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Courses •  Research/Publications

Dept of Slavic Langs & Lits • 3002 Modern Languages Building • The University of Michigan • Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1275
(734) 647-2134
omronen@umich.edu

Ph.D., Harvard University, 1976.

Courses
Professor Ronen's subjects include mediaeval East Slavic literatures; history and historical poetics of 19th - and 20th - century Russian literature; Russian literary theories; versification and rhetoric; popular sub-genres; and comparative literature.

Typical Fall courses:

• Russian Social Fiction: Russian 460 [LSA course guide]
• Vladimir Nabokov and World Literature I: The Russian Years: Russian 478 [LSA course guide] 
  
  

Past courses include:

• Vladimir Nabokov and World Literature I: The Russian Years: Russ 478
• Poetics & Rhetoric: Russ 485
• Twentieth-Century Russian Literature (1890-1921): Russ 449
• Emigre Literature: Russ 453
• Russian Social Fiction: Russ 460
• Pushkin: Russ 461
• Modern Russian Poetry: Russ 471/472
• Vladimir Nabokov and World Literature II: The American Years: Russ 479
• Popular Sub-Genres in Modern Russian Literature: Russ 480
• Ten Masterpieces of Russian Literature: Russ 482
• Old Russian Literature: Russ 551
• Poetics and Rhetoric: Russ 553
• Russian Literary Movements and Genres: Russ 563
• Seminar in Russian Literature: Russ 856
• Seminar in Twentieth Century Russian Literature (Poetry and Prose): Russ 861/862

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Research/Publications

Omry Ronen  is the author of An Approach to Mandel’shtam (1983), The Fallacy of the Silver Age in 20th Century Russian Literature (1997; Russian version: Serebrianyi vek kak umysel i vymysel, 2000, two editions), Po`etika Osipa Mandel’shtama (2002), Iz goroda `Enn (2005), and several scores of articles on Russian verbal art, literary history and theory. He took part in annotating N.S. Trubetskoy’s Letters and Notes (1975), and co-edited Roman Jakobson’s Besedy   (1982), and the journals Slavica Hierosolymitana (1977–1981) and Elementa (1997-2000).  He serves on the editorial board of Philologica (Moscow) and has his own regular column of literary essays “Iz goroda Enn” (“From the Town of Ann”) in the literary monthly Zvezda (St.Petersburg).

     Ronen’s explications of Akhmatova, Belyi, Blok, Esenin, Gumilev, Khodasevich, Kuzmin, Maiakovsky, Mandel’shtam, Nabokov, Pasternak, Sologub,  Tynianov, and other 20th century writers are generally acknowledged, and quoted in the Russian and Western critical editions of these authors.

     His best-known achievement in the field of theory is his original approach to intertextuality and his definition of subtext as a structural constituent of poetic style, which fulfills not only the referential function as the field of solution of textual semantic riddles and the metalinguistic function of quotational polyphony, but also the poetic function of distanced reiteration, and therefore can be integrated in the general Jakobsonian theory of verbal art.

Recent Publications (2000-2007)

Books:

• Serebrianyi vek  kak  umysel i vymysel. [Materialy  i issledovaniia po istorii russkoi kul’tury,Vol. 4]. Moscow:  Ob”edinnennoe   Gumanitarnoe Izdatel’stvo, 2000.    152 pp.  [An improved and augmented Russian  version of The Fallacy of the Silver Age, Amsterdam, 1997].
• ---.  Second, corrected edition.  Moscow: O.G.I., 2000.
• Poètika Osipa Mandel’shtama [The Poetics of Osip Mandel’shtam], St. Petersburg: Hyperion, 2002, 240 pp.
• Iz goroda Ènn [From the Town of ÈNN], St.Petersburg: Zvezda, 2005, 352 pp.
• Shram. Vtoraia kniga iz goroda Enn [The Scar.  A Second Book from the City of NN], St. Petersburg: Zvezda, 2007.

