THE LAWRENCIAN CHRONICLE
Transcription
THE LAWRENCIAN CHRONICLE
THE LAWRENCIAN CHRONICLE The University - o f Kansas, L a w r e n c e , KS, V o l . =I, No. 1, June 2000 E d i t h U. C l o w e s and Idare E. G r e e n b e r g , E d i t o r s LNTERVIEW WITH PROFESSOR JADWIGA MAURER Michael D. Jobon EditoriaI note: Professor and writer Jadwiga Maurer, who has taught Polish language and literature at the University of Kansas for h r t y years, was the focal point of a well-attended session at the M A S S Conference held in St. Louis in November, 1999. h l y in 2000 Professor Wwer chatted with graduate student Michael Johnson a bit more about her childhood, education, and career. The Lnwrencim Chronicle offers her colleagues, srudenrs, and admirers of her art the opporhuuty to become more closely aquainled with her rich and fascinating life. JM = Jadwiga Maurer MDJ = Michael D.Jolmson MDJ: Professor Maurer, as a student of yours, Pm phcularl y interested in your life experiences, your writing, and your views on Polish studies and Polish literature. Could you begin with the obvious topic of where you were bmn, because I don't even h o w that-I know you are of Polish heritage, but that's as much as I know ... JM : Yes, I was born Kielce, Poland, which is in tend Poland, in the early thirties and I lived there until the war. Then I was in many places, but only two places really bad simcance for my lictionthat' s what most people misunderstand in interviews-they say that I was only in these two places. Also they often confuse the uarrator with . the author. I have been tempted to straighten em but I was told by some people not to do that- they said that it's only a compliment, meaning that these people think that my narrator is me. That is absolutely untrue. MDJ: So then, what were these two places that were so important for your fiction? out, JM: ... These were the two places where I lived on the so-called Aryan papers-1 hate to say "false" papers- that was in Krakbw, and the. other one was in the convent school, under the care of a priest in Slovakia. YAryan papers" were official documents w hch showed an individual was of Aryan, i.e. not Jewish, heritage and therefore allowed the bearer freedoms denied to Jews under the Nazi occupation-MDJ.] MDJ: This was just acmss the border, right? JM: Well, yes ...at some distance.. . MIX Not as far south as Bmtislava? JM: No, no, in eastern Slovakia, I guess. I'm not so sure how they divide it up... MJX And how long were you at the convent then? JM: WeIl, I was in Presov [then CzechosIovaha] for almost a year ... I was [there] a relatively long rime, for the wartime, for my situation in Slovakia. not always in the convent school, but always under the care of the Catholic Church. MDJ: So it was only a year that you spent in Slovakia, before you moved. .. M Yes, I wasn't that long in Slovakia, and then the war- when the Russians came-I was in Slovakia, and then we went back to Krakbw, ...The war ended shortly aftemards. Thai I went to schoo1 in Gdansk. ... My father, who was a socialist, (not before the war, but after the war), and was editor of a socialist paper-heard -this rumor, which later hecame true-that the Communist Party and the Socialist Party [wexe] going to merge, and everyme h e w what that means-it would mean that. Wand would be what was later called a"satellite" of the Soviet Union. There would be... only one so-called ' b t e d workers' party," so he started making arrangements to leave Poland We went to Germany, I went to school, and I applied to the University of Munich. We came to Munich already in 1946 from Gdansk. I studied Slavic languages-I also studied &@sh literature and modern history, and wben I came to this country Iater on-whw I married my husband. who' s an American f m Pennsylvania Warren R. M a w , Professor of Germanic h q u a g e s and Literatures at KU-MDJJ-people assumed that I learned English so quickly. [But] that wasn' t true. because I always. more or less always knew EngIish-not as well as I do now, but I always studied it. MD5: Had you studied English in Krak6w or Kielce? M:Not when I was little, but already in Gcbsk, in the gymnasium. Thw I studied it much more setiously in Germany. Ev'verybody was studying English, everybody. So I had lessons, I had private lessons. I had English in school. I picked it as my outside field. Then 1 studied Slavic languages. I was more or less a linguist. It was customary often in Europe,for a long time anyway, that you pretty much studied what your professors were weU-lmown for. My professor was ia linguistics, although he, on occasion. took on literary dissertalions, too. He felt more "at home" in linguistics. MIX: In Slavic linguistics or Germanic? JM: Slavic. he was a Slavic lingurst. Well, then when I met my f m husband-he was a student, on. a scholarship out of the University of Chicago. Then he was drafted, [and went into] the army. I went with him to tbis country, and I was very, very lucky. I also had very good recommendations, I must admit, and 1 got, you might say, the job at Bekeley, California.. MDJ: So did you marry tben in Munich? Jhk Yes, we married in Fulda, where he was stationed in military intelligence, and then we were in Berkeley, where he got his Ph.D. I was Assistant Professor of Slavic hguages,-1 taught literature, language...l was really very happy there. We left then, for Indiana University, where we stayed for W Y-~ Tfvrn 6 v . m m m. jLi mmm, I was fired for Polish literature...I taught same l a n ~ g ebut , mainly J taught literam. MDJ: What was your rust teaching y e a at Berkeley? JM: 196CLthe same year that [Czeslaw] Mosz came to Berkeley. MDJ: And how long were you &re then? JM: Six yealrs, 1rhink MDJ: Until 1966? So you've been at KU since about 1%9? JM:Well, I was in Lawrence, yes...r v e been at KU since '70. Professor [Joseph L.] C m a d was the chairman then. That's exactly thirty years now. MDJ: IT you could speak just a bit on your writings.. .or even on your philosophy in, say, a story like 'Bylo i dziad i baba." JM: Well, you h o w there are various types of writers. The more I try to write, the more I see that I am one of those b ~ t i ~ n awriters. l " 1either have some inspiration or I