Department of Russian and Slavic Studies 688 Sherbrooke Street West, Suite 425 Montreal, QC H3A 3R1 Canada

Department of Russian and Slavic Studies
688 Sherbrooke Street West, Suite 425
Montreal, QC H3A 3R1
Canada

Telephone: (514) 398-3639
Fax: (514) 398-1748
E-mail: russian.slavicstudies@mcgill.ca
Website: www.mcgill.ca/russian

71.1 Staff

71.2 Programs Offered

The Department offers graduate instruction (seminar and guided independent reading courses) as well as research and thesis supervision in the fields of Russian culture and literature. Current faculty specialize in 19th and 20th century literature. Particular emphasis is placed on working with the original language; credits may be allotted, at the discretion of the Department, to course work leading to advanced proficiency in this area.

Ph.D. candidates in other departments who require Russian for research and in satisfaction of the language requirement should contact the Department for recommended courses.

71.3 Admission Requirements

The general rules of the Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Office apply and are outlined in the General Information and Regulations section of the Calendar.

The minimum academic requirement is normally a high standing in an undergraduate degree with Honours Russian (or an equivalent speciali zation). Further, the Department must be convinced that the candidate for admission has an aptitude for research work and will be able to make an original contribution to knowledge.

Any necessary preparation to fulfill these requirements will be offered within the Department or elsewhere at McGill. Certain graduate courses may be taken by arrangement at approved universities.

71.4 Application Procedures

2. two certified copies of all university transcripts;(All transcripts not in English or French must be accompanied by a certified English or French translation);

5. test results - GRE (recommended); TOEFL (required of all candidates whose mother tongue is not English and who have not completed an undergraduate degree using the English language. Proof of TOEFL must be presented at time of application or shortly thereafter);

8. interview, where appropriate, if necessary by telephone, with members of the Department Graduate Committee.

All information must be submitted to the Graduate Coordinator, Department of Russian and Slavic Studies.

71.5 Program Requirements

Original research work and the scholarly qualities of the thesis are the principal criteria for conferring a graduate degree in Russian.

30 credits in M.A. thesis courses -
RUSS 691 (6 credits), RUSS 692 (24 credits);

0 - 6 credits in graduate coursework outside the Department, subject to approval by the Department Graduate Committee;

The M.A. Thesis Proposal is normally submitted for review by the Department Graduate Committee at the end of the second term of residency. Candidates should consult the Department Thesis Proposal Guidelines.

The Ph.D. requirements include:
RUSS 700, RUSS 701, and RUSS 702;
French Language Examination;
Thesis and Thesis Defence.

Depending on their individual background, students may be asked to take additional coursework as approved by the Department Graduate Committee and students must complete two of the following guided research projects: RUSS 750, RUSS 760 or RUSS 770.

Ph.D. language requirements include proficiency in Russian, functional ability in English and in French, and proficiency in a second Slavic language, if relevant to the research topic and where deemed appropriate by the Department Graduate Committee.

71.6 Courses

Students preparing to register should consult the Web at www.mcgill.ca/minerva (click Class Schedule) for the most up-to-date list of courses available; courses may have been added, rescheduled or cancelled after this Calendar went to press. Class Schedule lists courses by term and includes days, times, locations, and names of instructors.

(3) (Winter) (Given in English) Novels, films, art, architecture, pageantry, rhetoric and routine of the Stalinist 1930s-40s, including socialist realism as an aesthetic doctrine, utopian blueprint, target of parody, amalgam of a submerged avantgarde and state-controlled pop culture, precursor of the postmodernist simulacrum, self-proclaimed international style and/or uniquely Russian 20th-century project.

(3) (Prerequisite: Permission of the Department Graduate Committee.) (Restriction: Not open to students who have taken RUSS 722D1/D2.) Focus on a critical theme, author or work, as determined by the current research interests of faculty, visiting faculty and the graduate student cohort.

(3) (Prerequisite: Permission of the Department Graduate Committee.) (Restriction: Not open to students who have taken RUSS 680D1/D2.) Major works of the period 1860-1900: prose and drama from Tiutchev and Turgenev to Tolstoi and Chekhov. Development of the realist school and its relationship to romanticism, its struggle with the questions of the functions and responsibilities of art in society, its philosophical and political aspirations and achievements.

(3) (Prerequisite: Permission of the Department Graduate Committee.) (Restriction: Not open to students who have taken RUSS 681D1/D2.) Russian Romanticism as the crucible for the maturation of a nascent literature, from Derzhavin, Zhukovsky and others to Pushkin, Gogol, Lermontov and the Pushkin Pleiade. Emphasis on the place of the creative artist in Russian society, the individual, the creation of a Russian literary language, and contacts with Western Europe.

(3) (Prerequisite: Permission of the Department Graduate Committee.) (Restriction: Not open to students who have taken RUSS 682D1/D2.) Defining issues from the post-Stalinist Thaw to the post-Stalinist present, including the dismantling of socialist realism, the recovery of the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century heritage, the emergence of a new plurality in trends such as rural, urban, youth and alternative prose, conceptualism and sotsart.

(0) (Prerequisite: Permission of the Department Graduate Committee.) Supervised preparation for the candidate's two designated Major Fields in the PhD Comprehensive Examination.

(0) (Prerequisites: RUSS 700 and two of: RUSS 750, RUSS 760, RUSS 770.) Written and oral examination in two Major and two Minor fields of Russian literature and culture, as determined by the candidate and the Department's Graduate Committee.

(0) (Prerequisite: Permission of the Department Graduate Committee.) (Restriction: Not open to students who have taken RUSS 660D1/D2.) Exploration of the principal themes and critical issues in Russian literature of the Pre-Petrine period. Comparison with similar problems in the candidate's major fields for the comprehensive examination.