The remainder of the course is spent in the reading and grammatical analysis of original texts in Cyrillic or Cyrillic transcription of the original Glagolitic. Language is a key issue in the articulation of ethnicity and the struggle for power in Southeastern Europe. This course familiarizes students with the linguistic histories and structures that have served as bases for the formation of modern Balkan ethnic identities and that are being manipulated to shape current and future events. The course is informed by the instructor's twenty-five years of linguistic research in the Balkans, as well as his experience as an adviser for the United Nations Protection Forces in the Former Yugoslavia and as a consultant to the South Balkan Project of the Council on Foreign Relations. Among other figures and issues, we address Dziga Vertov and Constructivism, German Expressionism and Aleksandr Dovzhenko, and Formalist poetics and FEKS directors.
Film screenings are six hours a week in addition to scheduled class time.
This course constitutes a comprehensive examination of the phenomenon of the vampire myth in the Slavic and East-European world. The vampire is traced from its primeval origins through its many incarnations, ending with an assessment of its status in contemporary popular culture. In addition to readings of literary examples of vampirism, the course makes use of Jan Perkowski's treatise on the Slavic vampire, The Darkling , and supplements this survey with visual art and films, as well as readings from popular culture theory. Texts in English. This course sequence fulfills the Common Core foreign language requirement.