Course Information & Syllabus
Semester I
Paper I
- Unit 1: Communicative exercises involving use of cases (Nouns and Adjectives, Pronouns). Verb aspects. Verbs of motion.
- Unit 2: Participles and Verbal Adverbs. Use of particles and definite and indefinite pronouns.
- Unit 3: Speaking and writing in Russian on topics such as Nature, Theatre / Cinema, Sports, Festivals etc.
- Unit 4: Reading Russian news-papers. Exposure through internet to current topics appearing in Russian news-papers. Comprehension based on features in Russian news-papers.
Paper II
- Unit 1 : Language and society. Introduction to various theories of origin of Language. Human vs. animal communication systems. Nature and Structure of language as a whole.
- Unit 2 : Classification of languages. Function of language. Writing systems.
- Unit 3 : Various Theories of Linguistics.
- Unit 4 : Dialects and registers. Basic concepts in phonology and syntax.
Paper III
- Unit 1 : The origin and development of Old Russian Literature.
- Unit 2 : Kiev Period (10th–13th cent.) The Discourse on Law and Grace, composed by the churchman Ilarion (d. 1053), Story of Temporal Years, (11th-12th centuries), Exhortation of Prince Vladimir Monomakh (11th-12th centuries), scriptures of Bishop Kirill Turovsky (12th century), Wandering of Daniil Zatochnik (12th century). Word about Igor's Regiment (1185).
- Unit 3 : Muscovite Period (mid-13th–17th cent.) Voyage Beyond Three Seas: Afanasy Nikitin. Epistles of Ivan the Terrible and the autobiography of the churchman Avvakum (1620?–1682). The Life of the Archpriest Avvakum (1672–1675).
- Unit 4 : Western Influences (18th cent.) Denis Fonvizin (1745–1792) and Gavriil Derzhavin (1743–1816).
Mikhail Lomonosov. Nikolai Novikov (1744–1818). Aleksandr Radishchev (1749–1802): Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow (1790).
Paper IV
- Unit 1 : History, Geography and Economy of Russia – General Outline.
- Unit 2 : Early history. Pre-Slavic inhabitants. Eastern Slavs. Kievan Rus. Mongol Invasion. Russo-Tatar Relations.
- Unit 3 : Moscow Rus,. Tsardom of Russia. Ivan the Terrible. Time of Troubles. The accession of Romanovs and early rule.
- Unit 4 : Imperial Russia (1682-1917): Peter I the Great(1672-1725); Catherine the Great (1762-96); ugachev's Uprising (1773-1775); The Patriotic War (1812);Decembrists; The Crimean War (1853-1856); The Emancipation of the Serfs (1861); Zemstvo (1864-1917) ; Nicholas II - The Last Tsar of Russia;
Semester II
Paper I
- Unit 1 : Sound system of Russian. Classification of Russian Sounds.
- Unit 2 : Reduction of vowels. Stress and Intonation. Assimilation.
- Unit 3 : Russian vocabulary and phraseology.
- Unit 4 : Polysemy. Synonymy. Homonyny. Antonymy. Paronymy.
Paper II
- Unit 1 : History of literature; Literary Studies. Towards a definition of literature; principles of literary analysis.
- Unit 2 : Various literary “isms” like classicism, romanticism, naturalism, realism, sotsrealism, modernism, post-modernism and study of literary examples of each.
- Unit 3 : Tema, tematika, ideya and ideinyi smysl. Style and Method. Rody, Vidy and Zhanry. Obraz. Linguistic means of literature: sinonimy, antonimy etc. Tropy: metaphora, sravneniye, metonimiya etc. Syntactic means: parallelism, inversiya, antiteza etc.
- Unit 4 : Composition. Introduction to terms like fibula, syudzet, zavyazka, kulminatsia, razvyazka. Analysis of literaty texts from the point of view of composition.
Semester III
Paper I
- Unit 1 : Verbs of definite and indefinite motion with prefixes.
- Unit 2 : Usage of aspects of verbs with negative particles.
- Unit 3 : Word order in Russian. Exercises in word order
- Unit 4 : Writing official letters like zayawleniye, otchyot, kharakteristika etc.
Paper II
- Unit 1 : Morphemic structure of a word. Parts of speech in Russian.
- Unit 2 : Principles of word formation in Russian.
- Unit 3 : Clauses, their types.
- Unit 4 : Syntax of Simple, Compound and Complex sentences
Semester IV
Paper I
- Unit 1 : The post-Soviet Russia and literature. New trends in contemporary Russian literature.
- Unit 2 : Life and works of important Russian writers and poets at the end of 20th and beginning of 21st century.
- Unit 3 : Women writers in Russia in the post-soviet Russia.
- Unit 4 : Literary analysis of any one contemporary literary work
Paper II
- Unit 1 : The author and his time. Biography of the author. Moral-aesthetic and philosophical outlook of Tolstoy. Critical analysis of the contribution of the writer.
- Unit 2 : Reading of selected works: War and Peace(Extracts). The history of creation of the novel, Content, the characters of Andrei Bolkonsky and Pier Bezukhov, the character of Natasha Rostova, the character of Nepoleon, special features of the novel as a literary art.
- Unit 3 : The novel Anna Karenina(Extracts). The main problems. The Content. The characters of Anna, Karenin, Levin and Vronsky. Special features of the novel as a literary art.
- Unit 4 : The novel Voskresenye(Extracts). The characters of Katyusha Maslova and Nekhlyudov. The condition of state machinery. 