My specialization is in twentieth century Czech and Russian prose. Most of my published work focuses on literature in exile, specifically on how memory functions in Kundera's and Nabokov's works. Recently I have been pursuing an interest in how Czech literature refracts various cultural and architectural events that occurred in Czechoslovakia after WW II. This interest has led me to a new book project, The Mysterious Affair in Prague: In Search of The Stalin Statue and Its Sculptor, in which I document the history of one of the largest Stalin statues ever built and explore narrative accounts of this event as meditations on the function of monumentality, aesthetics, and power.
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Recent Selected Publications:
- “The Lineup for Meat: The Stalin Statue in Prague.” PMLA, 2008 May; 123 (3): 614-630.
- “Kafkárna: Who is Afraid of Franz Kafka.” In Between Texts, Languages, and Cultures: Festschrift for Michael Henry Heim, ed. Craig Cravens, Masako U. Fidler, and Susan C. Kresin, Slavica: Indiana University, 2008, 237-243.
- “The Art of Memory in Exile: Vladimir Nabokov and Milan Kundera.“Southern Illinois University Press, 2001.
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Courses Regularly Taught:
CZCH 401-406 |
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Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced Czech |
SLAV 198H |
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Literature of Eastern Europe |
RUSS 473 |
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V. Nabokov: Life and Art |
RUSS 462 |
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Russian Poetry of the Nineteenth Century |
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M. Kundera and World Literature |
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Closely Watched Trains: Czech Film and Literature |
CB# 3165