Russian Fairy Tales (RUSS 0090): Course Description

Autumn 2009 (2101)

Prepared by: David J. Birnbaum (djbpitt+tales@pitt.edu)
Last modified: 2009-09-27
Location: http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/tales/2101/description.html

Contents

Where and When

Course Web Page: http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/tales/

Section CRN Date and Time Room Instructor
Lecture 12892 MW 1:00-1:50 Clapp L9 Birnbaum
Recitation 13718 Th 9:00-9:50 CL 202 Birnbaum
Recitation 13710 Th 10:00-10:50 CL 237 French
Recitation 13714 Th 11:00-11:50 CL 116 Carpenter
Recitation 16080 Th 12:00-12:50 CL 119 Carpenter
Recitation 15628 Th 12:00-12:50 CL 151 Snyder
Recitation 15630 Th 1:00-1:50 CL 135 Macias
Recitation 15626 Th 2:00-2:50 CL 119 Carpenter
Recitation 13712 Th 3:00-3:50 CL 237 Snyder
Recitation 13920 Th 4:00-4:50 CL 121 Macias
Recitation 15620 F 9:00-9:50 CL 317 French
Recitation 15622 F 10:00-10:50 CL 242 Macias
Recitation 13716 F 11:00-11:50 CL 202 Aravich
Recitation 13918 F 12:00-12:50 CL 352 Aravich

All students are required to enroll in lecture and in one recitation section. To ensure that all students have an opportunity to participate in recitation, recitation-hopping is not permitted; you must attend the recitation section in which you are enrolled.

Instructors

[Picture of David J. Birnbaum] David J. Birnbaum
Email: djbpitt+tales@pitt.edu
Office: 1417 CL
Phone: 412-624-5712
Office Hours: W 11:00–11:50, W 2:00–2:50
[Picture of Dana Aravich] Dana Aravich
Email: dma23@pitt.edu
Office: 1417 CL
Phone: (none)
Office Hours: M 12:00–12:50, H 11:00–11:50
[Picture of Lauren Carpenter] Lauren Carpenter
Email: lmc46@pitt.edu
Office: 1417 CL
Phone: (none)
Office Hours: M 11:00–11:50, F 11:00–11:50
[Picture of Felicia French] Felicia French
Email: fmf2@pitt.edu
Office: 1417 CL
Phone: (none)
Office Hours: F 1:00–1:50, F 2:00–2:50
[Picture of Sarah Jones] Sarah Jones
Email: sej22@pitt.edu
Office: 1417 CL
Phone: (none)
Office Hours: T 11:00–11:50, W 3:00–3:50
[Picture of Gabrielle Kirilloff] Gabrielle (Gabi) Kirilloff
Email: gak17@pitt.edu
Office: 1417 CL
Phone: (none)
Office Hours: H 10:00–10:50, F 9:00–9:50
[Picture of Urie Kline] Urie Kline
Email: udk2@pitt.edu
Office: 1417 CL
Phone: (none)
Office Hours: T 8:30–9:20, F 2:00–2:50
[Picture of Rheanna Macias] Rheanna Macias
Email: rdm30@pitt.edu
Office: 1417 CL
Phone: (none)
Office Hours: T 1:00–1:50, W 12:00–12:50
[No image available] Carrie Marquette
Email: carrie.marquette@gmail.com
Office: 1417 CL
Phone: (none)
Office Hours: W 2:00–3:50 and H 11:00am–12:50
[Picture of Molly Sauter] Molly Sauter
Email: molly.sauter@gmail.com
Office: 1417 CL
Phone: (none)
Office Hours: M 2:00–2:50, M 3:00–3:50
[Picture of Abigail Snyder] Abigail (Abby) Snyder
Email: acs73@pitt.edu
Office: 1417 CL
Phone: (none)
Office Hours: T 2:30–3:20, H 1:00–1:50

Course Goals

Folk beliefs are a rich and enduring component of Russian culture. This course introduces students to a wide selection of Russian fairy tales, and examines the aesthetic, social, and psychological values that they reflect. Students will develop or enhance their understanding of the continuing cultural influence of fairy tales and folk beliefs in literature, in orchestral music, opera, and ballet, in painting, posters, and folk art, and in film. The course also provides a general introduction to the study of folklore and fairy tales, presenting a broad spectrum of approaches to the interpretation of fairy tales, including psychoanalysis, Marxism, sociology, structuralism, and feminism. For both contextual and critical reasons, the course introduces and analyzes Russian fairy tales against a background of and in comparison with the Western fairy tale tradition (the Grimms, Perrault, Disney, etc.).

Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to discuss several approaches to the study of fairy tales, especially as they apply to the body of texts contained in Afanas′ev’s Russian Fairy Tales. In particular, students will be able to:

Most students who complete this course agree that by the end of the semester they are able to approach fairy tales very differently from the way they dealt with them previously.

Credit and Prerequisites

This course carries three credits and satisfies the undergraduate Arts & Sciences requirement in International Foreign Culture (Non-Western). All participants are required to enroll in lecture and in one recitation section. There are no prerequisites; in particular, no knowledge of Russian language is required.

Course Methodology

Reading assignments are a principal source of information for this course. In order to derive full benefit from class meetings (and also to perform well in recitation and on unannounced quizzes), it is important to complete assignments by the indicated days.

In addition to readings, students are also responsible for any material presented in class. Lecture meetings will involve the introduction of new information, analysis of assigned readings, and the presentation of visual and audio materials (slides, video clips, and audio recordings). Students who are absent from a lecture meeting should find out from their classmates about information or materials they may have missed.

The lecture/recitation format of this course reflects the notion that education should involve “active learning,” in which students do more than just memorize and regurgitate what their instructors or textbooks tell them. For example, your instructors may analyze a fairy tale for you from a particular theoretical perspective as a way of illustrating how the theory works, but you actually learn the theory not from reading about it or listening to our analysis, but from applying it yourself. In other words, you learn most by doing, and what you read and what we tell you are intended primarily to prepare you to do your own thinking.

Recitation sections are designed to facilitate this type of original student participation. Unlike in many courses, recitation is not a review of lecture, but an opportunity for students to work originally and critically with course materials. Participating actively in recitation will improve your grade, and will also help you learn more and find class more interesting and more satisfying.

Your instructors will often use PowerPoint slides to highlight key points during lecture, and we will post those slides on the course web site (http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/tales/). Note that this is not the standard University CourseWeb (Blackboard) site.Whenever possible, we will try to make the slides available on the web site by early morning on the day of the lecture, so that you can print them out, bring them to class, and take notes directly on the printout, although at times last-minute changes may make this impossible. The PowerPoint slides are deliberately designed to be outlines, rather than detailed summaries of the lecture; they can help you follow the lecture, organize your own notes, and review for quizzes and examinations, but they are not a substitute for attending lecture and taking notes yourself.

Some course materials are distributed exclusively on the World Wide Web and the syllabus (http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/tales/2101/syllabus.html) will indicate the locations.

Course Requirements and Grading

Overview of Requirements and Grading

You will be required to:

  1. Complete the assignments scheduled for each class meeting, which normally means reading 25–50 pages and being prepared to discuss them in an informed manner in class;
  2. Attend all lecture and recitation meetings;
  3. Take the three scheduled examinations (40 points each);
  4. Take at least four of the unannounced quizzes (10 points each);
  5. Participate actively and intelligently in recitation (total of 40 points).

Your course grade will be determined initially by your performance on exams and quizzes and in recitation, as follows:

Component Max Points
Total of all three exams 120
Total of best four quizzes 40
Recitation Participation 40
Maximum possible score 200

Your total will be reduced by two points (one percent of the possible points) for each absence from lecture on a day a quiz is given (see below for further discussion of attendance). The course includes an automatic four free points, which are intended to let you miss two lectures without penalty. If you don’t miss any classes, you still get the free points, which means that it is theoretically possible to obtain 204/200, or 102% of the available points. There is also an opportunity to earn up to fifteen additional points of extra credit (see below).

Point totals will be converted to percentages and then to letter grades, and a curve will be implemented where necessary. After a curve has been determined, individual grades may be raised based on extra-credit work, as described below (maximum additional fifteen points), so the highest possible total score including extra credit is 219/200 points (109% of the available points).

Examinations

There will be three examinations, each consisting of twenty-five multiple-choice questions (one point each) and one one-page essay question (fifteen points), for a total of forty points for the examination. You will be given three essay questions on each examination and you can choose the one you want to answer (please don’t answer more than one; we will count only the first one numerically).

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 apply 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. Examinations will be given during lecture meetings and will take a full class period. There is no separate midterm or final examination. For sample examination questions, see http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/tales/sample_questions.html.

