Polish Studies at Connecticut College

• The Institution
  
• Poland-Related Courses
  
• Faculty

GOV 000 The Politics of Eastern Europe

COURSE DESCRIPTION: The course will examine the diverse social and political responses to communist oppression across Eastern Europe (1948-89), and the impact of the communist legacy on attempts to move toward capitalist democracy and full membership in the community of European nations.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Jane Dawson

RUSSIAN 310 Polish Literature: Texts and Contexts @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: (in Polish) In the course, which is taught in Polish, explores the most influential Polish literary texts from the Renaissance to the present. Authors include Kochanowski, Mickiewicz, Slowacki, Krasinski, Sienkiewicz, Tuwim, Pawlikowska, Gombrowicz, Milosz, and Szymborska. Particular emphasis is given to experimentation with language in various historical periods. (Open to students with native or near-native command of Polish.)
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Andrea Lanoux

RUSSIAN 360 Nabokov @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: The course covers the most acclaimed and influential novels of Vladimir Nabokov, along with the seminal works of his Polish contemporary, Witold Gombrowicz. As artists, Nabokov and Gombrowicz were always experimental, creating literary works whose formal innovations bridge the gap between modernism and postmodernism. As thinkers, they were remarkably consistent, reiterating throughout their careers core sets of concepts and values about literature, art and life. But as Gombrowicz maintains, ideas cannot exist in a vacuum; they have meaning only in relation to other ideas. The depth of Nabokov's and Gombrowicz's views becomes evident through their contrast. As émigré writers, both Nabokov and Gombrowicz were highly conscious of their respective (Russian and Polish) literary heritages and their own place in–and outside of–those literary traditions. Topics to be covered include emigration, bilingualism, national literary traditions, existentialism, and autobiography.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Andrea Lanoux

Dawson, Jane , Virginia Eason Weinmann '51 Associate Professor of Government, Connecticut College @

Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1993
Phone: (860) 447-2385 / Fax: . . . / E-Mail: jane.dawson@conncoll.edu
MAJOR INTERESTS: Comparative environmental politics; Post-Soviet and East European politics; transitions to democracy; comparative social movements; nationalism.
POLAND RELATED SCHOLARSHIP:
COURSES

• The Politics of Eastern Europe

Lanoux, Andrea , Assistant Professor of Russian and East European Studies, Connecticut College @

Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 1999
Phone:(860) 439-5148 / Fax: . . . / E-Mail: alano@conncoll.edu
MAJOR INTERESTS: Russian and Polish literature
POLAND RELATED SCHOLARSHIP:
COURSES

• Polish Literature: Texts and Contexts
• Nabokov (and Gombrowicz)