don't And therefore, 1 haven't written such big, huge volumes that people write when they have a plan, a method...and they h o w what they're going to develop. I'm saying that tongue-in-cheek but not entirely. So each short story represents some thought, some inspiration I had My characters are all compusites of people I knew, or I think I knew. And my narrator-1 like to write in the fmt person-and I am amused that so many people take this as gospel truth- that the author lived bough all this. This is very strange to me. MDJ: When you said that there were only two places that you remember, that you write about, and that one was Slovakia, and the other was Krakow, and yet 1h o w this sIory abut Munich. M: No, m...absolutely not. That was the AAASS remark that put me on that track. because there I talked about that story, "Q i pnsiomh" ('Q and the Schoolgirl'? which is a story 1published in Tygodnik powszechny, which is a very respected, maybe the number-we paper, a mixed, cultural-literary paper in Poland. it's a Catholic paper. The narrator, I would say, is a person, who is my ~ a f i o n - hall rhe fl,tories-i s samet3xat the author thhks is what a person with her life experiences should be. But not necessarily a picture or an image of anybody. Again, it's a sort of composite, or a character that the author dunks, that this character, having experienced the Holocaust and the . <.f . ' I.' .. , .. ", ., : w ~ ~ a u i t h p n s t - w a r c h a o s r h o u l d ~ f r o m i tUIC Jews-all his relatiomhips, iwM@ his ~ y , that way. But it's. apPiD. a fi-t of the aothds very, vay likely dcsccnt from the ~ n v c mon his mofhds sib. Bat what l'm intsnsud in is not his imaginUi~ deacent, but what r m iutc~c~ted in is how it afMDJ: S o i t ' s a f a m o f ~ o g i c a l ~ fcctcd him in various ways, making lilt decisions. JM: Probably, if you want to call it that, yss, probably... A d that's in all of them. The book of inWesitualiuns. A U t b e ~ c ~ o f M i ~ s t h s t a i s s thatIwmwabonttheIragucdtheRcs- lice arc cormccled in some mystarious way to the cucd (Lieosalalph) which is prstty much some- Jews his birth very W y , of 6 Jewish mother. or times d e m d to u a nwel-it's not a novel, but a as hesaidiaapoan, of an ~en'"mothcr(whichis cdlectioo of shod stories. It has a certain d t y . akiudof a&], hismarriage toawavertwhom he hardly hew. CetiDa Symemwska, and his Wsrmc,inlime,@~ly. death in Constantinople while he wls forming thc h4Dl And what date WIS that published? JM. That wep published in lm, and it got a v a y Jewish Legions-something mt he slubbomly in spite of great dilficulplutigiom hnigrC award in W h m s c i . llmfs a insisted on ~~, paiodid, which no lrmgss ties-a hhd of utopian project. And all of that inImdon-based exists. And I've publishedin Kiilruru. in Paris, and tmrn canu an in mysterious ways in his life deeishs.butrlsoiahisworks. Butl'mnotintapmr*placer. MlX Andyon'm still writing? ing his p t r y &tidy. tm ~ O Z Crm a aJM Thm are some things that I would like to turalpointafvicw. wdtc. ad my scholaly work, as pn know, is ah MRI: If we could move to a last subjact, PuEsl~ scmcthingthat... Studies...What would you say is that "ssllhrg MDJ: Yourwdtingso n M c k i m k . . . poinr'dPdirhStndies? Iha~eahwriU~~~Phlpanddd ~ s ~Well, n IM: the universal appeal of hvcntieth-Cenany literaIure-the psych~logicald. mma. MDJ: What dram you m thtse particular mtbrs? w l i t a s l i L c ~ c ~ w t h c g o c t r o f r h c S k a I m p a M i c 1 6 e w i a i s R ~ a -is... d mander. who were totally unintcmtcd in politics JM: No, my book an Mi&ewicz i s nat that& and history. but a wlebration of life, and the pryabout W e w i c z ' s poetry per se, it is mom of a chologioal novel, like Nalkowska, for inadtwas*. .-s .& then going earlier, RZY~~SECIPJJE~ fff MlX His is~clrtioosbipto Polish J q ? h t m c 8 - t h ~ ~writen, e hpve a universal eppat. JM W s right. His nktiooshipto the wadd of inee v e qst b g f m 53 ~ ~ ~ hi t m e wurk to aca8emie@ w i b g , W fundkg ta job s-mbs. Har ~t b k, Revokrrion of Mard C ~ m ~ w s sNmi s ~ &in b$14ti Lire~attcre (WWb, reappemd k tsumma in Russian R f v w L i Btemlm hdatim, naw titl& (St. R~rslqg Ademic M e e t Agency] with a suggestive Aubrey B@ky sqrductiwt oa the cover. l i W a r t i ~ e ~ n ~ ~ v ~ ? h q u t ~ ~ ofrrt€lpia~inrhe-S*~ec~Anriulopfjd u sluveni~#3trr -&tk (Belgrade: S w , 19993, edited by D. Ajdaciei M e s s o r ~ w e hs s giveapbpers m % s t u d f s ~ o c a ~ r Zbivago and the @&tion d ~ at ~University of M o m Dame d * B h v and Wiegm&nu at the M S S m&g$ in St. L d s . Far tht NOD-2QUi atademic yzsdMessor Clowes m- ~ ceirQdrlnNEHFeWshipdaWlResach Fdowship from& Gmbrfar ?b Ammities at tba Univdty d %was to q k t e a b k m A s ~ o f t h e ~ ~ f o r ~ a n d 'Tk & snsplmd t l3s#mm:Rwixm wzitiag aEim Buqmn S#df:ss, Professor i&dG&g%has d the Qwdme f P h i t e y 4 " devr~l&dmr25t<ofher energies t~ pfhssiod acrivi- In 1999 Arofmsrar d v e dtern ties prmahg awic studiq a m @ tha STate.W aab promotldn to W d B f A h d a t e I%-cfe.ssm. the =don. In S q t e m k 1999 s b was ow a f l b Za summer I999 b cadwW a two-day workorgaai2fm d aD i n t ~ m a t i dCmifemIm corn00 rna s r~ mcwmdiqg fhe @d v e r s a x y of NATO. Izi No- .Russian Ianh c k s at tke Johnson hv m l m sbc @M-s PIatimal R o p a dmb f a p g t E-dumtia Center at NASA in Howon, the A M S S C b d m c e in St. ]Lo&. True 10 ha T m . l t w a s a f m d h e x p ~ t ~ w & o P i t b t b i n t d b d p fanrs, ~ she addmssed the Centnil d d k t e d httgw@imtmtms, who prepad asStah Anthmplogical Assmiation on 'The W ylike Shannon l a@ rn amm@cate h Raiog Power of Id-: How h t - Met Russia is sian on s p s S~& b Among the s~~&P's Cpping with h t m g s E m the Pet" W D SpwiGipaots ~ was m Olga mumaa pdA, w o n c4m-s her wmk with the i n t m lM], who l tm%gia the Russian p w 9fffesd &e US. Depamat of Mu&the gram at NASA. Profmsm Cmer is c a r ! W q to WQr F&G$hE scholm Bard, hstam serve as Dimtor d rhe E d W g e r Academic mtnt"s b n b Pascell BUM.,and @W. k w n w m . W e d w 5 i a ~ f f f n n t h e W 3 She is groud to have d v e d the D e p r h m P , s Center%bprovement '8f Teaching Fuad far a m f i m c e ia T A w d ffmm the #U ywi+Iong pmjm invoI* Wmdogy m g Center fm Exedkm), and matin- .to for foreign language.teach@ assistants. He also -* - a. m- *w*-*' - na&-P#tmmg,i.tMs 6 -flI td h i e m o r in fa 19s. * " '. 