David Powelstock
Departments/Programs
Comparative HumanitiesComparative Literature
German, Russian, and Asian Languages and Literature
Degrees
University of California, Berkeley, Ph.D.University of California, Berkeley, M.A.
Princeton University, B.A.
Expertise
Modern Russian Literature, Modern Czech Literature, Russian & Czech Languages, Comparative Literature, Literary Theory, Translation StudiesProfile
I am interested in how selfhood, consciousness and language are related, especially in lyric poetry written in Russian, Czech, and English, and over the entire history of poetry. This central focus is informed by my research interests in areas such as: Theory of Lyric, Historical Poetics, Phenomenology, Subjectivity, Literature & Philosophy, Cultural Semiotics, History & Theory of Russian Poetry, Romanticism, Translation.Courses Taught
| COML | 100a | Introduction to Global Literature |
| COML | 171a | Literary Translation in Theory and in Practice |
| RECS | 100a | Russian Soul: Masterworks of Modern Russian Culture |
| RECS | 131a | The Twentieth-Century Russian Novel |
| RECS | 150a | Russian and Soviet Cinema |
| RECS | 152a | Russian Science Fiction Literature and Film |
| RECS | 154a | The Art of Vladimir Nabokov |
| RUS | 121b | Russian-English Translation |
Awards and Honors
Brandeis Senior Faculty Research Leave (2016)
Research Associate, Davis Center for Russian Studies, Harvard University (renewed) (2012 - 2021)
Norman Faculty Scholarship Awared (2011)
Davis Foundation Writing Grant Faculty Fellow (2009 - 2010)
Research Associate, Davis Center for Russian Studies, Harvard University (2006 - 2009)
Course Development Grant, Consilience Program, Brandeis University (2005)
Faculty Consilience Seminar, Brandeis University (2004 - 2005)
Research Associate, Davis Center for Russian Studies, Harvard University (through 2006) (2003)
Residential Research Fellow, Davis Center for Russian Studies, Harvard University (1998 - 1999)
Junior Faculty Summer Fellowship, University of Chicago (1997)
ACLS Grant for Travel to International Meetings Abroad (1996)
Mellon Fellowship, administered by The Center for Slavic and East European Studies, University of California, Berkeley (1993 - 1994)
University of California-Herzen University Junior Faculty Exchange Grant (5 months dissertation research at Herzen State Pedagogical University, St. Petersburg) (1992)
ACTR Summer Exchange of Teachers of Russian Grant (3 months teacher training at Herzen Pedagogical Institute, Leningrad) (1990)
IREX Language Training Grant (6 months study at Charles University, Prague) (1989)
UC Berkeley Regents Intern-Fellowship (1987 - 1991)
Scholarship
Powelstock, David. "Konstantin Batiushkov." Rev. of Writings from the Golden Age of Russian Poetry. Presented and Translated by Peter France., by Konstantin Batiushkov. Russian Review vol. 78:2 April 2019: 323-324. (forthcoming)
Powelstock, David. "'The Center Cannot Hold': Freedom and Self-Conception in Notes from Underground." Slavic and East European Journal 62. 1 (2018): 26-41.
Powelstock, David. "“Komu zhe verit’, esli ne sebe? Tret’ia sub”ektnaia pozitsiia v stikhotvorenii Lermontova ‘Ne ver’ sebe’”." Mir Lermontova: Kollektivnaia monografiia. Ed. M. N. Virolainen and A. A. Karpov. St. Petersburg, Russian Federation: Skriptorium, 2015. 219-227.
Olesha, Yurii. "Speech to the First Congress of the Soviet Union of Writers, 1934." Sovlit.com vol. n/a. n/a Trans. Powelstock, David. (2009): n/a.
Powelstock, David. "Reinventing Romantic Poetry: Russian Women Poets of the Mid-Nineteenth Century." Rev. of Reinventing Romantic Poetry: Russian Women Poets of the Mid-Nineteenth Century, by Diana Greene. Slavic and East European Journal vol. 51:2 Summer 2007: 397-98.
Powelstock, David. "Writing as Exorcism:The Personal Codes of Pushkin, Lermontov, and Gogol." Rev. of Writing as Exorcism:The Personal Codes of Pushkin, Lermontov, and Gogol, by Ilya Kutik. Slavic Review vol. 66:3 Fall 2007: 564-65.
Powelstock,David. "Violent Outcomes: Mikhail Lermontov and Romanticism's Insoluble Problems.." Times of Trouble: Violence in Russian Literature and Culture.. Ed. Marcus Levitt and Tatyana Novikov. University of Wisconsin Press, 2007. 30-41.
Powelstock, David. ""In the Poet's Defense" (transl. with commentary of of A. Ragozin, "V zashchitu poeta," Pravda, 25 August 1939)." Epic Revisionism: Russian History and Literature as Stalinist Propaganda. Ed. Kevin M. F. Platt and David Brandenberger. Madison, Wisc.: University of Wisconsin Press, 2006. 309-312.
Powelstock,David. "Fashioning 'Our Lermontov': Canonization and Conflict in the Stalinist 1930s." Epic Revisionism: Russian History and Literature as Stalinist Propaganda. Ed. Kevin M. F. Platt and David Brandenberger. Madison, Wisc.: University of Wisconsin Press, 2006. 281-307.
Powelstock,David. Becoming Mikhail Lermontov: The Ironies of Romantic Individualism in Nicholas I's Russia. Northwestern University Press, 2005.
Powelstock,David. "Burying the Elegiac Corpse: Selfhood in Pushkin's Late Lyrics." Pushkin Review / Pushkinskii vestnik (2000): 81-132.
Powelstock,David. "Living Into Language: Mikhail Lermontov and the Manufacturing of Intimacy." Russian Subjects: Empire, Nation, and the Culture of the Golden Age. Ed. Greenleaf, Monika and Stephen Moeller-Sally. Northwestern University Press, 1998. 297-324.
Powelstock,David. "Loving the Ineffable: Lermontov's Poetics of Desire." Romantic Russia (1998): 49-93.
Powelstock,David. "Mikhail Iur'evich Lermontov." The Age of Pushkin and Gogol: Poetry and Drama. Ed. Christine Rydel. Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 206, Detroit: Gale Research Publications, 1998. 179-205.
Powelstock,David. "Bakhtin o poezii. Zametki ["Bakhtin's Views on Poetry"].." Russkii stikh: Metrika, Ritmika, Rifma, Strofika. Ed. Bak, Dmitrii, et al. Moscow: RGGU, 1996. 221-228.
Powelstock,David. "The Rhythmic Structure of Valerii Briusov's Three-Stress Dol'nik Line." Russian Verse Theory: Proceedings of the 1987 Conference at UCLA (= UCLA Slavic Studies). Ed. Scherr, Barry P. and Dean S. Worth., 1989. 235-252.