ed., vols. 1 and 2, (Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co. 2008 and 2009). These packaged sets comprise two basic textbooks, two workbooks, two audio CDs, and two DVDs. Available at the University Co-op.

Recommended:            • Russian/English Dictionary

• Gerhart, G., The Russian’s World, Orlando: Houghton Mifflin, 1994.

• Garza, T., Fundamentals of Russian Verbal Conjugation for Teachers
  and Students, Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt and ACTR Publications, 1993.

Grading:

There are five components of your final course grade.  These components and their relative weights are:

1.  Testing:  35%

Unit tests: 15%

Final exam: 20%

2.  Homework:  15% 

3.  Participation:  15% 

4.  Portfolio:  15%

5.  Oral Presentation:  20%

Description

Eight hundred years before Bram Stoker gave us the West's most memorable vampire in his novel Dracula and long before the exploits of Vlad "the Impaler" Tepes horrified Europe, the Russian Primary Chronicles tell of a Novgorodian prince as Upyr' Lichyj, or Wicked Vampire.  The Slavic and Balkan worlds abound in histories, legends, myths and literary portraits of the so-called un-dead, creatures which draw life out of the living.

This course examines the vampire in the history and cultures of Russia, the Balkans and Central and Eastern Europe, including manifestations in literature, religion, art, film and common practices.  Texts – both print and non-print media, both Slavic and non-Slavic – will be drawn from Russian, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Romany, Serbian and Croatian sources.  Participants will be asked to separate historical fact from popular fiction (where possible!), and form opinions about the place and importance of the vampire in Slavic and other Central European cultures. 

The course is conducted in English.  No knowledge of Russian required, though readings in Russian and other Slavic languages are available for majors and concentrators in the field.

Texts

 The Darkling: A Treatise on Slavic Vampirism.  Jan L. Perkowski, Columbus, OH: Slavica Publishers, 1989. [photocopy]

 The Vampire Casebook, Alan Dundes, Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998.

 Packet of readings

Recommended Text

Blood Read: The Vampire as Metaphor in Contemporary Culture, Joan Gordon and

Veronica Hollinger, eds., Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press,  1997.

Requirements and grading

Short essay I (5 pp.)                            20%

Midterm exam                                      20%

Short essay II (5 pp.)                            20%

Text journal                                          20%

Final exam                                            20%

This course is the second semester of intensive Russian language instruction developing functional proficiency in listening, speaking, and reading. Writing will be developed both through workbook home assignments and brief reviews and summaries of your reading material.  We will cover all of the basic textbook, Units One through Unit Ten, plus an introductory unit, in the textbook, spending about seven class days on each unit. In addition, this course aims to develop your reading skills through both in-class reading assignments, and individual “free reading” based on a text of your choosing. Portfolio exercises will continue to develop your computer literacy skills – in Russian – for you to be truly functionally proficient and competitive in the language, as well as chronicle your progress in your independent reading project throughout the course. 

Course Content: The social and political upheaval that shook the Soviet Union in the late 1980s has fascinated and puzzled the Western media to the present day. But how well do we understand the causes and effects of the dramatic cultural changes that mark the new Russia of the 1990s and the 21st century?  Do UT's “Millennials” have anything to learn from the Soviet experience of a disenfranchised generation of Young Marxists choosing to embrace Capitalism and Coldplay instead of Communism and Cold War?

This course will provide participants with the materials to construct an ethnographic portrait of Russia’s contemporary youth and their culture, drawing from a variety of print, audio and video sources.  In addition to reading extensively from diverse genres, including the Russian press, editorials, contemporary prose and non-fiction, students in the course should be prepared to immerse themselves in the non-print media coming directly out of Moscow and Saint-Petersburg in the wake of post-Soviet reforms.  Using popular depictions of Russia’s own “twentysomethings” from recent films, documentaries, rock music lyrics, and art, students will try to come to understand how the youth movement effected and continues to affect the changing course of one of the world’s superpowers of the twentieth century. 

Readings and media presentations will focus on the current attitudes of Russian youth toward politics, music, drugs, sex, money and the military from the period of Gorbachev’s perestroika to 2011.  This course will be conducted -- as much as possible -- seminar style, with student interaction constituting a significant part of the usual "lecture" quotient of the course.  Though all required readings for the course are in English, additional readings in Russian for majors and graduate students in Slavic studies will be made available by topic.