Students who miss an examination because of an emergency may take a makeup examination. The first two makeup examinations will be given at 7:00 a.m. on the Fridays following the regular examination, and the third will be given at the time officially allocated for the course final examination (note that the course does not have a regular final examination). All makeup examination times are listed on the course syllabus. The first two makeup examinations will be given in the Department of Slavic Languages (1417 CL). The third makeup exam will be given in the room regularly assigned by the University for a final examination. There are no alternative times and no secondary makeups; if you miss both the regular and the makeup examination, you cannot receive credit for that examination.

We do not require written excuses or prior notification for makeup examinations; if you miss a regular examination because of an emergency, you may just show up at the scheduled time and take the makeup. Unlike regular examinations, however, makeup examinations involve three long essays with no choice of questions, and although they are neither tricky nor unfair, they are much more difficult than regular examinations, they are graded strictly, and although strong students can earn A grades on makeup examinations, it is extremely unlikely that you will do better on a makeup examination than on a regular examination, even with extra time to study. In other words, it is strongly in your interest not to miss a regular examination unless absolutely necessary.

Examinations are not returned to students, but we’ll post your grade on Courseweb as soon as it is available (it usually takes the instructors between one and two weeks to grade the examinations because essays must be read and graded individually). You are also welcome to meet with any of us during office hours or by appointment to review your answers.

Quizzes

At least five unannounced quizzes, each of which is worth ten points and should take approximately five minutes to complete, will be given during the semester at varying times during lecture meetings. Because we need to distribute and collect the quizzes quickly to avoid losing lecture time, you may take a quiz only if you are present when it is distributed, and we cannot give quizzes to students who arrive after we have distributed them (even if other students are still writing). Note also that missing a quiz counts as an absence, about which see below. In other words, you may miss a quiz (and lose a point for absence) if you arrive late or leave early on a quiz day, and not just if you don’t come at all. If you are frequently late because your previous instructor does not let you leave on time, tell us and we will intervene; instructors do not have a right to make you late to your next class.

Quizzes may involve any combination of multiple-choice, true-false, mix-and-match, fill-in-the-blank, or other short-answer questions. Only your four highest quiz grades will be counted in your course grade, and all lower quiz grades will be dropped. There are no makeup quizzes; the fact that only the best four quizzes count toward the grade means that you can “make up” for a missed quiz by counting one of the others. For a sample quiz question, see http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/tales/sample_questions.html.

Quizzes are not returned to students, but we will announce the answers in class immediately after collecting the quizzes, so that you can keep track of your own results. You are also welcome to meet with us during office hours or by appointment to review your answers.

Recitation Participation

As is described under Course Methodology, above, this course requires active participation in recitation sessions. There are fourteen recitation meetings during the semester, and students receive a letter grade at each meeting. We drop your lowest recitation grade (that is, every student gets one free absence without grade penalty) and average the remaining thirteen, which collectively amount to 1/5 of the final course grade.

For those interested in the mathematical details: Recitation grades are computed by averaging a student’s performance for the sessions the student attended, converting from a letter grade to a hundred-point numerical scale, deducting 3.5 points for every absence, and then converting to a forty-point scale (so that recitation is ultimately worth up to forty final points). Each absence winds up reducing the recitation component of your grade by roughly one notch (e.g., A to A-, B+ to B, etc.).

Because there are approximately twenty students per recitation and recitation meetings last fifty minutes, the opportunity for speaking is limited. Accordingly, contributions are evaluated on the basis of quality, rather than quantity (for example, it is possible—although difficult—to earn an A for the day with just one knock-your-socks-off contribution). You can improve your recitation grade by preparing carefully and participating seriously, thoughtfully, and intelligently.

Note that you can earn recitation credit not just by giving “right” answers, but also by asking good questions or by making intelligent comments even when they may happen to be “wrong.” On the other hand, no credit is awarded for bluffing, and it is important to be prepared and thoughtful. If you are shy about raising your hand, tell your instructor, who will make a point of calling on you even when you do not have your hand raised. Some recitation sessions will incorporate discussion in small groups, and you will receive credit for participating actively in your group. Some recitation meetings will also include brief in-class “minute papers,” and you will receive participation credit for your performance on these papers. Finally, you can receive recitation credit for the occasional written homework assignments (listed on the syllabus) that are due in recitation.

Extra-Credit

You may take advantage of either or both of the following optional extra-credit assignments:

  1. Students may submit a five-page (double-spaced) paper in the form of an original folk (not literary) fairy tale written in imitation of the genre as we will study it. The extra-credit fairy tale is worth up to five points.
  2. Students may submit a ten-page (double-spaced) analytical paper. The extra-credit paper is worth up to ten points.

Note especially that:

  1. All extra credit written work must be submitted electronically by the deadline to Turnitin, a service to which the University subscribes that examines student work to ensure that it is not plagiarized. Submissions on paper, by email to the instructors, or after the deadline are not permitted; to receive credit for your extra-credit work you must upload it electronically to Turnitin by the deadline. More information about submission through Turnitin will be provided later in the semester.
  2. To receive extra credit for your work you must have discussed your fairy tale or paper with one of the instructors no later than 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 4; as part of this discussion you and the instructor will complete an “Extra Credit Consultation Form.” If you hand in an extra-credit assignment without having discussed it with one of the instructors and completed the necessary form by this deadline, no extra credit will be awarded. Extra-credit consultation forms will be posted on the course web site in advance of this date, so that you can print them out and complete them prior to meeting with an instructor.
  3. All extra-credit work must be submitted to Turnitin by 5:00 p.m. on the date of the last lecture meeting, which means by 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, December 9. There are no deadline extensions, even by a few minutes; to avoid losing credit because of last-minute computer problems or other difficulties beyond your control, please submit your paper before the deadline.

There are much more complete guidelines for writing extra-credit papers on the web at:

It is in your interest to consult these guidelines, which explain in detail how to write a successful tale or paper for this course.

Attendance and Class Participation

Attendance is mandatory, and is figured into your grade in the following ways:

  1. You may miss up to one week of class without it affecting your grade. There are four free points to allow for two missed lectures and one recitation is dropped. Absences in excess of this one week make it impossible for you to earn 100% of the available points (otherwise than by completing the extra-credit options), and while the penalty for an individual absence is slight, the total can mount quickly.
  2. Attendance is not taken regularly in lecture meetings, but in addition to their primary function, quizzes will serve as a record of attendance in lecture on days when they are given. Absence on a day when attendance is taken (that is, on a quiz day) will reduce your total score for the course by two points (one percent). No distinction is made between excused or unexcused absences, but the system mentioned above is intended to provide every student with two free absences from lecture (plus one from recitation; see below). Note that absence is determined at the moment when quizzes are distributed; if you arrive after or leave before the quiz, you will be marked absent. Please arrive on time.
  3. As is described above, absence from recitation will lower the recitation component of your grade. Because there is no way to make up for this non-participation, whatever the reason, no distinction is made between excused and unexcused absence, but dropping a recitation grade is intended to provide every student with one free absence from recitation.
  4. There is a strong correlation between regular attendance and success in the course. In addition to earning participation points in recitation, if you attend regularly and participate as actively as possible, you will perform better on your quizzes and examinations. Almost all of the students who receive failing grades in this course miss a significant number of class meetings.
  5. Although we cannot simply ignore significant absence, the extra-credit options provide flexible alternative ways for students who miss class for reasons beyond their control to make up for the points they fail to earn in the traditional way.

There is no distinction between excused and unexcused absence because it isn’t possible or reasonable for your instructors to determine fairly when an absence is unavoidable, understandable but not unavoidable, or frivolous. The free points have been introduced to allow a full week of absence without penalty (that is, every student gets one full week of automatically excused absence), and you are encouraged to save those free absences in case of illness, religious holidays, personal or family emergencies, or other truly unavoidable circumstances. Students who miss a significant amount of class because of hospitalization or other prolonged, unusual, and serious circumstances must discuss their situation with one of the instructors as early as possible. We will make reasonable accommodations for genuine emergencies, but if you miss a significant amount of class, we may ask you to take a G grade (a type of incomplete) and complete the course the following semester. This strategy is not punitive; it reflects the reality of your not having completed the course requirements, which include regular attendance at lecture and recitation.

Instructor and Student Responsibilities

Every semester a small number of students habitually arrive late to class, leave class early, talk in class, read newspapers in class, solve crossword puzzles in class, send and receive text messages in class, sleep in class, etc. We understand that students may find some materials less interesting than others (so do we!), that it is sometimes difficult to remain attentive during lecture, and that a large classroom is an alienating environment that creates the impression that whatever you do in your seat is invisible.

In fact, no matter how unobtrusive you may try to be, the non-participatory activities described above are distracting, disruptive, and inconsiderate to both instructors and other students. Furthermore, according to University policy, students do not have a right to engage in behavior that interferes with classroom activities. That is, paying tuition confers a right to participate constructively in a course, but not to engage in activities that are distracting, disruptive, or inconsiderate.