'p .. , just completed her fErst Weama year t e a m a t Wveqity of d w . A$ t k &&v m t c a af Urdargmdmte Stadim she bas advisiagthis J&S 30 Slavic maj- @s addition to W , & U 3 p a Wnmit~es$or Armual AATSEEL COIL feren~e.He is -tip f@shing vp wo the &st w the * s i g h d letter- sound conelwmn of Russian spmdmce in beK&?PAD, candidate M& (*~ Murphy-he). .and'th~- ' ' 'te second on ?he life and career of AJ ' Mikhail (Pave1 Semenov, 1876-1916). Prof. Comer's artides due out in ZOOO include: "How do Dzhon and DLhein Read Russian? On-Line Vocabutary and its Place in the Reading Recess," with Leam Keefe and "Making Ow Way toward Teacher Education Programs in the Slavic Languages," (both to appear in The Lemning and Teaching of Slavic Lrmguages and Cuitures: TOwmd the 2lst Cenavy, d.by Ben Rifidn and Olga Kagau; forthcoming Slavics); and What Every Russian Knows about Russian History," in The RKrConlax;. ed.by Genevra Gethart and Eloise Boyle. Professor Joseuh C o d attended the AAASS meeting in St. Louis in November, where he read his paper ' F e d e Mythological Beings in South Slavic Folklore" m the SEEFA panel. His paper has been requested far publication in the SEEFA journal. Two articles were accepted for pubIicatiw, one on 'fonyeh" for RU,the other comparing Turgenev's 'Wczdnyj lekaf" and Chekhov's "Sluchj iz praktiki" for an as yet undecided GermaatAustrian journal. He bad three reviews published, in SEEJ, SEEFA and the North American Chekhuv Suck0 Bulktin. He is m l y preparing articles on Chekhov's 'STchitel' slovesnosti" and govora na osnovi zapisov Karla Ozvalda," Shenski jaikcSIovene Linguistic Studies (Ljubljana and Lawrence): 128-175. In spring 2000 he hosted, with the help of J a m Hacking and the s t . d CREES. the 12th Biomrial Conference on B h and South Slavic Linguistics, Literature and Folklore at KU. Wt is Chair-elect af the Slavic Department of Slavic bguages and Literatures, with his term seheduIed to bgia in fall 2000. Visiting Assistant Professor of Pdish. recently had his book manuscript. The Polish Formalist Scboi md k s i a n Formaiism accepted for publication He also published the following articIes: 'Poland: Survey of Life Writing," fartbcoming later this year in Encyclopedia of Lv8 writing (ed. By M. Jolly; London: Fitmy Dearborn Publishers); and 'Manfred Kridl: The Struggle for the Reform of Polish Literary Scholarship'' in The Pollsh Review (New York). H e gave the paper 'The Prose Rction of Jerzy Pilch" at the 31' National AAASS Conventiw, St.Lnuis, MO. November 1999,and was bath organizer and chaix of the panel Twentie&-Century Polish Litenhm'' at the MTSEEL, Amual Conference, Chicago, December 1999. m, (KUmD.'85) s m h e d for Rofessdt and found a sponsor who donated $2000 {as one 'Ogni." time gift) to the Slavic Depmment to be awarded to Pxofessor recently had his book, a graduate student who had recently entered the A Historical Phonology of the Slovene Lmguage, PhD program in this Deparlment with the intent to accepted for p a c a t i o n in the series Historical pursue studies in Russian Theatre and Drama Thc Phonology of the Slavic Languages, ed. by Paul 1999 award went to Michael Johnson to study in St. Wexler (HcideIbesg: Carl Wnter UmversitiitsPetersburg on the KtT summer p r o m In spring veriag), and was awarded a subvention by the KU 1999 she produced Il'f and Petrov's Sii'noe chuCenter for Research for its publi~tioaIt is due out vshta. It was student directed and performed in in fall 2000. 1999 saw the pubficatim of two arti- Russian, primarily by students of the Slavic Decles: 'Razlicni vPoki za siritev in pavratni razvoj putmat. The production marked the tenth aaniverglasdovne spremembe: mtacizem v jup~oslovansary of the yearly Russian play perfomed in Russkih jezildh;' Logwjev tbomik: Referati s 1 , medsian by students for the benefit of the students of mmdnega dialektoloshga simpozuu v Mm%oru Russian and the Russiaa sptaking ccmmnity at the (Mednmodni dialekroloski simpozij 1. 1996): University of Kansas, in Lawrence and the area. In 40-49 (Maribor: Slavisticno drust~o); "Multiple fall 1999 Professor Kipp brought to the causation in the spread and reversal of a sound prominen[ Russian actor and director. Veniamin change: rhotadsm in South Slavic," Slwenrki Smekhov of the Taganka Theatn., to produce NikjeziMSbvene Linguistk Studies: 63-76, as well as olai Edman's The Suicide on the 103th anniversary a short dialect dictionary: "Slovarcek srediskega of the write? s birh She dso orgartized a panel for AAASS and delivered a paper: 'Deconstructing the Soviet Intellectual: Radzinsky' s Our Decameron." h January, 2000, she read a paper at the Interntional Cbekhov Symposium in Melikhovo: '%shamtvo i vremia Y pozdnikh p'esakh Chekhova: literatma ili teatr?" The paper will be published in CheRhovsky sbonrik, a Moscow State University publicatiw, dong with several other papers presented at the Symposium. In 1999 Professor Cierald Mikkelson pubhhed an article in Russia as cc06pas pgccKoro B A n e p ~ x e : saMeTKE aMepHKaacKoro I l r J T e U e C T B @ H H U K a > > i n 06pas P o c c a s : P o c c ~s ~p y c c x a e B ~ o c n p s a r a3~a n a a a H B o c r o x a (C~HKT-ne~ep6yprP : occsficxaa aKaneMm H a y K ; 1990): 429-434 Two of his articles were accepted for publicaltion in the forthcoming Collected Essays in Honor of the Bicenfennial of A h m d e r S. Pushkin's Birrh, ed. by Juras T. Ryfa, and one book review in Modern Language Review. Professor Mikkelson delivered two scholarly papers, i(Yury Trifonovfs Topsy-Twvy House ( O n p o ~ ~ a y ~AOM): sfi The View from Abroad," at the Fmt IntemationaI Yury Trifmov Conference in Moscow, March 26, 1999, and Humanistic Study: Methadologid As- . sumptioas, issues of Transiation, East-West Dialogue. in Palo Alto, April 13. 