• Andy’s Teaching Philosophy
• Students and Teaching Methodologies
• Theater in the Classroom
• Learning from Oprah
• Courses Taught

Courses Taught:

• Fourth-Year Russian (second semester)
  
  

• The Meaning of Money in the Russian Mind
  
  

• Tycoons, Tyrants, and Tortured Souls in Russian Literature
  
  
  From Peter the Great to Putin, Russian society has been marked by a strong divide between the haves and the have-nots, the mighty and the miserable, the money-driven and the morally inspired. Soviet Communism, which promised paradise on earth, yielded an earthly hell of corruption and social inequality even worse than the tsarist system it sought to replace. And now, in the brave new world of Russian-style capitalism, Russia has become a culture of extreme success and extreme suffering, of money-hungry mobsters and spiritually-starved moralists. We will trace these themes and historical developments through readings of masterpieces of Russian literature, past and present, as well as several prominent Russian films. Our focus will be on the everyday emotional and psychological experiences of human individuals who search for meaning in a world defined by the principles of power, privilege, and more recently, the free market.
  
  In addition to exploring this theme in Russian literature and culture, the course will also encourage you to think about your personal attitudes towards success, money, morality, and social justice. Is money the root of evil, or is it the solution to many of life’s problems? What role does and should the pursuit of money play in our lives? What constitutes “value” in human life? What does it mean to be “successful”? What is the responsibility of the powerful to the less fortunate? And what can the Russian literary depictions of tycoons, tyrants, and tortured souls teach us about our own society and our own lives? What can Russians and Russian writers learn from us? All readings are in English, and non-majors are welcome.
  
  

• Fourth-Year Russian (first semester)
  
  

• Tolstoy's Art and the Art of Reading Tolstoy
  
  
  Through close readings of Tolstoy’s short stories, novellas, parables, and sketches, and concentrating on a careful reading of War and Peace, this course is intended to deepen students’ appreciation of the unique poetics and epic vision of one of Russia’s greatest prose writers. While giving consideration to the specific historical and personal context in which Tolstoy wrote, the course will concentrate on the ways in which Tolstoy transforms the ordinary world into extraordinary artistic visions of human life as something mysterious, inexhaustible, and organically unified. Our analysis of Tolstoy’s art will be for the purpose of reconstructing, rather than deconstructing, the author’s artistic worldview. We will attempt to understand each of Tolstoy’s works as complete artistic wholes, in which meaning and method are inextricably linked. Some of the specific themes to be discussed are Tolstoy’s exploration of the human quest for existential meaning and social justice; Tolstoy’s fascination with both the limitations and possibilities of human consciousness; the connection between form and feeling in Tolstoy’s prose; Tolstoy’s technique for recreating the moment-to-moment flow of ordinary experience; Tolstoy’s movement between the micro and the macro perspective, Tolstoy’s interest in what constitutes a “truthful” narrative; and Tolstoy’s tragic-comedic conception of life.
  
  In this course we will also sample the rich tradition of Tolstoy scholarship, focusing especially on those scholars and critics whose readings of Tolstoy may be considered works of art in their own right. In the spirit of these highly imaginative readers, students will be encouraged to explore their own creative imagination in their thinking and writing about Tolstoy. Upper level undergraduate students welcome. Readings will be in English with Russian reading requirements for graduate students in Slavic.

• 19th-Century Russian Literature:
  The Search for Self in the Russian Classics
  
  
  From copy clerks to kings, outcasts to aristocrats, demons to dandies, the characters that populate the pages of the nineteenth-century Russian classics represent a wide range of both Russian and universal human types. What unites all of these different characters is that they—and the writers who created them—lived in an era in which everything from Russian national identity to human destiny, personal ethics and the existence of God were vigorously questioned and debated. These writers and their characters struggled with the most challenging and perennial human questions: Who am I? Why am I here? What will make me happy? What are the values that should guide my life? What is the nature of death? Do I have free will? What does the “soul” feel like? Does evil exist inside me? What is the definition of “heroism”? What does it mean to lead a good, successful life? In the best and richest works of the period, many of these subjects are woven together into beautifully organic, artistic wholes. In this course we will sample some of those works from a variety of genres (short story, novel, poetry, “novel in verse,” drama) and authors ( Pushkin, Lermontov, Turgenev, Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Chekhov). Throughout the course we will ask the recurrent question: To what extent are the issues raised in the nineteenth-century Russian classics applicable to the challenges of contemporary America and to our own personal lives?

• Russian Masterpieces: Struggles with Authority in the Russian Novel
  
  
  The second half of the nineteenth-century and the first decades of the twentieth-century in Russia was an era defined, above all else, by the spirit of social, political, and existential struggle. The Alexandrine Reforms of the 1860’s, which created the possibility for social and political change in Russia, were greeted enthusiastically by some and skeptically by others. Writers and thinkers remained divided on the most important questions of the day. One group of intellectual-activists worked zealously to incite revolution, while another group turned their attention inward towards a romanticized past age of harmony and order. The conflicts within Russia, exacerbated by the external conflict of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904, culminated in the failed Russian Revolution of 1905.
  
  It was in this age of conflict and struggle that the Russian novel reached its full maturity, resulting in the creation of some of the greatest books ever written. The spirit of struggle is not only represented in these novels. It is also embodied by them. In the same way that the characters depicted in the works continually search for meaning in an upturned world, so the novelists themselves search for modes of artistic expression which best represent the troubled, and striving, spirit of their age. We will pursue both of these levels of interpretation through close and careful readings of the novels themselves. In addition to helping you understand more about Russian culture, the course is also intended to help you become a more sensitive reader of great works of fiction.
  
  Making It Personal
  
  You will discover that the issues raised in these novels are as relevant today as they were in Russia of the nineteenth-century, and you are encouraged to find your personal connection with these works. Is there a character whose experiences feel like something you have gone through? How does each writer make you feel when you immerse yourself in his or her world? Are there any recurring ideas that resonate with you? How do the issues presented in these works relate to issues of our own time? What kinds of authority (e.g, social, economic, political, familial, academic, psychological) do people struggle with in America today? Have you ever felt compelled to rebel against the prevailing wisdom around you? In what way? To what extent can you relate to the Russian men and women in these novels who search for social justice and personal meaning in the world? Do you believe, as many of the Russian novelists did, that literature can change the world?
  
  

• The Meaning of Money in the Russian Mind
  
  
  What do Russians really think about money, business, and capitalism? What images and myths about money exist in the Russian imagination? What have Russian writers taught their countrymen to think about the role of money in human affairs? How can the representation of money in literature from the Russian past shed light on the current challenges and opportunities facing Russians today as they attempt to develop a free market economy? These are some of the questions this course will explore through close readings of works of Russian literature, dating back to early 19th century. This course should be of interest to those students interested in Russian literature and culture, as well as to those interested in how the study of literature can shed light on the “real-world” concerns of business, economics, and the pursuit of money in our lives. As an ongoing part of the course, we will compare and contrast the American and Russian attitudes towards money, capitalism, and the pursuit of worldly success, and we will speculate on the historical and cultural sources of these similarities and differences.
  
  This is not a course in social, economic, or cultural theory. This is, above all, a literature course, and almost all of the readings will be works of fiction. Our focus will be on the emotional and psychological experiences of human individuals, who search for meaning in a modern world defined, in part, by monetary value and exchange. In addition to exploring the theme of money in Russian literature and culture, the course will also encourage you to think about some of the questions each of us faces in our everyday lives: Is money the root of evil, or is it the solution to many of life’s problems? What role does and should the pursuit of money play in our lives? What constitutes “value” in human life? What makes for human happiness? What does it mean to be “successful” in life? What is the responsibility of the wealthy to the less fortunate? What is the meaning of “work” in a free and an unfree society? To what extent is it possible to escape the monetary realities of the modern world altogether? Is it desirable to do so?
  
  

• An Extraordinary Ordinariness:
  Anton Chekhov and the Creation of the Modern Realist Theater
  
  
  The world of Chekhov’s plays is inhabited by ordinary, yet charming, people doing ordinary things and suffering in ordinary, yet deeply real and touching ways. In presenting such a world to his late nineteenth-century Russian audience, Chekhov challenged many of the assumptions upon which most previous theater, Russian and otherwise, had been based: the idea that a good play must contain riveting events; the idea that a plot must have a clear linear progression; the idea that solid theatrical performance must be made up of “stars” and “supporting actors”; the idea the comedy must always be funny and tragedy always sad; and the idea that a good plays contains a clear moral message. None of this applies in Chekhov’s case. He worked out an entirely new form of dramatic writing, because his particular vision of life required him to do so.
  
  This seminar is intended to introduce students to the unique technique, poetics, and deeply humane worldview of Chekhov’s theater. We will carefully read and enjoy Chekhov’s major plays, as well as his earlier farces and one-acts, with a particular focus on how text, subtext, imagery, acting choices, directorial vision, and physical environment contribute to the overall theatrical experience. Students will be challenged to use their creative imagination, as well as their analytical skills, in order to penetrate the rich, delicate artistic fabric of Chekhov’s theater. As part of this course, students will be asked to make short in-class presentations, including optional scene and monologue performances.
  
  Some questions to think about during this course: What are the theatrical techniques Chekhov uses in his plays to create a vision of human life as something extraordinary in its very ordinariness? How can Chekhov’s plays help us to understand the problems of our own contemporary world? To what extent does our perception of Chekhov’s drama change once we approach Chekhov’s texts from the point of view of performers and directors?
  
  

• Russia Through the Eyes of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky
  
  
  Overview
  
  This course will examine the ways in which two of Russia’s greatest writers artistically responded to and participated in the political, social, economic, and existential struggles of their age--the second half of the nineteenth century. This era in Russian history witnessed significant changes in many aspects of Russian society and culture. Among these changes were the replacement of a pre-modern agrarian economy with a modern, industrialized one; the emergence of a highly diversified and exciting, yet confusing and impersonal, urban culture; the replacement of the traditional, Russian values of community and peaceful coexistence with the more progressive, Western values of individualism and competition, economic and otherwise; and the emergence of a new class of professional revolutionaries, whose self-proclaimed mission it was to correct the ills of modern life and to create the perfect society on earth.
  
  In the course we will be primarily interested in the ways in which Tolstoy and Dostoevsky distilled the many paradoxes and problems of their age and transformed them into artistic visions which ultimately transcend time and place. Through close readings of selected texts, we will examine how each writer used the literary medium as a way to give artistic form to, and make philosophical sense out of, the chaos of contemporary experience. Are Tolstoy and Dostoevsky more alike or different as writers and thinkers about the problems of their time? What, if anything, can we take from these two novelists that might help us reflect on the struggles we face in our time and in our own lives?
  
  By the conclusion of this course, you should:
  
  1. Have a greater appreciation of the complexity and depth of some of the major works by Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.
  
  2. Recognize some of the salient themes, motifs, and artistic techniques employed by Tolstoy and Dostoevsky in their fiction.
  
  3. Have a greater appreciation of the way in which literature as literature is a uniquely powerful medium through which to explore both contemporary and universal human problems.
  
  4. Have an increased sensitivity to the kinds of productive questions one asks of a great work of fiction.
  
  5. Be able to offer your own tentative response to the question: Are Tolstoy and Dostoevsky more alike or more different as writers and thinkers about the problems of their time?
  
  
• First Year Russian
  
  

• Russia Through the Eyes of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky
  
  
  Overview
  
  This course will examine the ways in which two of Russia’s greatest writers artistically responded to and participated in the political, social, economic, and existential struggles of their age--the second half of the nineteenth century. This era in Russian history witnessed significant changes in many aspects of Russian society and culture. Among these changes were the replacement of a pre-modern agrarian economy with a modern, industrialized one; the emergence of a highly diversified and exciting, yet confusing and impersonal, urban culture; the replacement of the traditional, Russian values of community and peaceful coexistence with the more progressive, Western values of individualism and competition, economic and otherwise; and the emergence of a new class of professional revolutionaries, whose self-proclaimed mission it was to correct the ills of modern life and to create the perfect society on earth.
  
  In the course we will be primarily interested in the ways in which Tolstoy and Dostoevsky distilled the many paradoxes and problems of their age and transformed them into artistic visions which ultimately transcend time and place. Through close readings of selected texts, we will examine how each writer used the literary medium as a way to give artistic form to, and make philosophical sense out of, the chaos of contemporary experience. Are Tolstoy and Dostoevsky more alike or different as writers and thinkers about the problems of their time? What, if anything, can we take from these two novelists that might help us reflect on the struggles we face in our time and in our own lives?
  
  By the conclusion of this course, you should:
  
  1. Have a greater appreciation of the complexity and depth of some of the major works by Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.
  
  2. Recognize some of the salient themes, motifs, and artistic techniques employed by Tolstoy and Dostoevsky in their fiction.
  
  3. Have a greater appreciation of the way in which literature as literature is a uniquely powerful medium through which to explore both contemporary and universal human problems.
  
  4. Have an increased sensitivity to the kinds of productive questions one asks of a great work of fiction.
  
  5. Be able to offer your own carefully formulated, clearly presented, tentative response to the question: Are Tolstoy and Dostoevsky more alike or more different as writers and thinkers about the problems of their time?