Course Description

This course provides a very intensive introduction to Russian language and culture. The in-class quotient of the course will be heavily based on active listening and speaking practice, with much use of various print, video, and web-based media. This course will require students to commit to undertaking intensive methods of instruction, which require their active participation in class and considerable attention to the language outside of class.  The goal of the course is to bring students to a level of functional proficiency in speaking and reading in a short-term course that will prepare them for intermediate Russian, or to engage in study abroad.  Students successfully completing this course may continue to RUS 611c in the spring to fulfill the Foreign Language Requirement in one year.

Text

Russian Stage One: Live from Russia! Vols 1 and 2

Katner,  Russian-English/English-Russian Dictionary

Garza, Fundamentals of Russian Verbal Conjugation

Gerhardt, The Russian World.

Requirements and Grading

In-class tests:                        25%

Homework:                        25%

Portfolios:                        25%

Participation                        25%

Prerequisite:

None

Course Description

Stalin’s Moscow, 1936, The Devil and his gang have come to the mortal world to determine how Mankind is faring in the 20^th century.  He encounters a motley crew of Soviet bureaucrats, writers, politicians and arts who offer little hope for the future.  Enter the “Master”, an unknown writer struggling to finish a novel about the life of Christ told from the perspective of Pontius Pilate.  Can one writer and his work be reason enough to prevent the apocalypse? Enter Margarita, the Master’s selfless companion and heroine of Mikhail Bulgakov’s masterpiece, The Master and Margarita.  Regarded by many readers and critics as one of the greatest novels of our time, The Master and Margarita is a fixed part of Russian culture.  This course will explore not only the intricacies of the novel itself, but also its place among Bulgakov’s other literary works, and its varied sources from world literature, music and the visual arts.  More importantly, it reveals the brilliance and complexities of art created under a strict totalitarian regime.  This course will examine—within the Stalin-era Soviet context—the texts and philosophies that significantly influenced Bulgakov in the creation of his novel.  You will examine these various texts (philosophical treatises, stories, folklore, plays, paintings, opera, and films) and discover the ways that they influenced the shape of the novel and how they appear within the dual story lines and the numerous characters.  Ultimately, the course will allow you to reexamine your own philosophy of good and Evil in the 21^st century.

Text

The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov, Burgin & O’Connor, trans. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.

Faust, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, New York: Norton & Co. 2001.

The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri, New York; Everymans, 1995.

Packet of Readings (available at Speedway Printers in Dobie Mall).

Requirements and Grading Undergraduate

Short Essay (5 pp)                                                20%

Longer essay (10-12 pp)                                    30%

Final Examination                                                30%

Active enthusiastic participation                         20%

???????:

•Cinema for Russian Conversation, Vol. 2 (????), Mara Kashper, Olga Kagan and Yuliya Morozova.  Newburyport, MA: Focus Publishing, 2005 [copy available at the UT Co-Op, or on amazon.com].

• Course packet/????? ?????? (??)

I.         ????? 

Course Content: You know the grammar, lots of words; you’ve maybe even been to Russia on an exchange program.  Now what?  This course is the seventh semester (4th year) of Russian language instruction developing proficiency in listening and speaking through exposure to authentic Russian print, audio and video materials based on recent Russian cinema – now classics in their own right!  You will have the opportunity to express yourself through a wide variety of discourse strategies, including persuasion (e.g., convince your friend to watch «?????? ??????» with you), oration (e.g., give a lecture in a Russian school on your favorite American film, actor, or director), explication (explain to a Russian in Moscow why Tarkovsky is a better director than Mikhalkov) and others.   We will cover volume two of the textbook series, spending approximately two weeks on each film/unit, allowing additional time for review; however, the textbook will provide only the basis for classroom interaction during each session.  The classic Russian films themselves will provide a variety of related Russia realia (print, video, audio) to supplement the themes of each film to enhance your communication skills.  The films covered in the fall semester are: «???????? ??????», «????? ?????», «?????????? ???????», «???», «????????? ?? ?????», «??????–?????», and «????????? ?????????». The course is conducted entirely in Russian – of course!  ? ???, ???????? ? ????! 

?????????:

 ???????????? ? ???????? ???????: You are required to attend class meetings regularly, participate actively in discussions, do all assigned readings and film viewings, and prepare assigned written and oral presentations. Students will be penalized for excessive absences and/or chronic tardiness.