1999.He received travel and subsistence grants fmm the KU GRF and the University of Wisconsin. from Stanford University. and from the Kall Center for the Humanities. H e learned in November 1999 of his selection as a Fulbright lecturer in Russia for academic year 2000-2001. He and his family will reside in St. Petersbq, and Professor h4kkdson will lecture on Russian literam at St. Petersburg University and several provincial Russian universities, including those in Perm, Cheliabinsk, and Gomo- Altaisk HIS c m n t research includes Pushkin and religion, torlPtiblisher of he journal T k Nabokovian, Professor Stepheu J. Parker was preoccupied with things Nabokovian during the 1999 Nabokov Centenary year. He served as consultant, source of information,liaison, conduit with the press and with organizers and participants involved with Nabokov celebrations, large and s d , around the globe, and was pleased to be able to attend several events in various venues. He put togelher and published two particularly handsome special centennial issues of T k N a b o b v i m which featured previously q b lished poems by Nabkov, coverage of centennial celebrations, the 1997 and 1998 annual N h k o v bibliographies (with KU graduate students Eugenia Waltw and Jon PerEns as co- compilers), and extended sections of annotations and notes on Nabkov's works, including Brian Boyd's superb on-going annotations to Ada. He also wrote a Nabokov- related article and review, both of with wiU appear Iater this year. of Vdmtia Rtdplltin, MCP 1IF seen by visiting Russian writers, and the swan songs of Russian poets. b:mEnrpno* As ~e&etaryflreasurerof the International Vladimir Nabokov Society, Trustee and Board Member of the Vladimir Nabokov Foundation, and Edi- T;n k.. Undergraduate Student News Senior Calk Stanley has received an NSEP Fellowship to spend tbe academic year 2000-2001 in Russia. Her research project will be to study 'The Culture of Suffering." Sophomore Merry Gmdman is an ahemate for an NSEP for a semester of study in Russia in spring 2001. Senior Elizabeth JChg received a US -Russian Young Leaders in Pubtic Service Fellowship for one y e a of study and internship in public service in Russia She will be taking c o r n Gughout next year. In addition, she will v alunteer 10 hours per week and bave a two- month intemsbip in a public service organization. Senior Robert Charomanski was selected as KU Student Ambassador for next year and has been accepted to Washburn University Law School. Senior Cynthia SddEeIbein is Ioorcing forward to summer study at W s Summer M t u k in St Petersburg and thento the start of her career in the Air Force. Congratulations go to Juniors Elizabeth Simmons and Jeffery Wmmhgtm on receiving the prestigi~usNelson Scholmhip for their senior year of study at W. will k completing his year as instructor ia the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, where he has been teaching thirdyear Russian aod Slavic Folklore. EIe plans next year to woJkinEGARC. o to a dll those s who received au MA. or PhD. dmhg the 1999-2GW year! MA degrees received: Mdgorzata Stamm (Fall C ~ ~ 1999)- Melissa Moo= (Spdng 2004. I m d m e r mding) C-~hensive passed: (3- 2a) PhD dissertations defended: 1oachim Faust (The Metaphysics af Grammar in Alebmdr Bbk's Poetry); Co-chah: Maria Carison, Marc L Greenberg Fa 1998) Grant Lmdberg (A phonolog.icai ~criptioturand Analysis of the Dialect of Habze, Shvenia); Chair Uafi.. ~ I (SEkingaooo) J Karen Bapst (Archeqpal Panem in Prrphkink &matic and N ~ Y Wmk}; * E; MwcIson; defended wirhonors (Spriag 2000). - R- Theatre at KLf In ' November 1998 Vcniamb Smel&ou, pr-ncnt Russiau stage and screen actor and dimtor, as M ~ h y - L e e well as author, visited KU ro teach a Master Class in directing and a workshop for studeat-actors at a KU Department of Theatre and F h .A student of for the university and the community at large. T h e Iurii Liubimov, and one of the leading actors of production was a great success. Not only did it play Liubimov's famous Taganka Theatre, Veniamin to a full house every night, but people familiar with Smekhov has over the past several years also Smekhov's reputation came from Chicago, New gained a reputation in Europe. Israel and the USA Y ork, Washington DC, St. Louis and other places as a director and acting teacher. Mr. Smekbov came to see it. KU's program in Russian Theatre is a to TSU w i h his wiie, Gdina Aksenova, a scholar of Russian theatre and cinema. Dr.Aksemva gave an unique program in the USA. It has a set clariculum open lecture in Russian cinema since pereslroih, and, since 1997-98. a scholarship for Ph.D. students Both agreed to come to KU during fall, 1999, be to in Slavic or Theatre who have a specific interest in Russian Theatre and Drama. Russim Theatre is a stage Nikolai Erdman's The Suicide and she to teach a course in Russian cinema after perestroika. vital component of both Slavic studies, and the InThe KU production marked the 100th anniversary tematiunal Theatre Program. Smekhov's and Akseof Nikolrti Erdman, whose play 'The Suicide" bas nova's visit here was part of a continuous efforl by been one of the most popular and frequently per- Professor Kipp to expand the Russian Theatre proformed Russian plays in this country (second only p m and to give it greater visibility by bringing to to Chekhov's plays). Veniamin Smekhov had the KU Russian playwrights (VoIodin}, directors (Arie, privilege to h o w Nikolai Erdmm and to work with l h i n h , Smekhov). and stage design exhibits him: Erdman was an a h k r and supporter of the (Boris Anisfeld); estabIishing cwnections and exTag& Theatre, the most avant-garde Russian changes with Moscow's Theater Institute to allow theatre of the 1960s-1970s. Smekhov's production our interested students to study at that prestigious and Aksenova's course were important events for theatre school (Mark Jennison); exploring the posKU Slavic Department, Russian and East European sibility of expanding Russian Theatre curriculum to Center, Department of Theatre and Elm, as well as include Russian cinema as well. Afomnl News Tom Bevtr (Ph.D. 1974) is Professor and Chair of Russian at Middlebury College where he also serves as the Faculty Associate in Admissions which has seen hhddlebury climb to number 5 on the US News list of Liberal A r t s colleges. Author of fifteen bwks including 501 Russian Verbs and 501 English Verbs. Professor Beyer continues hs work on Bdyj with particular emphasis on Russian