Studia Litterarum

PhD,

Professor, Head of the Department of Russian Literature at the University of Geneva

Education:

Graduated in Russian and French literatures from the University of Geneva in 1985. Internship at the Leningrad State University (1983–1984); at the Academy of Sciences in Leningrad (1986, 1987, 1989)

PhD thesis:

Daniil Harms and the End of Russian Avant-garde (1991)

Research interests: Nineteenth and twentieth-century Russian literature, Russian futurism, Avant-garde, literature of the 1920s–1930s, Oberiuts, absurdist literature, unofficial culture of Leningrad, 1960s–1980s.

Professional service

Head of the Section of living languages (2005–2007)

Representative of the university administration on relations with the countries of the former USSR (since 2008)

Co-director of the collection “Slavica Helvetica” (publisher Peter Lang, Bern)

Head of the projects of Swiss National Fund for Research

Vice-head of “Russian circle” in Geneva

Member of Editorial Boards of the following editions: Russian Studies (St. Petersburg, 1994–2000), Modernités slaves (Lyon), Europa Orientalis (Salerno), La Revue russe (Paris), Gumanitanie Issledovania (Аstrakhan’), Vestnik RUDN (Moscow), Studia Litterarum (Moscow), «Avant-garde» series (St. Petersburg).

Academic publications — over 100 publications, including 2 monographs.

Selected publications

Monographs

• Literature as Such. From Nabokov to Pushkin. Мoscow, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie Publ., 2011. In Russ.
• Daniil Harms and the End of Russian Avant-garde. St. Petersburg, Akademicheskii proekt Publ., 1995. In Russ. (Trans. from French: Daniil Harms et la fin de l’avant-garde russe. Bern, Peter Lang, 1991.)

Edited collections

• Svetlana Alexievitch: la littérature au-delà de la literature. Genève, La Baconnière, 2019. (Co-edited with A. Morard, N. Piégay). In French
• Kandinsky, Malévitch, Filonov: les systèmes de l’abstraction dans l’avant-garde russe. Lormont, Éd. Nouvelles Cécile Defaut, 2018. (Co-edited with Yu. Podoroga). In French
• 1913. “Word as Such.” On the Anniversary of Russian Futurism. St. Petersburg, European University Press Publ., 2015. (Co-edited with  А. Морар). In Russ.
• “Second culture.” Unofficial Leningrad Poetry in the 1970s–1980s. St. Petersburg, Rostok Publ., 2013. (Co-edited with J. Herlth, V. Friedli). In Russ.
• “Temps ressenti” et “Temps construit” dans les littératures russe et française au XX^e siècle. Paris, Kimé, 2013. (Co-edited with Yu. Podoroga). In French
• Dostoevsky and Russian Abroad of the Twentieth Century. St. Petersburg, Dmitry Bulanin Publ., 2008. (Co-edited with U. Shmidt). In Russ.
• Russian Writers in Paris. A View on Parisian Literature. 1920–1940. Мoscow, Russky Put’ Publ., 2007. (Co-edited with G. Tassis, A. Morard). In Russ.
• Un “mensonge déconcertant”? La Russie au ХХ^e siècle. Paris, L’Harmattan, 2003. (Co-edited with C. Amachker). In French
• Russies. Mélanges offerts à Georges Nivat. Lausanne, L’Âge d’Homme, 1995. (Co-edited with A. Dykman). In French

Commented translations

• Erdman, N. Le Mandat. Lausanne, L’Âge d’Homme, 1998. In French
• Harms, D. Écrits. Paris, Christian Bourgois, 1993. In French

Selected Essays (recent)

• “On the ‘Naked Man.’ Nudity as a Form of Asceticism.” Abundance and Asceticism in Russian Culture: Collisions, Transitions, Coincidences, ed. by I. Kherl'ta and K. Tsendera. Moscow, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie Publ., 2020, pp. 224–238. In Russ.
• “L’horreur postsymboliste, ou la fin de l’angoisse.” Anxiety, Angst, Anguish in Fin de siècle Art and Literature, ed. R. Neginsky, M. Segrestin, L. Jurgenson. Cambridge, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2020, pp. 115–128. In French
• “Daniil Harms, les états permanents du poème.” États provisoires du poème, no. 19 («Russie. L’immense et l’intime»). Devesset, Cheyne, 2019, pp. 23–33. In French
• “Un ‛Février théâtral’ pour les dix ans d’Octobre: la réponse de gauche de I. Terent’ev à V. Mejerxol’d.” Revue des Études Slaves, 2019, vol. XC (1–2): Les révolutions russes de 1917. Enjeux politiques et artistiques, dir. M.-C. Autant-Mathieu, A. Lavrov, pp. 241–255. In French
• “Quel futurisme? L’étrange vie des paroles étranges dans la guerre.” Paroles étranges. Mélanges offerts à Jean-Claude Lanne, ed. N. Gamalova, Lyon, CEL Lyon 3, 2018, pp. 169–188. In French
• “Faut-il avoir peur du Carré noir?” Kandinsky, Malévitch, Filonov et la philosophie. Les systèmes de l’abstraction dans l’avant-garde russe, eds. J.-Ph. Jaccard, I. Podoroga. Lormont, Éd. Nouvelles Cécile Defaut, 2018, pp. 199–212. In French
• “Poetical World of Velimir and Real World of Hlebnikov (On the Function of Referent in the Work of Futirists.” Velimir Hlebnikov and World Culture. Astrakhan, Astrakhan State University Press Publ., 2015, pp. 30–35. In Russ.
• “To Whom the ‛Word as Such’ is Addressed? On One Unknown Manuscript by Daniil Harms.” ‛Word as Such.’ On the Anniversary of Russian Futurism. St. Petersburg, European University Press Publ., 2015. In Russ.
• “Word as Such.” On the Anniversary of Russian Futurism, eds. J.-F. Jaccard, А. Морар. St. Petersburg, European University Press Publ., 2015, pp. 160–169. In Russ.
• “L’avant-garde en procès.” Histoire et mémoire dans l’espace postsoviétique: le passé qui encombre, eds. K. Amacher, W. Berelowitch. Louvain-la-Neuve, Academia-L’Harmattan, 2013, pp. 215–230. In French
• “Le Bienfaiteur et la limitation de l’infini.” Du Grand Inquisiteur à Big Brother. Arts, science et politique, eds. A. Saignes, A. Salha. Paris, Garnier, 2013, pp. 109–136. In French.
• “L’eau et la pierre. Quelques échos des réflexions de Bergson sur le temps dans la poésie russe du début du XX^e siècle.” «Temps ressenti» et «temps construit» dans les littératures russe et française au XX^e siècle, ed. by J.-Ph. Jaccard, Iu. Podoroga. Paris, Kimé, 2013, pp. 55–74. In French
• “Pouchkine, premier écrivain de la modernité en Russie: une incompréhension durable.” Pouchkine, poète de l’altérité, eds. E. Enderlein, T. Victoroff. Strasbourg, PU, 2011, pp. 39–52. In French
• “Voir – Connaître. Optique, représentation, voyance: à propos de certains invariants à l’époque de l’Âge d’argent.” L’unité sémantique de l’Âge d’argent. Lyon, CESAL, 2011, pp. 324–344. In French
• “Le ‛devenirianisme’ en poésie: Velemir II Toufanov, successeur de Khlebnikov sur le trône de l’État du temps.” Europe, no. 978, 2010, pp. 258–268. In French

Teaching experience

Head of the Russian Department (since 2002).

Head of the Department of Medditeranean, Oriental and Slavic Languages (2002–2005).

Head of the Russian Literature Department at the University of Geneva.