Professor
Ronald Vroon
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2022 - The entire grade depends on the final and a final paper which was rather stressful not knowing his grading style, but he was surprisingly kind in his grading. Professor Vroon is incredibly knowledgable and the lectures are decently interesting--just be prepared to be asked questions and for awkward silence. The books, while a lot to read, were very interesting even though some were difficult to analyze on the first read. As someone who randomly took the class, I am glad I was exposed to the books I read (The Silver Dove, Dr. Zhivago, The Master and Margarita, We). I recommend this class if you are genuinely interested--or even mildly interested--in Russian Lit!
Fall 2022 - The entire grade depends on the final and a final paper which was rather stressful not knowing his grading style, but he was surprisingly kind in his grading. Professor Vroon is incredibly knowledgable and the lectures are decently interesting--just be prepared to be asked questions and for awkward silence. The books, while a lot to read, were very interesting even though some were difficult to analyze on the first read. As someone who randomly took the class, I am glad I was exposed to the books I read (The Silver Dove, Dr. Zhivago, The Master and Margarita, We). I recommend this class if you are genuinely interested--or even mildly interested--in Russian Lit!
AD
Most Helpful Review
I loved this class and I thought Prof Vroon was outstanding. He was very informed and has a solid background on Russian history, the language, and literature. He was interesting and at times a bit kooky. I loved the books we read (The Devils, The Brothers K, and The Idiot), although it was a heavy reading load and most of us did not complete it all (although I still got an A in the class). The lectures are not too long and I learned a lot about Russian literature and history that I knew nothing of before - I feel I gained a lot of knowledge from this class, and Dostoevsky is an amazing author so it was fun to explore his works. The only thing that bothered me was the giant crowd of Russian speakers who would sit together and stare at and talk about fellow students in thier native tongue (very annoying!!), or would ask questions IN RUSSIAN to show off thier language skills, which left the rest of us confused. Also, Vroon made a memorable reference to Britney Spears that surprised and delighted us all. Don't hesitate to take this.
I loved this class and I thought Prof Vroon was outstanding. He was very informed and has a solid background on Russian history, the language, and literature. He was interesting and at times a bit kooky. I loved the books we read (The Devils, The Brothers K, and The Idiot), although it was a heavy reading load and most of us did not complete it all (although I still got an A in the class). The lectures are not too long and I learned a lot about Russian literature and history that I knew nothing of before - I feel I gained a lot of knowledge from this class, and Dostoevsky is an amazing author so it was fun to explore his works. The only thing that bothered me was the giant crowd of Russian speakers who would sit together and stare at and talk about fellow students in thier native tongue (very annoying!!), or would ask questions IN RUSSIAN to show off thier language skills, which left the rest of us confused. Also, Vroon made a memorable reference to Britney Spears that surprised and delighted us all. Don't hesitate to take this.