 ???????? ?? ??????: Each student will present two film reviews orally (from notes) in class. The review should last approximately five minutes and must state specific and concrete opinions about the film, actors, director, and/or cinematography, etc.  Following the presentation, the reviewer must be prepared to take questions from the group.

 ???????? ???????: Assignments given from the textbooks may include Internet research, outside reading, film viewing, translations, etc., and should be turned in during the following class meeting. Please hand in all work on time so that it may be returned to you promptly.

 ???????? ????????:  A final written review (2-3 pages) of the last film will be turned in on the last day of the course.

 ??????????????: Any student with disabilities may request appropriate academic accommodations fro the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, Services for Students with Disabilities at 471-6259. Any necessary accommodations should be presented to the instructor in written form.

 II.        ??????

 There are four components of the final course grade.  These components and their relative weights are:

???????????? ? ???????? ???????                    30%

???????? ?? ??????                                                    30%

???????? ???????                                                        20%

???????? ????????                                                        20%

Required texts:

• The Vampire in Slavic Culture, Course Reader (CR), T. J. Garza, ed., University Readers, San Diego: CA, 2009.

• The Vampire: A Casebook, Alan Dundes, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998.

Recommended texts:

 • The Darkling: A Treatise on Slavic Vampirism, Jan L. Perkowski, Columbus: Slavica Publishers, 1989.

• Vampire Lore: From the Writings of Jan Louis Perkowski. Jan L. Perkowski, Bloomington: Slavica Publishers, 2006.

•Blood Read: The Vampire as Metaphor in Contemporary Culture, J. Gordon and V. Hollinger, Philadelphia: UPenn Press, 1997.

• Dracula, Bram Stoker, New York: Signet, 1997.

 I.         General

            Eight hundred years before Bram Stoker gave us the West's most memorable vampire in Dracula (1897) and long before the exploits of Vlad "the Impaler" Tepes horrified Europe (1431-46), the Russian Primary Chronicles write of a Novgorodian priest as Upyr' Likhij, or Wicked Vampire (1047).  The Slavic and Balkan worlds abound in histories, legends, myths and literary portraits of the so-called undead, creatures which draw life out of the living.

            This course examines the vampire in the cultures of Russia and Eastern Europe, including manifestations in literature, religion, art, film and common practices from its origins to 2009.  Texts – both print and non-print media – will be drawn from Russian, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Serbian and Croatian sources.  Participants will be asked to separate historical fact from popular fiction, and form opinions about the place of the vampire in Slavic and East European cultures. 

The course is conducted in English.  No knowledge of Russian required, though readings in Russian and other Slavic languages are available for majors and concentrators in related fields.

II.        Course Requirements

 Attendance and Participation: You are expected to attend class meetings regularly, participate actively in discussions, do all assigned readings and film viewings, and prepare written assignments. Because the readings and critical approaches covered in this course are cumulative in design, your regular participation is required.  Students missing more than three (3) class sessions will receive a reduction of their final grade.  Students who miss more than five (5) classes, or who do not complete all four of the required components of the syllabus cannot pass the course. In extreme circumstances, the instructor may excuse absences.

Short Essays: Two brief (4-5 pages) reaction papers to one of the readings or media presentations covered in class are due by Thursday, October 1, and Thursday, November 5.  While these essays are not research based, they may contain references or support from external sources.

Midterm Exam: A comprehensive midterm exam over all material covered (readings, films, slides, and lectures) in the first half of the course will be given on Thursday, October 22.  The specific format of the midterm will be announced well before the exam date.

Final exam: An exam – comparable in format to the midterm – covering the material (readings, films, slides, lectures) from the second half of the course -- will be given during the University exam period on Wednesday, December 9 from 2:00 – 5:00 pm.

Special Accommodations: Any student with disabilities may request appropriate academic accommodations fro the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, Services for Students with Disabilities at 471-6259. Any necessary accommodations should be presented to the instructor in written form.

 III.      Grading

In addition to regular attendance and participation, there are four components of the final course grade.  These components and their relative weights are:

Short essay I (4-5 pp.)          25%                            

Midterm exam                    25%

Short essay II (4-5 pp.)        25%                            

Final exam                         25%

All grades for this course will be assigned using the plus/minus system as follows:

A (4.00)?A- (3.67)?B+ (3.33)?B (3.00)?B- (2.67)?C+ (2.33)?C (2.00)?C- (1.67)?D+ (1.33)?D (1.00)?D- (.67)?F (0.00)

COURSE OUTLINE

Thursday, August 27           Introduction to SLA 301

                                                Overview of syllabus and course design for 301

                           • Definition of terms:  “Slavic” and “Vampire”

                           • Establishment of scene: the Carpathians and the Balkans

                                    View scene from Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula.’

