Ellen Chances

 

Professor of Russian Literature

Departmental Representative (director of undergraduate studies)

 

Education: Oberlin College (B.A., 1967, Russian), Princeton University (Ph.D., 1972, Russian Literature); Fulbright, IREX, ACLS Fellowships to do research in Russia.

 

Research Associate, Russian Research Center, Harvard University; Senior Fellow, Harriman Institute, Columbia University

 

Research Interests: Russian novel, 19th century to the present; contemporary Russian literature and culture; Dostoevsky; Chekhov; Kharms; Bitov; literature in its historical context; literature and film; comparative Russian and American literature and culture; ethical dimensions of film.

 

Courses taught (undergraduate): History of Russian Literature (1800-1860); Seminar on Dostoevsky; Russian Literature and Revolution; A Multidisciplinary Approach to Brothers Karamazov; Ethical Dimensions of Contemporary Russian Cinema.

 

Courses taught (graduate): Dostoevsky; Chekhov; Topics in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russian Literature and Culture: The Interplay between Contemporary Film and Literature.

 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

 

Books:

 

Andrei Bitov. The Ecology of Inspiration, Cambridge University Press, 1993; in book series, Cambridge Studies in Russian Literature and in book series, Studies of the Harriman Institute.

 

Andrei Bitov. Ekologiia vdokhnoveniia, Russian translation (trans. I.Larionov) of Andrei Bitov. The Ecology of Inspiration, Akademicheskii proekt Publishing House, Saint Petersburg, Russia; in book series, “Sovremennaia zapadnaia rusistika”, forthcoming (2004).

 

Conformity’s Children: An Approach to the Superfluous Man in Russian Literature, Slavica Publishers, 1978.

 

Edited publication:

 

            Guest editor, special international issue on Andrei Bitov, Russian Literature (Netherlands), project in process, forthcoming.

 

 

 

 

 

Articles:

 

“The Energy of Honesty…A Visit to the Creative Workshop of Andrei Bitov’s Pushkin House,” in on-line volume, a casebook on Bitov’s Pushkin House, ed. Ekaterina Sukhanova (Normal, Illinois: Dalkey Archive Press), forthcoming, www.centerforbookculture.org/casebooks/index.html 

 

            “Andrey Tarkovsky’s Film, ‘The Sacrifice,’ and its Russian Literary Roots,” in American Contributions to the Thirteenth International Congress of Slavists (Liubliana), 2003. Vol.2 Literature, ed. Robert A. Maguire (Bloomington, Indiana: Slavica Publishers), 2003, pp.9-19.

 

            “Andrei Bitov’s Novyi Gulliver: A Soul’s Whisper and a Hole, or Shepherds, Reed Pipes, and the Resilience of the Human Spirit,” review essay, Slavic and East European Journal, vol.47, No.2 (Summer, 2003), pp.290-295.

 

            “The Superfluous Man in Russian Literature” (reprint of “Russian Literature’s Superfluous Man, From the Nineteenth Century to the Present Day”), The Routledge Companion to Russian Literature, ed. Neil Cornwell (London, England and New York: Routledge Press), 2001, pp.111-121.

 

            “Reflections of Contemporary Russian Society, Culture, and Values in Iurii Mamin’s Film, ‘Window to Paris,’” in American Contributions to the Twelfth International Congress of Slavists (Cracow), August-September 1998, Literature. Linguistics. Poetics, ed. Robert A. Maguire and Alan Timberlake (Slavica Publishers), 1998, pp.21-31.

 

            “Moscow Meets Manhattan: The Russian Soul of Woody Allen’s Films,” American Studies International, vol.XXX, No.1, April 1992, pp.461-477.

 

            “The Island and the Ocean: Andrei Bitov and his ‘Allusions’ to Dostoevsky. The Significance of Dostoevsky for Bitov’s Writings,” in Festschrift for Joseph Frank volume of Stanford Slavic Studies, ed. Edward Brown, Lazar Fleishman, Gregory Freidin, Richard Schupback, vol.4:2, Part II, 1992, pp.461-477.

 

            “Andrei Bitov’s ‘Life in Windy Weather’: The Creative Process in Life and Literature,” Slavic Review, vol.50, No.2 (summer, 1991), pp.400-409. Tvorcheskii protsess v zhizni i v literature” in volume, Russkaia literatura XX veka. Issledovaniia amerikanskikh uchenykh, ed. B. Averin and E. Neatrour (St. Petersburg, Petro-RIF), 1993, pp.536-553.

 

            “Chekhov, Nabokov, and the Box: Making a Case for Belikov and Luzhin,” Russian Language Journal, No.140, 1987, pp.135-142.

 

            “Daniil Kharms’ ‘Old Woman’ Climbs Her Family Tree: ‘Starukha’ and the Russian Literary Past,” Russian Literature (Netherlands), vol.XVII (1985), pp.353-366.

 

            “Miliukov’s ‘Svetoch’ and Dostoevsky’s ‘Vremya’: A Case of Recycled Ideas?” Slavic Review, vol.43, No.4 (Winter, 1984), pp.588-603.

 

            “Chekhov and Kharms: Story/Antistory,” Russian Language Journal, 1982, vol.36, Nos.123-124, pp.181-192.

 

            “Chekhov’s Seagull: Ethereal Creature or Stuffed Bird?” in Chekhov’s Art of Writing: A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. with an intro. By Paul Debreczeny and Thomas Eekman, with preface by Ronald Hingley, Slavica Publishers, 1977, pp.27-35.

 

            “Pochvennichestvo: Ideology in Dostoevsky’s Periodicals,” Mosaic, vol.7, No.2 (Winter, 1974), pp.71-88.

 

             
Work in progress:

1)      a book on Andrei Bitov’s post-Pushkin House writings

2)      a book on the ethical dimensions of Russian cinema from the post-Stalin era to the present

3)      project on contemporary comparative Russian and American literature and culture

 

 

SELECTED OTHER PUBLICATIONS

 

Fiction, Essays, and Op-Ed Pieces

 

            “Anti-Miracle on 34th Street?” The Christian Science Monitor, December 5, 2003, p.11.

 

“Music Lessons. He and She,” short story, in Russian translation (not mine), “Uroki muzyki. On i ona,” in Russian journal, We/Myi, No.12 (28), 2000, pp.39-40. In English original, in English edition of journal, on-line edition.

 

“The Sky is Falling,” Boston Globe, February 9, 1995, p.19.

 

“At Home with the Snow,” The Princeton Eclectic, fall, 1993, p.44.

 

SELECTED OTHER ACTIVITIES

 

            Literature and Culture Consultant, fall, 2002, spring, 2003, for McCarter Theater production (May, 2003) of Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya”, directed by Emily Mann

 

            Literature and Culture Consultant, fall, 1999, spring, 2000, for McCarter Theater production (March, 2000) of Chekhov’s “Cherry Orchard,” directed by Emily Mann

 

            Artistic Consultant, Roundabout Theater (on Broadway) production of Chekhov’s “Three Sisters,” directed by Scott Elliott, January, 1997

            On City University of New York (CUNY) TV program, “City Cinematheque,” on New York cable TV (Time/Warner), as Russian cinema specialist, 1997 and 2002

 

            Lectures on Russian literature at Metropolitan Museum of Art

 

            Member of International Advisory Board, Russian State Humanities University