Ewa Thompson– Homepage

Ewa M.Thompson – Homepage

Welcome!

 

Ewa Thompson, Research Professor of Slavic Studies, Rice University (Photo by Stefan Witas, October 2008)

Resume

Education

Ph.D., Vanderbilt University, Comparative Literature

M.F.A., Sopot Conservatory of Music

B.A., University of Warsaw

Books

Imperial Knowledge: Russian Literature and Colonialism (Westport, CT and London: Greenwood, 2000).  Excerpts available at Postcolonial Disourse. Ukrainian translation: Trubaduri imperii (Kyiv: Vidavnitstvo Osnovi, 2006), translated into Ukrainian by Maria Korchinska (full text of Ukrainian translation can be found here);  Polish translation: Trubadurzy Imperium: Literatura rosyjska i kolonialism (Krakow: Universitas Publishers, 2000), translated into Polish by Anna Sierszulska; Russian translation: Perekrestki (Vilnius), vol. VII (nos. 1-2, 2007), 32–75 (translation by Taciana Nyadbaeva of chapter 1 of Imperial Knowledge); Chinese translation: •ÆÁΑŽ_£†â‚_üœ”wÛ^Ñ—Ž‰³¥ (Beijing: Peking University Press, July 2009), translated by Yang De-you.

Understanding Russia: the Holy Fool in Russian Culture (University Press of America, 1987). Chinese translation: Understanding Russia: the Holy Fool in Russian Culture (Beijing: United Publishers, 1998), translated into Chinese by Yang De-you; Understanding Russia: the Holy Fool in Russian Culture (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1995), translated into Chinese by Yang De-you.

The Search for Self-Definition in Russian Literature (Rice University Press, 1991). Simultaneous edtition: The Search for Self-Definition in Russian Literature. Utrecht Publications in General and Comparative Literature 27 (John Benjamins, 1991).

Witold Gombrowicz (Twayne, 1979). Polish translation: Witold Gombrowicz (Katowice: University of Silesia Press, 2002), translated into Polish by Anna Sierszulska.

Russian Formalism and Anglo-American New Criticism: A Comparative Study (Mouton, 1971).

Selected articles and book chapters

"Postmodernism and European Memory," Modern Age, vol. 51, no. 2 (Spring 2009), 107–117.

"Can We Communicate," to appear.

"The Surrogate Hegemon in Polish Postcolonial Discourse," forthcoming in Faces of Europe, edited by Anna Gasior-Niemiec.

"Postcolonial Russia," A Historical Companion to Postcolonial Literatures: Continental Europe and its Empires, edited by Prem Poddar, Rajeev S. Patke & Lars Jensen (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008), 412–417.

"Postkolonialne refleksje," Porownania, vol. 5(2008), 113–126.

"Postmodernizm, pamiec, logocentryzm," (Nie)obecnosc: Pominiecia i przemilczenia w narracjach XX wieku, edited by Hanna Gosk and Bozena Karwowska (Warsaw: Dom Wydawniczy ELIPSA, 2008), 54–75. In Polish.

"Genrik Senkevich, Aleksei Tolstoi i <<Stolknovenie tsivilizatsii>> Semiuela Khantingtona," translated by S. S. Sekerinskii. Istorik i khudozhnik (Moscow), nos.1-2 (15-16), vol. V (2008), 170–182. In Russian. Full text here.

"Leo Tolstoy and the Idea of a Good Life, " Kultura rosyjska w ojczyznie i diasporze, edited by Lidia Liburska (Krakow: Jagiellonian University Press, 2007), 231–38.

"Anton Chekhov and Russian colonialism: the denial of identity in Ostrov Sakhalin," Dzielo Antoniego Czechowa dzisiaj, edited by Alicja Wolodzko-Butkiewicz and Ludmila Lutevici (Warsaw: University of Warsaw Press-Studia Rossica Series, 2005), 75–86. Ukrainian translation: "Anton Chekhov i rossiisky kolonializm: ruinuvannia identichnosti v <<Ostrovi Sakhalini>>," Moloda Natsiia, no. 4 (45), 2007,  85–108, translated by Tetyana Dzyadevych.

"Ways of Remembering: the Case of Poland," Toronto Slavic Quarterly, vol. 12, Spring 2005.

"Holy Fools and Shamanism," Shamanism: Critical Concepts in Sociology, vol. 2, edited by Andrei A. Znamenski (London: Routledge, 2004), 355–382. Reprint of chapter four of Understanding Russia.

"Discourse, Empire and Memory in Postcommunist Russia," New Zealand Slavonic Journal, vol. 37 (2003), 155–164.

"Ways out of the postmodern discourse,"Modern Age, vol. 45, no. 3 (Summer 2003), 195–207.

"Leopold Tyrmand, Peripheral Subordination and the American Conservative Movement,"in Living in Translation: Polish Writers in America edited by Halina Stephan  (New York: Rodopi, 2003), 153–169.

"The changing semantics of diaspora/emigration: the politics of recognition," in Literatura rosyjska w kontekstach miedzykulturowych, edited by Jerzy Lukszyn et al. (Warsaw: University of Warsaw Press, 2001), 330–340.

"Russian Literature and Imperialism: the Late Soviet and Early Post-Soviet Periods," in Reconstructing the Canon: Russian Writing in the 1980s, edited by Arnold McMillin (Harwood Academic Publishers, 2000), 243–57.

"Nacjonalizm, kolonializm, tozsamosc," translated into Polish by Anna Sierszulska. Teksty Drugie: Teoria Literatury, Krytyka, Interpretacja (bi-monthly). May 1999, 25–38. Reprinted in Polonistyka po amerykansku, edited by H. Filipowicz, A. Karcz and T. Trojanowska (Warsaw: Instytut Badan Lierackich, 2005), 286–300). English original: "Nationalism, Imperialism, Identity: Second Thoughts," Modern Age, vol. 40, no. 3 (Summer 1998), 250–261.

