RUSS 0090 Fall 2014 Syllabus
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University of Pittsburgh
Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
RUSS 0090: Russian Fairy Tales
Fall 2014
Lectures: Monday, Wednesday
12:00PM - 12:50PM-- Alumni Hall, 7th floor
auditorium
Office: CL 1417
Office hours: Check Courseweb
Instructors:
Chip Crane (chipcrane@hotmail.com)
Sabrina Robinson (sms167@pitt.edu)
Schedule of Classes and Assignments
Abbreviations:
AA—Afanas′ev, A. Russian Fairy Tales.
BB—Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales.
LI—Ivanits, Linda J. Russian Folk Belief.
CW—CourseWeb
* The instructors reserve rights to make changes in course schedule throughout the term.
WEEK 1
Monday, August
25
LECTURE
Wednesday,
August 27
LECTURE
SYLLABUS. DEFINITIONS AND ISSUES. RUSSIA AND ITS PEOPLE
Assignment due
 None
BABA YAGA AND KOSHCHEI THE DEATHLESS
Assignment due
 AA: “Baba Yaga and the Brave Youth,” pp. 76-79
 AA: “Baba Yaga,” pp. 194-195
 AA: “Koshchey the Deathless,” pp. 485-494
In Class
 Film clip: A. Rou’s Fire, Water, and Copper Pipe
Thursday,
IVAN THE FOOL
August 28,
Assignment due
Friday, August 29
 CW: Andrei Sinyavsky, “Ivan the Fool” (PDF)
RECITATION
 Bring Afanas′ev to class
 AA: “Ivanushko, the Little Fool,” pp. 62–66
 AA: “Emelya The Simpelton” pp. 46-48
WEEK 2
Monday,
September 1
Wednesday,
September 3
LECTURE
NO CLASSES—LABOR DAY
RUSSIAN ORTHODOXY AND RUSSIAN PAGANISM
Assignment due
 LI: pp. 3–18, 51–63, 169–177
In Class
 Pagan deities and festivals
 Film Clip: A. Tarkovskii’s Andrei Rublev (1966)
RUSS 0090 Fall 2014 Syllabus
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Thursday,
September 4,
Friday,
September 5
RECITATION
WEEK 3
Monday,
September 8
LECTURE
Wednesday,
September 10
LECTURE
DOMESTIC SPIRITS AND NATURE SPIRITS
Assignment due
 CW: List of terms in CourseWeb in Course Documents folder
 LI: pp. 64–82, 178–189
 Bring Ivanits to Class
MAX LÜTHI AND STYLISTIC CHARACTERISTICS OF FOLKTALES
Assignment due
 CW: Max Lüthi’s The European Folk Tale: Form and Nature (PDF)
 AA: “Ivan the Peasant’s Son and the Thumb-Sized Man,” pp. 262–68
In Class
 Film clip: S. Paradjanov’s Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1964)
THE AUTHORSHIP OF FOLKLORE
Assignment due
 CW: Petr Bogatyrev and Roman Jakobson, “Folklore as a Special Form of
Creativity” (PDF)
 CW: Aleksandr Ostrovskii, “The Snow Maiden” (PDF)
Thursday,
September 11,
Friday,
September 12
RECITATION
FOLKLORE AND FOLKTALES
Assignment due
 Deadline for notifying instructors and Office of Disability Resources of special
accommodation requests. (See Course Description or consult with one of the
instructors for details.)
 Bring Afanas′ev to class
 AA: “Vasilisa the Beautiful,” pp. 439-47
 AA: “Prince Ivan, the Firebird, and the Grey Wolf,” pp. 612-25
 AA: “Maria Morevna,” pp. 553–562
WEEK 4
Monday,
September 15
LECTURE
Wednesday,
September 17
LECTURE
STRUCTURALIST APPROACH TO FAIRY TALES: PROPP
Assignment due
 Vladimir Propp’s Morphology of the Folktale, pp. 1-45 (PDF)
 AA: “The Magic Swan Geese,” pp. 349–51
STRUCTURALIST APPROACH TO FAIRY TALES: PROPP
Assignment due
 Vladimir Propp’s “The Method and Material,” pp. 18–24, 149–55 (PDF)
 AA: “Ivan the Peasant’s Son and the Thumb-Sized Man,” pp. 262-68
STRUCTURALIST APPROACH TO FAIRY TALES: PROPP
Assignment due
 AA: “The Crystal Mountain,” pp. 482-85
 Review for examination #1. Come to class with questions or requests to review
specific material.
Thursday,
September 18,
Friday,
September 19
RECITATION
WEEK 5
Monday,
September 22
LECTURE
EXAMINATION #1
Includes all materials (readings, lectures, recitations) to date.