Berlin in the 1920's. He has been active with the Internet including an online system to l e m the Russian alphabet and a resource to Dostoevsky's celebrating diversity among dl members of the Middlebury College comwmity. ,Ph.D. '82, is Professor of Russian Studies at Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida, and Chair of the Department of Foreign Languages Teaching. He teaches Russian prose of the lgh and 2 0 centuries; ~ Russian history; Russian folklore, Russian c u l m , Russian language, Russia through the Internet; Russia in the movies. T-le writes: "I am the. only Russian faculty here - this explains the variety of courses. l3s scholarIy interests include: Medieval Russian culture (art and lit- erature); folklore (fairy tales); Web pages about major novels. @th>:ilww~.nliddleburv~dd-be~er~. Russia; modern Greek and Greek culture; literary For the past two years, Tom has worked as a work- translation. He writes: '7n 2000 my translation of shop leader on campus for the National Coalition Sasha Sokolov's Mezhdu sobakoi i volkorn into Building Institute, dedicated to supporting and Polish will appear in Poland (I think this is the only translation of the novel into another language so far) and an English translation of Aleksander Migmov's stories wilI apear here." His hobbies and other interests include: painting (pictures on the Web under @tcp:llwww.websher.net),playing guitar and singing ballads (Czech, Polish, Russian, Greek). His web pages are: Russian Painting @ttp:liwww.mUins.eddForeim LanpI;iint.hW) with about 10,500 visitors in 18 months; (httzl:ilwww.roUins.ed~oreim Lan~ I W a n l L u b oMubok.W) on Russian lubok; Voyage to Greece (in preparation-pictures and text from my two-month research trip to Greece this summer). Same personal news: "my daughter Jdia (a junior) is SWent Government Association president at Rollins. Daughter Tonia (a junior in Lyman High School) is planning to attend Rollins. My wife, Kay Davidsw-Bond, is a Professor of Humanities at Valencia Community College in Odando." Valcntioa B r o u g k (Ph.D. '73) writes us h a t "Georgetown emphasizes the 'scholar- teacher' mode (as opposed to the other way around) and so I try to be productive. 1% report on the Iast few years ... 'The Occult in Russian bterature of the 1990s' came out in The Russian Review (Jan. 1997); 'Demythologuing Socialist Realism: Vladimir S o m h g s M a r h r s Thirtieth Love'.' in Australian Slavonic wui East European Studies (No. 1, 1998); 'The Demonic in the Short Stories of G. Pemv, A. Kmhatkin and 0.Ermakov,' in Canadian Slavonic Papers (June, 1998). A chapter devoted to 'The Occult in the Prose of Vs. Ivanov' was published in The OccuU in Russian and Soviet Culture, B.G. RosenW, ed., ~kl U. l Aess; and an anthology of Vs. TY anovasprose, Fertility rand 0 t h Stories, whlch I co-translated a d wrote an introduction to. came out in 1998, Northwestern U. Press. 1 am now working on an annotated translation of Aleksandr Kmdrat'ev's Nu beregakh Yurini, a novel based on Slavic folkIore which was published in Berlin in 1930 and in Russia in 1993. We all teach language and literahre (or linguistics) courses in the Slavic Depr. at Georgetown. The last few years I have offered 'Survey of 20th century Russian Literature,' 'Russian Literature since 1985,' 'Cuitur;tl Perspectives on Russian Literature of the 1990%' and such language-orientatedcourses as 'Topics in Russian for OraI Proficiency,' 'Issues in Russian Culture and Life' and 'Intensive Level 11 Russian' Even though it is my 28th year of teaching at G.U.,I s t i l l enjoy the challenge! I do try to participate regularly in conferences. This fall I read a paper at the AAASS on 'Folklore and National Identity in Recent Russian Rose,' two years ago I read a paper at the Canadian Association of Slavish confeteme on Vladimir Sorokin and socialist realism. Since the fall of the USSR,I have been also forhaate to participate in two caderences in Russia and to travel there to consult with colleagues and buy books. On a personal note, my son, who is 16, is now tatring Iiussian and enjoying it. My husband still serves as Director of Russsia and Mependent States Division, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. H e has gotten to know Sakhalin and Siberia well ... As you can see, in one way or another, we are all into thrngs Russian!" CaroUue C u q ( M A . '98) spent a year at home with her family after receiving her M.A. degree. She is now completing her fmt year of law school at the University ofArkansas, FayetteWe. &d&J?rlipwicq (Ph.D. '79) has been appointed to tbe editorial board of Slavic and East European Jowmi. She is also serving on the AAASSlOrbis Book Prize Committee of the AAASS and w the Pre-Dissertation Fellowship Committee af the Assoc. of Women in Slavic Studies. She edited a forum entitled "Rethinking Slavic Drama, Theatre, Perfwmance," which was published in the spring, 1999, issue of Slavic and East European Journal. Her recent publications include: "Hers's Glass Eyes: A Counterreading of Zbigniew Herbert's Flays, " The Other Herbert (ed Bozena Shallcross), special issue of Indiana Slavic Shrdies 9 (1998): 927. "Performing B d e s , Performing Mickiewicz: Drama as Problem in Performance Studies. Slavic andEast European Joumal43.1 (1999): 1-18. U i (Ph.D. '95) ~ reports that he is teaching 3cyear French during the spring semester at Pacific Univ. in Forest Grove, OR and one 1 9 year Russian class during the winter and spring quarters at Chemekeh Comm. College in Salem, OR (as a maternity Ieave rep1acement). He has also dedicated to women's rights. She has also sat on the S t. Petersburg Sister Cities Committee and the Ombuds Task Force and is becoming increasingly active in the Southern California Mediation Association and the Lus AngeIes World Affairs Council. d c z e c h l r n a n h ~on the development of the Her biography is slated to appear in several Who's Czech test site for the Slavic and East European Who, American Biographical Institute and IntemaLess Commonly Taught Languages Reject. tional Biographicd Centre publications early in the Laura Wilbeh Ph.D. '94) writes us that her hus- new millennium. In 1999 she was appinted an ABI band, Chris, is still working towards his PhD. in Life Fellow and invited to serve as a delegate for the UCLA XnbEmpean Studies propun, and she the ABI's International Millennium Congress is still working for the City of West Hollywood on Arts and Communications next summer in with Russian and W a n immigrants. She was Washington. DC.Here she will present her paper named Employee of the Quarter for Janu- "Pornography and the Politics af Oppression in the ary-March 1997 and in Idy 1999 the City Coun- Russian Aesopian Tradition" that was just pubcil gave her a commendation in recognition of her lished in the collection Eros a d Pornography in work with the emigrrz community and the organiza- Russian fiteralure (Moscow: Ladomir. 