Reading and composition course based on works of Russian and other Slavic writers, either written in English or translated into English. As students develop strategies of writing and interpretation, they will become acquainted with a particular theme in Russian and/or Slavic literatures and their major voices. R5A satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement, and R5B satisfies the second half.

The countryside is an ambivalent space in fiction and popular media. In American pop culture of the 21st century, television shows such as True Detective and American Horror Story have presented rural areas as natural breeding grounds for ignorance, poverty, and violence. In these series, social ills often take the form of the supernatural and the sensational: cults, hauntings, and demons abound. Meanwhile, country music artists like The Chicks and Florida Georgia Line celebrate rural America as a semi-idyllic space where patriotism, tradition, and authenticity are preserved: where the beers are always cold, and the front porch light is always on. Why do rural spaces inspire such conflicting associations? Is the countryside a haunting (or haunted) periphery to the urban center, a wild, threatening, or “backward” space? Or is it an idyllic escape from that center, a return to a more “authentic” way of being? While the examples above are taken from recent American pop culture, in seeking to answer these questions our course will look at representations of rural life in both American and Russian/Soviet literature, film, and music of the 19th- 21st centuries. We will encounter peasants, farmers, landowners, and hillbillies in the texts of Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Turgenev, Anton Chekhov, Ivan Bunin, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Flannery O’Connor, and Toni Morrison. We will also look at representations in television and film (including True Detective, American Horror Story, O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), Nebraska (2013), and The Witch (2015)), as well as the country music tradition, from Hank Williams to Miranda Lambert to Lil Nas X and Orville Peck. While these texts and conceptual questions will guide the readings and discussion that form the structural centerpiece of this course, we will also focus on developing the skills of college-level critical reading and writing. Students will outline, draft, write, and rewrite a series of essays, honing their ability to read closely and craft persuasive written arguments. All texts will be made available as PDF’s on bCourses.

Requisites

• Previously passed an R_A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Previously passed an articulated R_A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Score a 4 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Literature. Score a 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Language and Composition. Score of 5, 6, or 7 on the International Baccalaureate Higher Level Examination in English.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills