Welcome Oleh Kotsyuba

This term, Dr. Kotsyuba offers two courses that invite students to learn and practice the art of deep reading — and Nabokov's intricate works lend themselves particularly well to this task. As a writer who is highly conscious of what it means to be a writer, Nabokov often plays with his readers, leaving important cues hidden in seemingly irrelevant passages and side notes. This becomes especially meaningful when his own life becomes the object of his writing — a unique opportunity to create one's own image for generations to come and thus to shape one's own legacy. The goals in the course will, therefore, include finding the cues and deconstructing the skillful self-mystifications.

In Russian 286 (Nabokov in English), students will read some of the most prominent works by Nabokov: Lolita, Pnin, and Pale Fire, which were written in English, and Nabokov's English translations of two of his best Russian novels: The Defense and Invitation to a Beheading. There will also be a discussion of Nabokov's extraordinary autobiography, Speak, Memory! Supplementary readings will clarify what it means to be a writer and what it means to write like Nabokov. The course will feature a trip to the Nabokov archive at Wellesley, a writing workshop, and a creative assignment at the end of the course. This course will meet twice per week (one period each) and there are no prerequisites.

In Russian 386 (Nabokov's Short Stories in Russian), a half-unit course (one period per week), students who have at least intermediate command of the Russian language will have the opportunity to read in Russian, translate and discuss some of the most puzzling of Nabokov's short stories: "Skazka," "Terra Incognita," "Poseshchenie muzeia," "Pamiati L.I. Shigaeva," "Oblako, ozero, bashnia," "Vasily Shishkov," and "Rozhdestvo." The short form will allow the students to practice their fluency in reading and translating Russian, while the literary qualities of Nabokov's prose will help them gain deeper insight into the stylistic workings of the Russian language. Prerequisites for this course include Russian 301 or 302, or equivalent qualification, and students of Russian 286 may enroll as well as long as they fulfill these requirements.

A dedicated and experienced educator, Dr. Kotsyuba enjoys teaching courses that introduce students to Slavic literatures and cultures, allow them to read prolific writers (in the original and in translation), and encourage discussion of the complexities of social and cultural life. For questions about the courses, he can be reached at okotsyuba@wellesley.edu.

Posted 28 August 2018