For next meeting, read definitions of term “vampire” in the CR pp. 5-28, and “The History of the Word Vampire” in Dundes, pp. 3-11.

Tuesday, September 1         On Vampires and Upyri 

                           • The relationship between Slavic upyr and European vampire

For next session, read  “Poetic Views of the Slavs Regarding Nature” by

Afanasiev, “Heretics as Vampires and Demons in Russia” by Oinas , “Vampirism: Old World Folklore” by McNally & Floresçu,  “The Need Fire” by Fraser and“’Spoiling’ and ‘Healing’” by Ivanits in the CR pp. 29-66.

Thursday, September 3       Origins of Vampire Beliefs in the

                                                Slavic World

                           • Understanding the place of the vampire in the Slavic world

For the next session, read “The Epic of Gilgemesh: Prologue” by Kramer , “Lilith” by Guiley,  “Tlahuelpuchi” by Fraser and “Sirin” in the CR pp. 67-80.

Tuesday, September 8         From Folktales and Myths: Harpies and Sirin

                           • Folk belief, folklore and demons in the Slavic world

                           • Relationship between religion, paganism, and the vampire

For next meeting, read “Lycanthropy among the Ancients” by Baring-Gould, “The Werewolf: An Introduction” by Ashley, and “Lycanthropy and the Undead Corpse,” by Keyworth in CR pp. 81-118.

Thursday, September 11     Are Werewolves Vampires, Too?

                           • Werewolves, the undead and vampires

                           • The meaning behind the “vukodlak” in Slavic

 For next meeting, read “A Journey into Dracula Country” by Mascetti and “The Historical Dracula: Tyrant from Transylvania” by McNally and Floresçu in CR pp. 119-136.

Tuesday, September 15       Finding the Real “Dracula”

                           • Getting to know Transylvania

                           • The life and times of Vlad Tepes

For next meeting, read “Crusader Against the Turks” by McNally and Floresçu, and “Epilogue: The Imprisonment and Final Reign of Dracula” in CR pp. 137-158.

Thursday, September 17     Vlad “The Impaler” Dracula

                        • Who was the real Dracula?

                        • Why does the “myth” live on in Transylvania?

For next meeting, read “Bathory, Elizabeth,” by Melton, “Bathory, Elizabeth,” by Bunson, and “The Passion of Bathory: Bloody Christmas 1610,” by McNally in CR pp. 159-178.

Tuesday, September 22       Elizabeth Bathory

• How “vampirization” reports became part of the European tradition

For next meeting, read “Slavs, Vampires and the” in CR pp. 181-186.

Thursday, September 24     Vampires in the Slavic Lands

                           • The Balkans as backdrop for the vampire

                           • The vampire myth behind nationalism

For next meeting, read “In Defense of Vampires” in Dundes, pp. 57-66; and “Of Magic, Witches and Vampires in the Balkans,” “Bulgaria, Vampires in,” and “Southern Slavs, Vampires and the” in the CR pp. 187-204.

Tuesday, September 29       South Slavic Vampires

                           • The vampire as part of Balkan identity

For the next meeting, read “Gypsies , Vampires and the” in CR pp. 205-210.  First Reaction Paper is due on Thursday!

Thursday, October 1            Gypsies (Roma) and Vampires

                           • A culture within a culture

                        • Dispelling and creating racial prejudices

                        • Short Essay I due today

For the next meeting, read Oinas’ “East European Vampires” in Dundes, pp. 47-56; and “Russia, Vampires in,” by Melton, and “Tale of a Russian Vampire” by Blavatsky in CR pp. 211-220.

Tuesday, October 6              Russian Vampires

                           • Differences in East Slavic from the South Slavic Balkans

For next meeting, read Summers’ “Russia, Roumania and Bulgaria,” and Melton’s “Romania, Vampires in” in CR pp. 221-262.

Thursday, October 8            Central European Vampires, I

                        • The vampire in its historical home

                        • Issues of language and culture difference

For next meeting, read Murgoci’s and Perkowski’s “The Roumanian Folkloric Vampire” in Dundes pp. 12-34; and “Hungary, Vampires in,” “Czech Republic and Slovakia, Vampires in the” by Melton, and “The Golem” by DeBartolo in CR pp. 263-276.