1999). tions Women for Women (catered upon relief ef- Heather CD~ckemn)Wri~ht(M.A. '97)graduated forts in former Yugoslavia) and SERRV Interna- with a M.L.S. degree from Indiana University in t i d (marketer of handicrafts from artisans around August of 1999 and currently works as a research the world accomling to fair trade principles). Since librarian for the law firm. Dinsmore & Shohl, in June 19% she has served as Secretary of my union, cimimati. OH (PhD., '99),Assistant Professor of West Hollywood Municipal Employees, and pro- Grant.-.L duce our newsletter (HomeFtant). She founded the Russian at Brigham Young University just anSERRV fundraiser and the W E H O E film com- nounced the birth of his first child. mittw and have coordinated several special events recently taken on the duties of webmaster for the Slovak Studies Association while continuing to collaborate with Jeff Holdeman. (of Ohio State) W EVENTS OF l999-2000 speskers November 22, 1999, the History and Slavic Dtpartments and REES hosted DL James West, Professor of the Humanities at Middlebury College and co-editor of Between Tsar and People: Educated Society and the Quest fur a Public Identity in Late Imperial Russia (Princeton, 1991) and Merchant Moscow: Images of Rmsia's Vanb k d Bourgeoisie (Princeton. 1998). Professor West lectured in Pmfessor Clowes' Russian literature come on ' A Retrospective on Time and Justice in Crime and Punishtnet$" sor Mikkekon regaled the merrymakers with his recent banslations of Krylov's 'The Crayfish, The Swan, and the Pike,"among other thugs. Msslellrtsa ParQ Avlfessw W i a m Comer help his annual party at his home on Sunday, March 12. Dozens of faculty, snrdwts, and friends enjoyed large amounts of b b y with all h q h a b I e filIings. CARTA C o n f c r ~ A p d 8-9,2000, a h g e continpnt From KU trayeIed to Oklahoma City to the 2"6Annual conferem of the Central Association of Russian Teachers of March 20.2000, the Slavic Department and FEES America Professor Mikkekon chaired a session on sponsored Dr. Gary Rosenshield, Professor of St. Petersburg in which papers were delivered by Slavic Languages and Literatures at University of RE33 graduate student. A m Hoel. and underWisconsin. Professor Rosenshield lectured on graduata E d y Frauklin and Kristine Eck Profes"Goldhagenand Wtoevsky: Psychological Mati- sor (Jlowes chaired a general session on Russian Uterahlre with papers plesented by Slavic graduate vatiw of Genocide." students, Ben Admussen. Shaanon k y l e , and April 10- 11, 2000, the Slavic Department and Adrierme Haxis -Boggess. E S hosted Dr. Konstantin Azadovsky of St. Pe- h k m and South Slavic Conference tenburg, Russia. Dr. Azadovsky gave a public On May 4- 4,2000 the 12" Biennial Conference lecture on 'Marina Tsvetaeva: Tragediia roman- on Balkan and South Slavic Linguistics. Literam, ticheskogo soplaniiau and lec!ured on the topic of a d Folklore was held at the University of Kaasas, Fedor Sologub's "kostiumiro~annyevechera" in with sponsorship by CREES, the Department of Slavic t a n p g e s and Literatures, College of Professor CarIsonfsSymbolism seminar. Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the Office of Interm t t r Slavic Party ~mtionatPrograms. More than fdty scholars from The Wmter Sbvic Party was a jovial affair this the U.S. and abroad (including Austria, Belgium. year. &Id on Smday, December 5. in downtown Bosnia and Henegovina, Canada, Croatia,Estonia. Lawrence at the Lawrence Community Center, it Hungary,Israel, Macedonia, and Slovenia) attended was attended by 60 studem,faculty, and friends of the conference. In addition to KU faculty Joseph L. the Slavic Department. Everyone made a favorite Coarad and M a r e L. Greenberg. students MatSlavic dish, and tables were laden with p i W , thew Feney, Meghan Murphy-Lee, and recent vinagret, strut&, safat Oliv'e. and much more. graduate Grmt & Lundbcrg (PILD. 1999. now Dressed in a handsome peasant blouse, Professor Assistant Professor of Russian at BYU), a number Mikkelson served tea from his samovar. As al- of prominent scholars participated. including Henways, the entertainment was equally jolly. Profes- nlng Andersen, Victor Friedman, Brian Joseph, $or Greenberg played 6tudes for Russian six- and Nexander Dulichenko, Ger hard Newcklowsky, seven- string guitar by Ivanov-Kramskoi and and Olga NcdeljkoPfc. For a listing of abstracts, Sychra. The Slavic Chom sang a medley of songs see:bt~:!iwww,llknns.e~-s1aviclbss/bss-a m The program was organized Marc L. from all around tht Slavic world and invited everyone to sing with them for the old favorites. Rofes Greenberg and by Jane F. Hacking. m. Slavic Honors R e p t i o n On April 20, 2000,at the Slavic Honors Reception, the folIowing students were achowlegded for their excellence in their areas of study. Seniors, Robert Choromanski, Preston Fairley, and Elimbcth King, were inducted into Dobm Slovo, the National Slavic Honors Society. Juniors, Elzabeth Simmons and Jeffery Womington. received the prestigious Harley Nelson Scholarship for their senior year. The following students were honored with a certificate and a book award: L e a n Keefe for her outstanding contributions to the Department of Slavic h g u a g e s and Literatures; Elzabeth King, Cassandra Payton, and Beth Warlick for their excellent work in Advanced Ukrainian; Lindsey CoIlier, Joanna Few ins. Sarah JeweIl, Senna Justice, Adrienne Landry, Maureen Morton,Matthew Middendorf, Alison Tepsic, and Jeremy Wade for their excellence in Elementary Russian; Meghan Fanning, Justin HauxweIl, Rebecca Smith,Shelly Walston, and Mark Willcoxon for their outstanding work in Intermediate Russian; Kevin Bobbett, John Erlinger, Preston Fairley, Emily Franklin, Heatfier Hart, Janna Khichoyan, Igor Shkolnik, Elizabeth Simmons, Callie Stanley, Jeffery Vestal, and Jeffrey Wormington for their excellent work in Advanced Russian; Phara Chamchi for outstanding work in Elementary Polish; Kimberly Sprence for her excellence in Intermediate Polish; Michael Johnson and Mark Munzinger for their excellent work in Advanced Polish; Ben Admussen for his outstanding work in Elementary Goatian-Serbian. hen J. Parker was honored for 13 years of service as Chairperson of the Department of Slavic with two presentations by Professor Kipp and Professor Greenberg. 