"East Central European Democracies and Russia: the End of Colonialism?" in Annie Allain and Gervais Essama, editors, Libre echange et identite culturelle (Paris-Lille: Presses Universitaires, 1998), 201––211.

"The Political Activation of Social Groups," in Richard F. Staar, editor, Transition to Democracy in Poland, 2nd ed. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998), 75–92.

"Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Cancer Ward and the Russian Colonialist Experience," Slavia Orientalis, vol. XLVI, no. 4 (Fall 1997), 545–555.

"Why the Conservative Tradition Is an Important Philosophical Option in Polish Intellectual Life," Periphery, vol. 3, nos. 1/2 (1997), 30–35.

"Three Perspectives on the Fall of Communism: American, Russian, and East European, and their Possible Role in Future Conflicts," Dalhousie Review, vol. 72, no. 2 (Summer 1992), 189–214.

"Przeciw Mickiewiczowi," Znaki Czasu [(Rome), vol. VII, no. 26 (April-June 1992), 68–82.

"Nationalist Propaganda in the Soviet Russian Press, 1939–1941," Slavic Review, vol. 50, no. 2 (Summer 1991), 385–399.

"The Writer in Exile: the Good Years," Slavic and East European Journal,  vol. 33, no. 4 (Winter 1989),  499–515. Polish translation: "Pisarz na wygnaniu: dobre lata," Przeglad Polonijny, vol. XVII (1991), 51–68.

"Body, Mind, and Deconstruction," Intercollegiate Review,  vol. 23, no. 1 (Fall 1986), 25–33.

Recent book reviews

Knut Andreas Grimstad, Styling Russia. Slavic Review, vol. 68, no. 1 (Spring 2009), 190–191.

Ilya Kutik, Writing as Exorcism: The Personal Codes of Pushkin, Lermontov, and Gogol. Canadian American Slavic Studies, vol. 42, no. 4 (Winter 2008), 484–485.

Marina Balina et al., eds., Politicizing Magic: An Anthology of Russian and Soviet Fairy Tales. Canadian American Slavic Studies, vol. 41, no. 4 (Winter 2007).

Simon Cosgrove, Russian Nationalism and the Politics of Soviet Literature: The Case of Nash sovremennik, 1981-91. Journal of Cold War Studies, vol. 9, no. 4 (2007).

"Zbigniew Herbert: The Courage to Live," Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture, May 2007. A review of Herbert's Collected Poems.

"John Rodden,  Repainting the Little Red Schoolhouse," Modern Age, vol. 49 (Winter 2005).

Some other articles

in Europa (Dziennik-Warsaw), Przeglad Polski (Nowy Dziennik-New York), others

"Sludzy i krytycy imperium,"Dziennik (Europa), 24 April 2009; "Biedny Herbert patrzy na zideologizowany swiat," Przeglad Polski,  16 January 2009; "Po upadku," Europa, no. 6 (201), 9 February 2008; "W kolejce po aprobate: kolonialna mentalnosc polskich elit," Europa, no. 180 (14 September 2007); "Narodowosc i polityka: polska swiadomosc narodowa jako problem," Europa, no. 165 (2 June 2007); "Sarmatyzm i postkolonializm," Europa, no. 137 (18 November 2006); "Odkrycie swiata na nowo: John Ralston Saul o neonacjonalizmie," Europa, no. 43(28 October 2006); "Said a sprawa polska," Europa, no. 65 (29 June 2005); "Sila literatury a sila panstwa," Europa, no. 7 (46), 16 February 2005; "Starosc kobiety, starosc swiata. O Elizabeth Costello, najnowszej powiesci Johna Maxwella Coetzeego," Europa, no. 85/05, 13 April 2005

in Washington Times

"'New Europe' still matters," 17 March 2008 (Russian translation); "The Lobby Archipelago," 2 March 2008; "Polish polls and the press," 25 October 2007; "Somber anniversaries, chances to reconcile," 23 September 2007; "America, Russia, and the EU," 8 July 2007 (Russian translation);  "Praising the Kaczynski brothers," 8 April 2007; "Borat, or shoplifting," 10 December 2006; "Postcommunist Central Europe at 17," 2 July 2006; "World War II victory as remembered and not," 14 May 2005

in Modern Age

"Why I Am a Conservative," Modern Age, vol. 49, no. 3 (Summer 2007), 265–270

Recent conferences

ìCan we communicate? On epistemological incompatibities in contemporary academic discourse,î College and the Academic Community in the European and American Tradition, University of Warsaw, College Artes Liberales, May 26 –29, 2009

Editorial work

Editor, Sarmatian Review

Area Editor, World Literary Encyclopedia, 2009-

Editorial Advisory Board or Editorial Board: Chesterton Review, Intercollegiate Review, Modern Age, Studies in Twentieth Century Literature


Courses/lectures at Rice

ALUMNI COLLEGE - DOSTOEVSKY

RUSSIAN 331/SLAVIC 331 (RUSSIAN LITERATURE AND COLONIALISM)

RUSSIAN 352 (DOSTOEVSKY) - see RUSS351 course description

RUSSIAN 351 (TOLSTOY) - see RUSS352 course description

RUSSIAN 420 (WOMEN IN RUSSIAN LITERATURE) - see RUSSIAN 420 course description

RUSSIAN 411 (CONTEMPORARY RUSSIA)

RUSSIAN 312 (SURVEY OF RUSSIAN LITERATURE)


For biography, see Who's Who in America

Updated 11/18/09