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UMB – Fall 2007
RU/WOST L255 Women in Russia Professor Diana Burgin
Department of Modern Languages
Office: M-4-224; X7-7575 Office hours: T/TH 8:30 – 10:00
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
The requirements for this course fall into 3 categories: 1) Attendance, Preparation of Reading & Participation; 2) Five 30-35 minute open-book quizzes on the readings; 3) 1 Open-book Exam and 1 Take-home Exam. THERE ARE NO MAKE-UPS (OR EXTENSIONS) ON QUIZZES AND EXAMS
1. Attendance, Preparation (Reading) & Participation (30% of the final grade)
Students are expected to attend class regularly, missing no more than 3 classes during the semester for any reason. Active participation in discussion of the readings (see Schedule) is strongly encouraged. In order to participate effectively, you must have read and thought about the reading IN ADVANCE of the class when that reading will be discussed. Whether you wish to participate in discussions or not, you are required to read all selections listed on the Table of Contents in the Course Packet. The Course Packet is available for $10. in the department office of the Modern Languages Department, M-4-217. The readings are Xeroxed on 3-hole paper; it is recommended that you buy a binder to keep them together and in order. You should bring the Readings to every class. Almost all of the required readings are short (about 15 pages), but some are more challenging than others. All readings are in English, but students who know Russian may want to read Russian sources in the original.
ATTENDANCE IS MANDATORY AT ALL OPEN-BOOK QUIZZES AND THE OPEN-BOOK MIDTERM EXAM AS NO MAKE-UPS WILL BE GIVEN. IF YOU MISS A QUIZ OR EXAM DUE TO AN UNFORESEEN MEDICAL OR SERIOUS EMERGENCY, OR A SCHEDULING CONFLICT, YOU SHOULD BE PREPARED TO GIVE THE INSTRUCTOR WRITTEN CORROBORATING EVIDENCE FROM A THIRD-PARTY OF THE REASON FOR ABSENCE IN ORDER TO BE EXCUSED. If you are not excused by the instructor, you will get an F on the quiz or exam you missed.
2. Open-book quizzes (35 % of the final grade, 7% each)
Five open-book quizzes will be given throughout the semester, as indicated on the schedule below, on specific required reading selections. (PLEASE NOTE: NOT ALL REQUIRED READINGS WILL BE DISCUSSED AND QUIZZES MAY FOCUS ON UNDISCUSSED REQUIRED READINGS.) The quizzes will be given at the beginning of the class period, so you need to come on time, and they will span 30 to 35 minutes. Questions will be specific and designed for BRIEF, concrete answers. You may bring your course packet to all quizzes, but class notes are not allowed. Quiz answers can be written in English or Russian.
3. Open-book Midterm and Take-home Hour Exam (35% of the final grade)
There will be an open-book midterm exam on the material covered in readings and class discussions in Part I of the course and a take-home exam on the key concept in Part II of the course – The Woman Question. There are no make-ups or extensions on exams. There is no final exam. Exams can be written in English or Russian. The Take-home Exam must be typed.
LIST OF MAIN REQUIRED READINGS (See Table of Contents in Course Packet for complete list)
Starred (*) items can be read in Russian. Items in parentheses are optional.
1. Russian Fairy Tales (selections from Afanasiev’s collection*): “Baba Yaga and the Brave Youth,” “Baba Yaga,” “The Maiden Tsar,” “Maria Morevna”
2. Russian Folk Poetry: Images of Women: “Avdotya, Woman of Riazan,” “Domra and Dmitri,” “Wife over Husband,” “The Faithful Wife.”
3 Natalie Moyle, “Mermaids (Rusalki) and Russian Beliefs about Women.” A groundbreaking study by a noted Slavic folklorist.
4. ..Oral reports of sightings of Mermaids (from Russian Folk Belief by Linda Ivanits)
5. Diana Burgin, “Amazons in Russian History and Culture”
6. “How the Epic Hero Dobrynia Married a Polianitsa” (a bylina) Translated by Diana Burgin.
7. Jeanine Davis-Kimball, “Sauro-Sarmatian Nomadic Women: New Gender Identities.” Recent archaelogical finds in south-central Russia north of the Black Sea that support the theory that some pre-historic nomadic cultures had a warrior class for women as well as men.
8. Information about Women’s Lives in Russia, 11-19th cc.
9. Nadezhda Durova, “My Childhood Years”* (Translated by Mary Zirin). Autobiographical sketch by a provincial noblewoman who passed as a man and fought in the Napoleonic wars.
10. Maria Botchkareva, Yashka. My Life As Peasant, Officer, Exile* 2 chapters from an oral autobiography by a semiliterate Russian peasant woman who served in combat during World War I.
11. Diana Burgin, “A Second Joan of Arc” and “Reminiscences of and about Maria Botchkareva”
12.Worobec, “Victims or Actors? Russian Peasant Women and Patriarchy.”
Study of peasant women in late 19th c Russia that focuses on the question of how much control (or agency) they had over their lives.