2% ~~mApOrEIyJIcs3. e ~ c n p m oTo y~ ma. fi x n w e r y 6 m~u m y m : ' HE Ha... ...nom.. n oTBemn,. m s a p q . CBeTnoa! He HWO, He a q o , He HWO m s l ' - Berrmma OQOp A m m e s c ~ . . OH rImep6ypra ae m6m: 01crompm. wro 3nrr H e m I4 c m mpon npormm. ( M O A ~ T ~ c n o n m ~ b c rKaK r necm. Ho, e m Mmma He s ~ a e ~ TO e , -am ~ T H CTHXH Hag0 C 6onammrad ~ B D M ) v And now Professor Marc Greenberg's contribution: Something of a conundrum was presented to the diminutive academic community that wished to There is one final award which remains, one that is honor these august accomplishments. One faction given only irregularly in cases of special merit. desired to make a statement concerning the moSuch an award has no particular name because it is mentous events that appeared to have been in some unique and its contents defined by its barer- It is way actuated by this pantgon of statesmanship (yet with some trepidation that one approaches the be- within this assemblage of mildly contentious litemti s t o d of such au award, for it is under the aegis of there raged a vitriolic disputation on cause and efthe recipient that many illusfrious events have taken fect that remains dolorously unresolved). Others place and which are summarized in the following insisted on considering pursuits of a universally list, a list, I basta to add, that was first cornpifed appealing nature that wouid m y the newfond by a schohr on the dog-eared pages of a yellow leisure hours of an imprator bereft of his scepter legal tablet (on the verso of which was hastily and solium h deference to the unsettled wntm scrawled recipe for chien-d-son-go&, a northern versy proceeding from the deliberatiws of the Yahtian dish with Kartvelian and Proven@ influ- aforementioned subcommittee, the whole languidly ences whose name belies its vegemian content) and migned itself to a settlement in keeping with the dutifuIiy copied into a word-processorof now ante- law? s good intentions. diluvian vintage (Toshiba T m 510 laptop. which Speculation arose as to whether it would be more was removed from the market at the time when propitious to appeal to his proclivity to la c h s e or Gore invented the h t m t ) , Lest I lose the audience more cerebra1 pursuits involving the cliquement in my rambling minutiae, the relevance of which (rather than outright execution) of a class of cybrwill become apparent only in due course, let me netic r h n l i u . Of ihe latter there could be no issue, present the list forthwith: for sufficient assets h d been coIlected but the legal ThefaJlofooxmunism. tender (in crisp notes depicting a lar@ sad- eyed The retention of outstanding senior faculty. son of Philadelphia) was absent-mindedly disThe building of the Informatian Superhighway wded at some intermediate point between Lamar's TheristoftheNewEconomy. Doughnuts and City Hall. A subsequent emptying The rtcnribnent and aMe mentorship of prom- of pockets yielded an austere S3.57. It was in the aftwmath of these vicissitudes that I was d e d ising young faculty. The -wring of greaterWescae territory. upon to seek a new synthesis. Devoid of substantial The era known as the Pax Pmkmii. lucre. I came upon the notion of pursuing immorThe prospering of a vibrant intellectual envi- taliry for our honoree. for there is no greater abunmumnt fostering Slavic s t d i e s . dance of the cmency or fame than in the halls of Playing David to the administration's Goliath. academia. at least insofar as the gaining of such fame is achieved without tbe aid of cold hard cash. I first set to work in the realm of the explomtion of the history and meaning of his name, Stephen J. Parker, for the purpose of which 'I placed a call to the Department of Etymology at Humbert College, a small liberal arts institution where a dear co1league of mine has been toiling for decades on a dictionary of historical names for digestive ailments. (Last I checked she had reached dyspepsia, anhydrous, know in the vulgate as heaves. dry.) As misfortune would have it, I was connected in e m r to the Department of Entom1ogy at staid Humbert, where to my horror E was confronted with an increasingly popuIar gambit designed to raise private-source funds for their department. Before I could convince the secretary to transfer me to the departmnt I: had desired I was gven the offer to have an as yet unnamed insect named after myself for a one-hundred dollar donation to the departmental discretionary account. No manner of protestation could dissuade the tenacious secretary from this line of p h t and thus when the price was at last lowered to a rock-bonm $15.95. I finally grasped the opporhmity that this blunder had presented Here was the chance to attain for our hmoree the fragment of immortality that I had been entrusted to secure. Because the price of immortfity had become a veritable bargain, the remaining $17.62 was in principle mine to spend wantonly. Nevertheless, ever aware of my custodral responsibilities, I elected to invest this sum in a sojourn to the Darura strmniurn-covered walls of Humbexi College to view the magnir~centarthropod destined to propel our dear leader into perpetual glory. I shall spare the audience the ghastly &tails of this trip, which has, incidentally, caused me to have a recurring nighin which I am impaled, desiccated, on a set of frne Czech .5-millimeter mounting pins and examined mercilessly under a magnification-10 