With this in mind, the following list outlines mutual responsibilities of instructors and students:

  1. Instructors are required to conduct classes in a prepared and organized manner and students are required not to do anything in the classroom that will be distracting, disruptive, or inconsiderate. Your instructors are responsible for not wasting your time in class: we will always be prepared and we will do our best to make our contributions as interesting as possible. Attendance is required, but whether you actually come to class is up to you, and if you decide to skip class and accept the grade-related consequences, that’s your business. If you come to class, though, you may not engage in any distracting, disruptive, or inconsiderate behavior. If you are bored in class and think we could make the meetings more effective, tell us how during office hours or by email. We may not agree with your suggestions, but if you make a serious suggestion, we’ll give it serious consideration and you’ll get a serious response.
  2. Instructors and students are required to be respectful of one another’s time. Your instructors will start class on time and will end on time, even if that means that we stop talking in the middle of a sentence. (This should be a welcome respite from professors who think that whatever they are saying is so important that they have a right to make you late to your next class.) You are expected to arrive on time and not to start collecting your books and papers until your instructors stop talking. Collecting books and papers in the last few minutes of lecture is the single most common disruptive behavior in this course. It isn’t invisible. It isn’t unobtrusive. You cannot do it quietly, no matter how hard you try. Other students complain about it. A lot. Your instructors don’t do it, and you are not permitted to do it either.
  3. Instructors are required to be accessible outside the classroom and students are required to get in touch with instructors if they encounter problems with the course. Your instructors will keep their regularly-scheduled office hours. If for some reason there is an occasion when we can’t keep our office hours, we’ll announce this in class and on the course web site in advance (if possible), and we’ll try to arrange for another instructor to sit in for us. You do not need an appointment to come to office hours; except in case of emergency or previously-announced cancellation, we are guaranteed to be there (although you may have to wait a bit if someone else arrives first). We prefer to see students during office hours, but if you cannot make it then, we will work with you to schedule an appointment. We will also answer email messages from students promptly. You are expected to take the initiative to get in touch with us if you have any problems with the course.

If you arrive late to lecture, enter and take a seat as quietly as possible. If you know that you have to leave lecture early on a particular day, sit near a door and leave as quietly as possible. Turn off your cell phones (don’t just switch them to “vibrate”) and put them away; cell phones should not be placed on desks. If you are an emergency medical technician or for some other reason may receive emergency telephone calls that you cannot ignore, sit near a door, switch your phone to “vibrate,” and leave the room as quickly and quietly as possible when you get a call.

Academic Integrity

The University’s Academic Integrity Code may be found at http://www.as.pitt.edu/faculty/policy/integrity.html. It is the students’ responsibility to familiarize themselves with these regulations and to observe them, and any infraction will be penalized according to these rules.

Students often commit academic integrity violations (such as plagiarism) through ignorance or inexperience. To prevent inadvertent plagiarism, your instructors have prepared a guide to avoiding plagiarism, which is available at http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/tales/plagiarism.html. Even if you would never knowingly commit plagiarism, you should read this document. If you are uncertain about any matter concerning academic integrity, please ask your instructors.

Note that with one exception (see immediately below), the minimum sanction for violating the University’s academic integrity guidelines is an F in the course. Not an F on the quiz or exam or paper, but an F for the course. The maximum sanction, as described in the documents mentioned above, is dismissal from the University without the possibility of readmission.

Exception: Students sometimes cheat impulsively on examinations or quizzes and then regret doing so immediately afterwards. If this happens to you and you turn yourself in before the instructors leave the room at the end of the session, we will assign you a zero for the examination or quiz and we will report the offense, as required, to the Dean’s office, but we will not assign a failing grade for the course or any other additional penalty.

Special Problems

Students experiencing problems in this course should discuss those problems with any one of the instructors. We check our email regularly, and are available to discuss any aspect of the course or of general study habits.

If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, you are encouraged to contact both your instructor and Disability Resources and Services (DRS), 216 William Pitt Union, 412-648-7890 or 412-383-7355 (TTY) as early as possible in the term. DRS will verify your disability and determine reasonable accommodations for this course. No accommodations can be made without verification by DRS.

Materials

Required Texts

Required Books

Required On-Line Resources

Folkloric and Literary Texts
Other Course Materials

Recommended Texts

Syllabus

The course syllabus is available at http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/tales/2101/syllabus.html. The syllabus may be modified in minor ways during the semester, but assignments and examination dates will not be changed.