13. Richard Stites, “The Birth of the Woman Question” Chapter from one of the major histories of the Russian Women’s Liberation Movement. This reading is long and very detailed. It should be read slowly over a period of two weeks during our discussion of other readings in class. It is the main historical source for the Take-home exam.
14. Valentina Dmitrieva, “After the Great Hunger”* (Xerox) Autobiographical sketches by one of Russia’s first women doctors on her experiences trying to help famine-stricken Russian villagers.
15. Vera Zasulich, “Reminiscences”* Excerpt from the reminiscences of one of Russia’s most famous female revolutionaries and terrorists.
16. Barbara Engel, “St. Petersburg Prostitutes in the late 19th c.” Scholarly study of prostitution in late 19th c Russia.
17. Anton Chekhov, “An Attack of Nerves”* Short story about a young medical student’s first experience with a prostitute in late 19th c Moscow.
18. Anna Akhmatova, “Requiem”* Cycle of poems by one of Russia’s greatest poets, written to commemorate the victims of the Stalinist purges of the 1930’s, one of whom was the poet’s son.
19. “The Shackles of Freedom” Article from Newsweek about the situation of women in Russia today. This article is NOT in the course packet. It will be passed out in class at the appropriate time.
SCHEDULE OF CLASSES AND ASSIGNMENTS
9/4 / Introduction to the course syllabus
9/6 / Introduction to the culture of women in Russia / “What in Russian Women’s Experience is Unique?”
9/11,13 / Women in fairy tales: Witch and Virgin-Tsar / 9-11 BABA YAGA; Selections from Russian Fairy Tales: “Baba Yaga,” “Baba Yaga & Brave Youth,”9/13 “Maiden Tsar,” “Maria Morevna”
9/18 / Images of women in folklore: “Avdotya, woman of Riazan” and Domra from “Domra and Dmitri” / Russian Folk Poetry: Images of Women: In addition to “Avdotya” and “Domra & Dmitri” READ “Wife over Husband” and “The Faithful Wife”
9/20,25 / Russian rusalki (mermaids) / Moyle, “Mermaids and Russian Beliefs about Women” and Death Symbolism in Rites for Russian Bride; Oral reports of sightings of rusalki / 9/25 : Open-book quiz I: Images of Women in Russian Folk Poetry and Mermaids. (Focus on folk tales and sightings of rusalki)”
9/27 / Russian warrior women – from legend to reality / Burgin, “Amazons in Russian History and Culture” and “How the Epic Hero Dobrynia Married a Polianitsa”; Davis-Kimball: “Sauro-Sarmatian Nomadic Women”
10/2,4 / Nadezhda Durova – Amazon identity or a case of transgendering? / Durova, “My Childhood Years” and “A Russian Amazon by the Name of Alexandrov” / 10/2.. Open-book quiz II
(Amazons – the bylina)
10/9, 11 / Maria Botchkareva – Defending the mother(land) / 10/9 Burgin, “A Second Joan of Arc,” “Reminiscences of and about Maria Botchkareva”;10/11 2 chapters from Yashka
10/16 / OPEN BOOK HOUR EXAM ON THE FIRST HALF OF THE COURSE. (NO MAKE UPS !!!) / 10/16 Open-book Midterm
10/18 / Women in Russian History / “Russian History at a Glance”; “Information about Women’s Lives in Russia,” 11-19th cc
10/23,25 / Peasant women in Russia: how much power of self-determination did they have? / Worobec, “Victims or Actors? Russian peasant women and patriarchy.”
10/30, 11/1 / The broadranging significance of the Russian women’s liberation movemen / 11/1-15 Stites, “The Birth of the Woman Question.” This reading provides valuable background to all classes through November 15 and is essential for the take home hour exam. / 10/30 Open book quiz III (Peasant class status as a pre-determining factor in a Russian woman’s life.)
11/6 / Women and medicine / Dmitrieva, “After the Great Hunger”
11/8 / Women and revolution / Zasulich, “Reminiscences”
11/13,15 / Women and prostitution / Engel, “St. Petersburg Prostitutes” .” / 11/13 Open book quiz IV (Dmitrieva and Zasulich )
11/20, / Prostitution in Russian realist literature / Chekhov, “An Attack of Nerves”
THANKSGIVING BREAK
11/27 / Chekhov’s “An Attack of Nerves” / 11/27 Open book quiz V (Engel’s research and Chekhov’s story)
11/29 12/4 / Russian women in the soviet period: forward and back; Stalinism / TAKE-HOME EXAM PASSED OUT IN CLASS ON NOV. 29.
12/ 6, 11 / Women and poetry / Akhmatova, “Requiem” / 12/6 TAKE HOME EXAM DUE AT BEGINNING OF CLASS. NO EXTENSIONS!!
12/13 / Russian women today Conclusion and evaluation / “The Shackles of Freedom” / .
NO FINAL EXAM AND NO INCOMPLETES