 

Books Edited:

• Pis’ma i zametki  N.S. Trubetskogo. Vstup. st. V.N. Toporova. Podg. k izd. R. Iakobsona pri uchastii Kh. Barana, O. Ronena, M. Teilor. Moscow: Iazyki slavianskoi kul’tury, 2004. 608 pp. [Russian version of N.S. Trubetskoy’s Letters and Notes, Paris, The Hague, 1975, with an introductory essay by V.N. Toporov].

 

Selected Articles:

• “Nabokov and Goethe.” Chapter 16      in:  Cold     Fusion:    Aspects of the German  Cultural Presence in Russia. Ed.Gennady Barabtarlo. New York: Berghahn Books, 2000. 241–251.
• “Nine Notes to The Gift,” The Nabokovian 44 (Spring 2000): 20–26.
• “Detskaia  literatura i sotsialisticheskii  realizm” [Children’s  Literature and Socialist Realism].  In: Sotsrealisticheskii   kanon.  Eds.  H.   Günther   and   E. Dobrenko. St. Petersburg: Akademicheskii Proekt, 2000. 1027–1038.
• “Personazhi-nasekomye u Oleinikova i obèriutov” [Insect Characters in the Poetry   of  Oleinikov  and   the Oberiu],  Zvezda    (St. Petersburg)     8 (2000): 192–199.               
• “Poetry   and  Grammar  in   the   Table  of  Contents  of  The  Captain’s  Daughter,”  Elementa, Vol. 4, No. 4 (2000): 331–339.
• “Iz    zametok   k   «Polnomu   sobraniiu   sochinenii»   Aleksandra   Bloka”   [Selected   Footnotes   to the  New  Complete  Critical   Edition  of   Aleksandr   Blok’s  Collected Works],  Blokovskii sbornik  XV: Russkii  simvolizm  v literaturnom kontekste   rubezha   XIX-XX   vv. (Tartu, 2000): 196–202 [with an English summary].
• “Emulation, Anti-Parody,  Intertextuality, and Annotation,” Nabokov Studies, Vol. 5 (1998/1999) [2000]: 63–70.
• “Odin raz v     zhizni.    Eizenshtein i ego kollegi  kak  literaturnye  prototipy” [Once in  a Lifetime:  Sergei Eisenstein and his  Associates as Literary Prototypes] (tr. from the  English  by   Ol’ga  Goncharenko),  Kinovedcheskie   zapiski    48 (Moscow, 2000): 228–233.    
• “An Explication of Annenskii’s “Square Windows,” Wiener Slawistischer Almanach 45 (2000): 27–34.
• Once in a Lifetime:     Eisenstein and his    Associates as  Literary  Prototypes in a Novel by Lev Kassil. In: Eisenstein at 100: A Reconsideration. Eds. A. LaValley and B. P. Scherr. New Brunswick and London: RutgersUP, 2001, pp. 129–135.
• [With M.L. Gasparov]. O «Venitseiskoi zhizni» O.Mandel’shtama. Opyt kommentariia [On Mandelstam’s «Venetian Life». A Commentary], Zvezda 2 (February 2002): 193-202.
• Mezhtekstovye sviazi, podtekst i kommentirovanie [Intertextual Relations, Subtext, and Annotation], Russkaia filologiia. 13 (Pamiati E. Shvaikovskoi).    Tartu: Tartu UP, 2002,   pp. 13–32.
• A Direct Antecedent of “The Grand-Dad,” The Nabokovian, No.48 (Spring 2002), pp. 19–22.
• Nachala i kontsy v slovesnom iskusstve XX veka [The Beginnings and  the  Ends in 20th Century Verbal Art], Real'nost'  i sub"ekt , Vol. 6, # 4 (St. Petersburg, 2002), pp. 39-44.
• Temy iz Geine v tvorchestve Viacheslava Ivanova [Heine’s Themes in the Art of Viacheslav Ivanov]. In: Viacheslav Ivanov - Peterburg - Mirovaia kul’tura. Materialy mezhdunarodnoi nauchnoi konferentsii 9-11 sentiabria 2002 g. Tomsk, Moscow: Vodolei Publishers, 2003. 75-81.
• [With M. L. Gasparov]. Pokhorony solntsa v Peterburge. O dvykh teatral’nykh stikhotvoreniiakh Mandel’shtama [The Sun’s Funeral in Petersburg. On Two Theatre Poems by      Mandel’shtam], Zvezda 5 (May 2003; Special Issue Dedicated to the Tercentenary of St. Petersburg): 207-219.
• The Triple Anniversary of World Literature: Goethe, Pushkin, Nabokov.     Chapter 16 in: Nabokov at Cornell. Ed. G. Shapiro. Ithaca and London: Cornell UP, 2003. 172-181.
• Istoricheskii modernizm, novatorstvo i mifotvorchestvo v sisteme otsenok Vladimira Nabokova [Historical Modernism, Artistic Innovation, and Myth-Making in Vladimir Nabokov’s System of Value Judgments], Philologica: Bilingual Journal of Russian and Theoretical Philology, 2001/2002, Vol. 7, # 17/18 (Moscow, 2003): 247-260 [with an English summary].
• «Zerkalo tenej» [“The Mirror of Shadows”], International Journal of Slavic Linguistics and Poetics   XLIII, 2001 [2003]: 123-127.