RUSS 0090 Fall 2014 Syllabus
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Wednesday,
September 24
LECTURE
Thursday,
September 25,
Friday,
September 26
RECITATION
PSYCHOANALYTICAL APPROACH TO FAIRY TALES: FREUD AND BETTELHEIM
Assignment due
 BB: pp. 97–111
 AA: “The Three Kingdoms,” pp. 49-54
 AA: “Two Ivans, Soldier’s Sons,” pp. 463–475
BETTELHEIM: YOUNGEST CHILD AND TWO SIBLING TALES
Assignment due
 BB: pp. 78–83, 90–96
 AA: “The Armless Maiden,” pp. 294–299
 AA: “Shemiaka the Judge,” pp. 625–627
 AA: “Misery,” pp. 20–24
WEEK 6
Monday,
September 29
LECTURE
BETTELHEIM: SLEEPING BEAUTY TALES
Assignment due
 BB: pp. 225–236
 AA: “Prince Ivan and Princess Martha,” pp. 79–86
 AA: “The Enchanted Princess,” pp. 600–611
In Class
 Video clip: Sleeping Beauty (ballet)
Wednesday,
October 1
LECTURE
BETTELHEIM: ANIMAL BRIDE AND GROOM TALES
Assignment due
 BB: pp. 282-291, 295-310
 AA: “The Snotty Goat,” pp. 200–202
 CW: Sergei Aksakov, “The Little Scarlet Flower” (PDF)
In Class
 Film clip: L. Atamanov’s The Little Scarlet Flower
Thursday,
October 2,
Friday, October
3
RECITATION
WEEK 7
Monday,
October 6
LECTURE
BETTELHEIM: SLEEPING BEAUTY AND ANIMAL BRIDE AND GROOM TALES
Assignment due
 AA: “The Frog Princess,” pp. 119–123
 AA: “The Feather of Finist, the Bright Falcon,” pp. 580-588
Wednesday,
October 7
LECTURE
FEMINIST APPROACHES TO FAIRY TALES: LIEBERMAN
Assignment due
 CW: Marcia Lieberman, “Some Day My Prince Will Come” (PDF)
 REVIEW: AA: “The Snotty Goat,” pp. 200–202
 REVIEW: AA: “Prince Ivan, the Firebird, and the Grey Wolf,” pp. 612-25
 REVIEW: AA: “Maria Morevna,” pp. 553–562
In Class
 Film clip: I. Ivanov-Vano’s The Tale of the Dead Princes and Seven Knights (1951)
FAIRY TALES AND VISUAL ART
In Class
Russian Folk Art
Russian High Art
RUSS 0090 Fall 2014 Syllabus
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Thursday,
October 9,
Friday, October
10
RECITATION
FEMINIST APPROACHES TO FAIRY TALES: BAD WIVES, WISE MAIDENS
Assignment due
 AA: “The Bad Wife,” pp. 56–57
 AA: “The Wondrous Wonder, the Marvelous Marvel,” pp. 13–15
 AA: “The Goldfish,” pp. 528–33
 AA: “The Wise Little Girl,” pp. 252–55
 AA: “The Wise Maiden and the Seven Robbers,” pp. 134–40
WEEK 8
Tuesday,
October 14
LECTURE
WICKED STEPMOTHERS: WARNER
Assignment due
 Warner, “Wicked Stepmothers,” (PDF)
 CW: Aleksandr Afanas′ev, “The Magic Mirror” (PDF)
Monday’s
lecture shifted
to Tuesday!!!
Wednesday,
October 15
LECTURE
WICKED STEPMOTHERS: GILBERT AND GUBAR
 CW: Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, “The Queen’s Looking Glass” (PDF)
In Class
 Film clip: Disney, Snow White (1937)
Thursday,
October 16,
Friday, October
17
RECITATION
WICKED STEPMOTHERS
Assignment due
 AA: “Burenushka, the Little Red Cow,” pp. 146–150
 AA: “Jack Frost,” pp. 366-39
 AA: “Baba Yaga,” pp. 194-195
 AA: “The Maiden Tsar,” pp. 229–234
WEEK 9
Monday,
October 20
LECTURE
EXAMINATION # 2
Emphasizes all materials (readings, lectures, recitations) since first examination.
Examinations are not cumulative by design, but may require cumulative
knowledge. For example, a question on the last examination about a tale read
toward the end of the semester may require you to analyze the tale through the
lens of an analytical method introduced in a theoretical reading toward the
beginning of the semester. Alternatively, a question about a theoretical or
methodological approach to fairy tales introduced toward the end of the
semester may require you to compare this approach to one introduced earlier.
