Query: Spetskurs

[Svetlana Grenier]

In my time in the Philologicheskii fakul'tet LGU (1970s) spetskursy were lecture classes on more specialized topics, such as on specific authors or genres or narrow periods or subfields of literaturovedenie, such as paleography (as opposed to usual survey courses).  Students who took them also probably wrote a "kursovaia rabota" (a year-long course paper) under the direction of that professor.  Spetskursy were offered in Russian literature, for example, and they were open to all students (my friends and I who were in other majors used to go to those lectures just because they were interesting, without getting any credit or taking the exam).  So I would say it is not an independent study but an elective in one's major.
I don't know if this is still the case but I suspect it is.

Regards, 
Svetlana Grenier

----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul B. Gallagher" <paulbg at PBG-TRANSLATIONS.COM>
Date: Monday, May 1, 2006 1:44 am
Subject: [SEELANGS] Query: Spetskurs

> Can the academics tell me whether "spetskurs" («????????») in 
> Russian 
> parlance is equivalent to the U.S. concept of "independent study" --
> a 
> course custom-tailored to the student, who is usually an advanced 
> undergraduate or a grad student? And would "Spetskurs po chemu-to" 
> («???????? ?? ??????-?? ??????????? (?????-?? ????)») be 
> "Independent 
> Study in Such-and-Such Area/Topic"?
> 
> MTIA
> 
> -- 
> War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
> --
> Paul B. Gallagher
> pbg translations, inc.
> "Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
> http://pbg-translations.com
> 
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