• V.M. Zhirmunskij i problema “preodolenija” v smene stilej i techenij [V.M. Zhirmunsky and the Problem of “Sublation” in the Succession of Literary    Styles and Currents], Acta Linguistica Petropolitana / Trudy Instituta Lingvisticheskikh Issledovanii, Vol. 1, Pt. 1 (St. Petersburg, 2003): 55-62.
• Opravdanie Peterburga u akmeistov [The Acmeist Justification of St.Petersburg], Russkoe slovo v mirovoi kul’ture (Russian Word in World Culture. Proceedings of the Tenth Congress of the International Association of Russian Language and Literature Teachers, St.Petersburg, 2003), Vol. II (St. Petersburg, 2003). 405-414.
• Avtorskii korpus kak tselokupnost' [Author's Corpus as a Structural Unity], Russkaia filologiia 15 (Tartu, 2004): 11-30.
• Emulation, Anti-Parody, Intertextuality, and Annotation,     Facta Universitatis, Series Linguistics and Literature, Vol. 3, #2 (Nish, 2005): 161-167 [in English, with a Serbian abstract].
• Tema stikhotvoreniia Vl. Solov’eva «Net, siloj ne podniat’...» v poèzii russkogo modernizma [The Theme of Vladimir Soloviev’s Poem “One cannot lift with force...” in the Poetry of Russian Modernism], Vladimir Solov’ev i kul’tura Serebrianogo veka. K 150-letiiu Vl. Solov’eva i 110-letiiu A.F. Loseva [Vladimir Solov’ev and the Culture of the Silver Age]. Eds. A.A. Takho-Godi, E.A. Takho-Godi. Moscow: Nauka, 2005. 325-330.
• Ustnye vyskazyvaniia R.O. Iakobsona ob A.F. Loseve [R.O. Jakobson’s Verbal Communications About A.F. Losev], Biulleten’ Biblioteki istorii russkoi filosofii i kul’tury “Dom A.F. Loseva,” Vypusk 2 (Moscow, 2005): 66-68.
• Khodasevich v otsenke Tynianova i «krest’ianskaia poèziia» v otsenke Khodasevicha [Tynianov’s Judgment on Khodasevich and Khodasevich’s Judgment on “Peasant Poetry”], Sub Rosa. In honorem Lenae Szilárd, Budapest, 2005. 520-526.
• Pravda istorika. Predislovie k knige Ia.S. Lurie “V kraiu nepuganykh idiotov” [A Historian’s Truth.     An Introduction to: Ia.S. Lurie, In the Land of the Undisturbed Idiots], St. Petersburg: Izd. Evropeiskogo universiteta, 2005.  5-11.
• Istoriko-literaturnoe znachenie dramaticheskoi poèmy A.K. Tolstogo “Don Zhuan” [The Literary-Historical Significance of A.K. Tolstoi’s Dramatic Poem Don Juan], Shipovnik. Festschrift for Roman Timenchik, Moscow: Vodolei, 2005. 381-390.
• [With Irena Ronen]. Cherti Nabokova [Nabokov's Devils], Zvezda 4 (2006).
• Opravdanie Peterburga u akmeistov [The Acmeist Justification of St.Petersburg], Ètkindovskie chteniia II-III: Sbornik statei po materialam Chtenii pamiati E.G. Ètkinda, St. Petersburg: Izd-vo Evropeiskogo universiteta v Sankt-Peterburge. 2006.
• Iz grudy pisem [Out of a Mound of Letters], Stikh, yazyk, poeziya. Pamiati Mikhaila Leonovicha Gasparova [Verse, Language, Poetry. In Memory of Mikhail Gasparov]. Moscow: RGGU, 2006.
• Two Acmeist Images of Unintelligible Poetry, Philologica: Bilingual Journal of Russian and Theoretical Philology, 2003/2005, Vol. 8, # 19/20 (Moscow, 2006).
• [With Irena Ronen]. Cherti Nabokova [Nabokov’s Devils], Zvezda 4 (2006): 175-188.
• Iz grudy pisem [Out of a Mound of Letters], Stikh, yazyk, poeziya. Pamyati Mikhaila Leonovicha Gasparova [Verse, Language, Poetry. In Memory of Mikhail Gasparov],Moscow: RGGU, 2006. 62-74.
• Two Metapoetic Images in Acmeism, Philologica: Bilingual Journal of Russian and Theoretical Philology, 2003/2004, Vol. 8 ( Moscow, 2006): 279-290 [with a Russian summary].
• Napravlenie Prusta v opisatel’noi tekhnike Nabokova [Proust’s Way in Nabokov’s Descriptive Technique], ibid. [with an English summary].
• 34 literary, historical, and biographical essays published in the column «Iz goroda Ènn» («From the Town of ANN») in the alternate issues of the monthly Zvezda ( St. Petersburg ), March 2001 to September 2006.
• Napravlenie Prusta v opisatel'nom iskusstve Nabokova [Proust's Way in Nabokov's Descriptive Art], ibid.
• Ritorika "Vekh" [The Rhetoric of The Signposts], Sbornik "Vekhi" v kontekste russkoj kul'tury [The Signposts Collection in the Context of Russian Culture]. Moscow: Nauka, 2007.