loupe by unwashed dactod students. M y entomological contact there, a Professor Sean Jade, absently queried me on my preferences, grumbling bitterly dong the lines of what I might expect for a mere $15.95. (I am under the impression that he said 1 deserved a swift kick in the pants, but I codd not attest to tius under oath.) I pointed out that I was authorized to go as high as $20.60 for the a p propate specimen, feigning an air of entomological eptitude. This ody increased bis indignation, though he grudgingly putsued his line of interrogation in the hopes of terminating the transaction at a moment sooner rather than later. I pointed out that the person to be honored was a Russian Literature professor. had chaired our dep-ent for thirteen years, saw it bough thick and thin. .. Suddenly the professor stood upright and displayed a look of ebullience. "deed " he said, '1 have just the one. Yes, just the me." He led me to a tray af tentativeiy mounted butterflies (or moths, for I cannot dishgush them mysew and pointed out an enormous blue with expansive oval wings. 'This,"he said."is a very curious cream. It is currently known COUOqaially as the 'Arctic' butterfly (Papilio Borealis being the proposed but as yet unregistered offtcid term), for it was found ia the northern part of Russia. in a place called-forgive me for my lack of skill. in pronouncing Russian-Novaya zembla, or something similar. It is the only buttemy known to thrive in such a harsh northern climate. It was known only from lithographs made in the 1 9 century and no specimen had been located until a recent expedition made in November 1998. " In my eagerness to comwmmte the trade before second thoughts ensued. I produced the twenty dollars, at which moment I quickly found myself shuttled out the door by the f m prodding of the professor's beefy paws. The 'Arctic', mounting pms still dangling perilously from the body, was b t hastily into my hands where the banknote had lain just seconds before. And so I present you with this rare butterfly, tbe 'ArctSc' fonnerly Rnown from prints. It shall now be renamed the Papilio Stephanos Joannes Pmkefianus. [professor Parker is presented with a large 40th butterfly.] There i s a curious epilogue that gives one pause and causes one to ponder mysteries such as destiny. Two months to the day after my encounter with Professor Jade, I received in the mail an 8 112" x 5" d a envelope from the Professor' s widow. Dierdre Jade, in which there was an index card clipped photograph of a portly maa id blazer and Bermuda shorn pursuing a buttemy with a wide-mouthed tine mesh net. The photograph is blumd and yellowed. not h m age but apparently harsh conditions, yet it is apparent that the subject is the very same late Professor Jade. On the verso is written in pencil "Sean - Novaya Zemblya 1998". Each time I withdraw the index card from the envelope I religiously remove the paperclip (coated with violet elastic) and. once my business with it has been discharged I replace it in prccisely the same fashion so as to conform to the indentation in the card stock that were made initially by the late Jade or widow Jade. On fhe index card was written in a deIiute and flmid penmanship the following lines: to a black and white a It was before an iceberg where I met The Arctic Blue, trapped in my net I s t o d upon a windswept floe where Not a soul stood by to c a e TIat I had caught the rarest kind Of bunerfIy that one may fmd Down below the still morass Reflected me, as in dadc glass, And w k e to me in dulcet tones That caused a shiver in my bones; And my visage yet grew darker: ' W e this after StephenParker!" Humbert College, Denton, Kansas. September 14. f 999. SEND US YOUR NEWS! Name: New Address? New Job? What s your othcr news? Please Support Your Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures! The Depamnent of Slavic at the University of Kansas is historically among the strongest Slavic program in the United States. As you probably b o w , the wellbeing and indeed the survival of individuai departments is increasingly being left to the vagaries of market forces. There are fewer and fewer state-mandated funds for ongoing operations. The Slavic Department is Mllnerable in that it serves a relativeIy smatl constituency. We are appealing lo you, our alumni and friends, to help us maintain our stam as one of h c country's best Slavic programs. Among the areas we wodd like to bolster are fellowships in Slavic, travel funds for our students, and our speakers fund. We also hope to increase the number of named memorial funds to support student activities (awards, felIowships, grants, etc.). Please feel free to Specify how you would like your contribution to be used. We encourage and deeply appreciate donations to the Department, be they largc or s d . Please be sure to send your tax-deductible donation directly to the Department of Slavic bngwges and Literam in the enclosed envelope. Make yola check out to "ent of Slavic Languages and Litmhues-KUEA" (KUEiA = Kansas University Endowment Association), so that we can be sure that the funds will be propedy credited to the Department' s account. If you wish to establish a named fund. please cantact Professor Marc Greenberg. chair, at the Slavic Department, or KWA directly (the contact there is Tem Knoll Johnson, phone 7851832-7340; fax 7851832-7495; e-mail: tjobnson@ vaxa.ea.ukans.edub SOME UPCOMING SLAVIC EVENTS IN 24ML2001 October 12- 14,2000,Central Slavic Conferwce. Wyndham Gaden Hotel. Kansas City, MO. For more infomtion, please emad PdtriciaBrodskyat b d s or Robert ~ Evanson at [email protected]. Navembex 6- 8,2000. Professor Michael Hagemeister fmm University of Xrmsbmck will be delivering two t a b . one at the Hall Center Faculty Seminar in 'Philosophy and Literature." and we a!. REFS on conspiracy heolies in Russia For more information. please email Edith Qowes at e c l o w e s B ~ . Novemh 9- a.2000,AAASS National Meetings, Adam's Mark Hotel, Denver. CO. April 5-7.2001, KS. The Lawrencian Chronicle 'Cmma& of Europe: The Czech Republic Today," University of Kansas, Lawrence, I Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas 66045 Nonprofit Org. U. S. Postage lawrenee. Kansas Permit No. 85