Friedberg_Nila-2021

five-minute classes per week, there would be little time for the optional assignments, but institutions operating on a semester system could use them extensively. Note that the suggested essay topics, too, are informed by the work of literary critics. For example, in the chapter on The Twelve Chairs , students are asked to write an essay and explain whether they agree with M. Odesski and D. Feldman’s claim that The Twelve Chairs is a “Soviet anti-Soviet novel.” The latter is most suited for Advanced-level students, while Intermediate High students could write, for instance, a continuation of the chapter they had read, practicing the use of the future tense to describe the fate of the various characters. The optional video assignments include questions about various films from that era, like Tret’ia meshchanskaia (Bed and Sofa), Evreiskoe shchast’e (Jewish Luck) , and Putevka v zhizn’ (The Road to Life) . Each text included in the textbook is accompanied by posters or screenshots of films made in the 1920s; these images were selected for their ability to highlight or portray the concepts, events, or characters described in the texts themselves. The goal was to make students familiar not only with 1920s plots and writers, but also with the names of film directors (e.g. Dziga Vertov), actors (e.g., Solomon Mikhoels), or film titles (e.g., Tret’ia meshchanskaia ). Some optional assignments refer to modern programs and documentaries, such as the “Finding Babel” documentary, the “Ostrova” program on Platonov from the Russian “Kul’tura” channel, and so on. The specific editions used in this textbook are listed in the Bibliography. For Heart of a Dog , the textbook reproduces the following edition, with several omitted chapters and sections of the text mentioned in the footnotes: Bulgakov, M. A. (1989). Sobach’e serdtse [The heart of a dog]. In: Sobranie sochinenii v piati tomakh. Tom 2 [Collected works in five volumes. Vol. 2]. Moscow: Khudozhestvennaia literatura. For the chapters on The Twelve Chairs , the standard or “classic” rather than full edition is used, since it is this “classic” edition that will most likely be quoted and referenced by Russian speakers who grew up in the Soviet era: Il’f, I., and Petrov, E. (1995a). “Glava V. Velikii kombinator” [Chapter V. The great wheeler-dealer]. In I. Il’f and E. Petrov, Dvenadtsat’ stul’ev [The twelve chairs] (pp.130–37). Moscow: Panorama. Il’f, I., and Petrov, E. (1995b).“Glava VI. Brilliantovyi dym”[Chapter VI. Diamond smoke]. In I. Il’f and E. Petrov,