Tuesday, October 13            Central European Vampires, II

                       • Beginnings of a literary tradition in vampire tales

                       • View and discuss The Golem

For next meeting, read “Peter Plogojowitz,” “The Shoemaker of Silesia,” and “Visum et Repertum” by Barber, and “Russian Stories” in CR pp. 277-306.

Thursday, October 15          Early Vampire Stories

                           • Connections between Vlad Tepes and European literature

                           • How the vampire legend reached Stoker in literature       

For next meeting, read Polidori’s/Byron’s “The Vampyre,” Chapter 2 from Stoker’s Dracula, and “From Dracula to Nosferatu” in CR pp. 309-330.

Tuesday, October 20            The Literary Vampire: From Byron to

Bram Stoker’s Dracula 

               • Connections between Vlad Tepes and European literature

               • How the vampire legend reached Stoker in literature       

 For next meeting, prepare for Midterm Exam (No new reading.).

Thursday, October 22          Midterm Exam

                           • In-class written exam over material (texts, films, slides, lectures)

For next meeting, read  Gibson’s “Dracula and the Eastern Question” in CR pp. 337-348, and watch and watch F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu.

Thursday, October 27          The Literary Vampire: Film and the Slavic Tradition

                           • The vampire as the “Other” in film

                           • View scenes from Nosferatu (1922)

For next meeting, and Neruda’s “The Vampire” in CR pp. 349-352; and watch Todd Browning’s film Dracula (1931) with Bela Lugosi.

Thursday, October 29          The Vampire in Czech Literature

                           • Comparison of cultural tradition and literary works

                           • View scenes from Dracula (1931)

For next meeting, read Karamzin’s “The Island of Bornholm,” Pushkin’s “The Bridegroom” (two versions), “Evil Spirits,” and “The Drowned Man,” in CR pp. 353-382.

Tuesday, November 3        The Vampire in Russian Literature, I

               • Creating a literary standard for Russian for horror

For next meeting, read Tolstoy’s “The Family of the Vurdalak” in CR pp. 383-400. 

Second Reaction Paper is due on Thursday! 

Thursday, November 5      The Vampire in Russian Literature, II

               • A return to folk motifs in literary Russian

                           • View selection from Mario Bava’s Black Sunday

                           • Short Essay II due today.

 For next meeting, read Gogol’s “Viy,” and Turgenev’s “Phantoms: A Fantasy,” in CR pp. 401-456.

Thursday, November 5      The Vampire in Russian Literature, II

               • A return to folk motifs in literary Russian

                           • View selection from Mario Bava’s Black Sunday

                           • Short Essay II due today.

For next meeting, read Gogol’s “Viy,” and Turgenev’s “Phantoms: A Fantasy,” in CR pp. 401-456.

Thursday, November 12    The Vampire in Russian Literature, IV

                           • Fantasy moves from the 19^th to the 20^th century

                           • View selection from Bortko’s Master and Margarita 

For next meeting, read Pelevin’s “A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia,” and selection from Night Watch by Lukyanenko in CR pp. 471-508.

Tuesday, November 17      Russian Vampires for the New Century

                           • The Postmodern Slavic vampire in literature and film

                           • View scenes from Night Watch (2004)

For next meeting, read Barber’s “Forensic Pathology and the European Vampire” in Dundes, and “Protection from Blood Drinkers,” by Konstantinos and “The Rational Slayer” by McClelland in CR pp. 511-536.

Thursday, November 19    How to Kill a (Slavic) Vampire

                           • Death of the undead?

                           • More folk mythology in eliminating the vampire

For next meeting, read song lyrics for Vysotsky, Lika, Linda, and Detsl in CR pp. 539-550.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tuesday, December 1          Vampires and Russian Pop Music

                           • View Russian music videos of the ‘90s and ‘00s

                           • Incorporating vampires into pop culture

For last meeting, read lyrics for The Leg Cramps, B-2, Uma2rman,

Night Snipers, and Grigoriy Leps in CR pp. 551-561.

Thursday, December 3        Russian Rock, Goths and Vamps

                           • View Russian music videos of the 2000s

                           •Examine web-based Russian gothic movement

                           • Final exam format

Prepare for Final Examination