EPICS AND BYLINY
Assignment due
 CW: “Ilya Muromets and Nightingale the Robber” (bylina) (PDF)
 CW: “Sadko” (bylina) (PDF)
In Class
Wednesday,
October 22
LECTURE

Film clip: Ptushko, The Sword and the Dragon (1956)
Film clip: Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sadko (Opera)
Thursday,
October 23,
Friday, October
BYLINY AND FAIRY TALES
Assignment due
 AA: “Ivan the Simpleton,” pp. 142–145
RUSS 0090 Fall 2014 Syllabus
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RECITATION


AA: “Foma Berennikov,” pp. 284–287
AA: “Ilya Muromets and the Dragon,” pp. 569–575
WEEK 10
Monday,
October 27
LECTURE
Wednesday,
October 29
LECTURE
MARXIST APPROACH TO FAIRY TALES
Assignment due
 CW: Selections from Jack Zipes’s Breaking the Magic Spell (PDF)
Thursday,
October 30,
Friday, October
31
RECITATION
MARXIST APPROACH TO FAIRY TALES
Assignment due
 AA: “Salt,” pp. 40–44
 Review lecture notes. Come prepared to analyze tales from Marxist perspective
WEEK 11
Monday,
November 3
LECTURE
PUSHKIN AND ROMANTICISM
Assignment due
 CW: Aleksandr Pushkin, “The Tale of Tsar Saltan, of His Son, the Glorious and
Mighty Knight Prince Guidon Saltonovich, and of the Fair Swan-Princess”
(PDF)
Wednesday,
November 5
LECTURE
ROMANTICISM AND ORIENTALISM
Assignment due
 CW: Mikhail Lermontov, “Ashik-Kerib” (PDF)
In Class
 Film clip: Paradjanov’s Ashik Kerib
Thursday,
November 6,
Friday,
November 7
RECITATION
WEEK 12
Monday,
November 10
LECTURE
ROMANTICISM AND ORIENTALISM
Assignment due
 CW: Aleksandr Pushkin, “The Golden Cockerel” (PDF)
Wednesday,
November 12
LECTURE
SOCIALIST REALISM
Assignment due
 CW: Katerina Clark, The Soviet Novel (PDF)
In Class
Film Clip: M. Chiaureli’s The Fall of Berlin (1948)
MARXISM AND DISNEY
Assignment due
 CW: Jack Zipes, “Breaking the Disney Spell,” pp. 72–95 (PDF)
In Class
 Film Clip: Disney, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
SOVIET POWER AND FAIRY TALES
Assignment due
 CW: Valentin Kataev, “The Flower of Seven Colors” (PDF)
 CW: Arkadii Gaidar, “Tale of the Military Secret” (PDF)
In Class
 Film Clip: M. Tsekhanovsky’s The Flower of Seven Colors (1948)
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Thursday,
November 13,
Friday,
November 14
RECITATION
WEEK 13
Monday,
November 17
LECTURE
Wednesday,
November 19
LECTURE
Thursday,
November 20,
Friday
November 21
WEEK 14
Monday,
November 24
LECTURE
Wednesday,
November 26Friday,
November 28
WEEK 15
Monday,
December 1
LECTURE
Wednesday,
December 3
LECTURE
Thursday,
December 4,
Friday,
December 5
RECITATION
MondaySaturday,

SOVIET FAIRY TALES
CW: Lazar Lagin’s The Old Genie Khottabych: A Story of Make-Believe (PDF)
ALTERNATIVES: KHARMS AND ABSURDISM
Assignment due
 CW: Daniil Kharms, “A Ffairy Tale,” “A Fable, ” “The Copper Look,” and
“The Four-Legged Crow” (PDF)
ALTERNATIVES: SHVARTS AND DISSIDENCE
Assignment due
CW: Evgenyi Schvarts, The Dragon (PDF)
NO CLASS: WATCH ANNA MELIKIAN’S THE MERMAID
Assignment due
Watch Anna Melikian’s The Mermaid (2007)
CONTEMPORARY LITERARY FAIRY TALES
Assignment due
 CW: Nina Sadur, “The Cute Little Redhead” (PDF)
 CW: Liudmila Petrushevskaia, “The Cabbage Patch Mother" (PDF)
NO CLASS- THANKSGIVING BREAK
REVIEW FOR EXAMINATION #3
Assignment due
 Look over material covered since Examination #2
 Bring any questions you have to class.
EXAMINATION #3
Emphasizes all materials (readings, lectures, recitations) since Examination #2.
Extra-credit assignments must be submitted to Turnitin by 5:00 p.m.
There is no separate final examination (although the makeup examination is held during
the regular examination time, the time and place of which will be announced later in the
semester).
WRAP-UP
 Final Thoughts
 Evaluation of Recitation Instructors
FINAL EXAMINATION WEEK
MAKE-UP EXAMINATION
RUSS 0090 Fall 2014 Syllabus
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December 8-13