Major Interviews:

• Omri Ronen: "Za menia vstupilsia narod". Roman s filologiei [Omry Ronen: "The People Interceded for Me." A Love Affair with Philology], /Ex libris ( Moscow), 21 January 1999, pp. 9-12 (interview conducted by G. Amelin).
• Sovremennik [A Contemporary], Den' za dnem ( Tallinn ), 22 October 1999 (interview conducted by V. Vasil'kova).
• Omri Ronen: "Nado znat', chto znachit eta muzyka" [Omry Ronen: "One Must Know What This Music Means"], Novaia Russkaia Kniga #3 (4) ( St. Petersburg, 2000), pp. 3-7 (interview conducted by I. Svetlikova and A Blumbaum).
• "Omri". Interview conducted by N. Grigor'eva, Zvezda 10 (St. Petersburg, 2000): 231-232.
• "Itogi i perspektivy". Otvety na voprosy zhurnala 'Zvezda' ["Results and Perspectives". Answers to Zvezda's Questionnaire]. 1 (January 2001): 222-224.
• «Chemu by zhizn’ nas ni uchila» (“Whatever Life Might Teach Us”), Den’ za dnem ( Tallinn ), 11 May 2001, p. 16 (interview conducted by V. Vasil’kova).
• Interviewee [TV Film], Location Guide, and Historical Consultant: 1956 - Seredina veka [1956 - The Midcentury], a 12-part documentary serial produced by "The Live History" program of The St. Petersburg Broadcasting Company ("Channel 5"), Part 11, filmed on location in Budapest in March 2006, broadcast in Russia in September 2007.

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