Deadline for Applications: March 21, 2019
The Division of Russian and Slavic Studies Program at Hunter College of the City University of New York has announced the second round of its 4-week study abroad program in the Baltics in July, 2019! The program includes a literature course “The Baltic Transit in Russian Literature” (taught in English, with the option of signing up for a “Russian” section), Russian language courses of different levels, and a literary translation workshop. The program is designed for CUNY students but is open for all!
Credits earned during the program are transferable to the students’ home universities.
Please send academic inquiries to Yasha Klots, Assistant Professor of Russian and program’s director: yakov.klots@hunter.cuny.edu
Administrative inquiries should be forwarded to the Education Abroad Office of Hunter College:
Phone: (212) 772-4983
Email: edabroad@hunter.cuny.edu
Explore the website from their inaugural program last summer to get a better sense of what the program consists of.
Application deadline is March 21, 2019. To apply, please visit the program website.
See below for their flyer and more detailed information about the program:
SUMMER 2019, JUNE 30 – JULY 28
Join us for an unforgettable 4-week sojourn in the Baltics, where Russian language and culture intermingle with the European vernaculars. Explore the “Baltic chapter” of Russian history and literature, immerse yourself into the Russian language, and enjoy the riches of East European culture!
RUSS 25674 / COMPL 37157 / JS 41007 (in Eng.) OR 24674 (in Russ.) – 3 credits
THE “BALTIC TRANSIT” IN RUSSIAN LITERATURE
Taught by Prof. Yasha Klots (Hunter College, CUNY)
AND / OR ↓
RUSS 37003 – 3 credits
RUSSIAN LANGUAGE
(various levels)
Taught by a local instructor
OR ↓
RUSS 24630 – 3 credits
LITERARY TRANSLATION WORKSHOP
Prerequisites: four semesters of Russian language (RUSS 101-202) or native speaker
Taught by Prof. Yasha Klots (Hunter College, CUNY)
The program includes FIELD TRIPS TO LITHUANIA (4 days) AND ESTONIA (2-3 days)
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THE “BALTIC TRANSIT” IN RUSSIAN LITERATURE
After the October Revolution, numerous Russian writers, artists, scholars and intellectuals were forced to flee their home country. Many sailed by ship across the Black Sea to Constantinople (Istanbul) before relocating to Berlin, Paris and other cities in Western Europe, while others fled through the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania). In 1940, all three states were annexed by the Soviet Union, and in 1941 occupied by Nazi Germany. However, during the years of their interwar independence (1920-1930s), the “Baltic transit” offered Russian émigrés and refugees a temporary sanctuary and a corridor to the West. Later, when Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were part of the Soviet Union, they still preserved traces of Europe in their histories, literatures, architecture and social environment, and were perceived by the Russian intelligentsia as a “simulacrum” of the West and, at the same time, as an alternative to the Soviet capitals (for example, in Sergei Dovlatov’s novel “The Compromise” set in Tallinn, where he worked as a journalist before immigrating to the U.S. in 1979, or in Joseph Brodsky’s Lithuanian cycle, which served as a “rehearsal” of the poet’s exile from Russia in 1972). Since 1991, when Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania became independent and soon joined the EU, Russian language and culture has officially held a peripheral status, yet it is precisely the mixture of local, European and Russian linguistic and literary traditions that make this course in the Baltics an unforgettable experience.
This course explores the representations of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania in Russian literature and culture, including but not limited to such topics as the empire and colonialism, WWII and the Holocaust in Eastern Europe, the cultural center and the peripheries, travel literature, urban poetics and architecture, the relationship between history and culture, etc. We will trace the itineraries of some of the major Russian writers en route to the West and try to outline the role of the “Baltic transit” not only in their oeuvre and personal biographies, but also in Russian history and culture on the whole.
We will be based in Riga, the capital of Latvia founded in 1201, which is centrally located between Estonia and Lithuania, two other countries we will visit as part of our program. An intersection of numerous East European languages, cultures and literary traditions (German, Russian, Jewish, Polish, Belorussian and others), Riga has traditionally remained the most “Russian-speaking” city in the Baltics throughout its recent history. Today, it is home to many Russian cultural and artistic institutions, including the “Orbita” Poetic Group. Most recently, Riga, as well as Vilnius and Tallinn, yet again have become harbors for Russian journalists, writers, artists and political activists who moved there from Putin’s Russia to escape censorship and find themselves closer to the West (not only geographically but also culturally and politically). The course includes discussions with this new community of Russian artists and journalists in the Baltics, whose initiatives may become a potential venue for Hunter students’ future internships and professional contacts.
The course will result in a collective project: a guide book / website to twentieth- and twenty-first century Russian literature and culture in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Students will contribute to the project by focusing on a specific writer, topic, text, and/or locale of their choice. Those with a sufficient knowledge of Russian will be encouraged to embark on the English translations of the primary sources heretofore available only in Russian. However, no knowledge of Russian is required: all readings, discussions, guided tours and field trips are in English.
All readings, in both languages, will be available as a course packet and electronically. Audio and Visual materials will be posted on the Blackboard. The course includes films screenings and guest lectures.