Gary Saul Morson
Gary Saul Morson | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 19 April 1948 |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | B.S., Ph.D.,Yale University |
| Known for | Teaching the largest Slavic language class offered in the USA |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Literary criticism |
| Institutions | Northwestern University |
Gary Saul Morson(born April 19, 1948[1]) is an Americanliterary criticandSlavist.He is particularly known for his scholarly work on the great Russian novelistsLeo TolstoyandFyodor Dostoevsky,and the literary theoristMikhail Bakhtin.Morson is Lawrence B. Dumas Professor of the Arts and Humanities atNorthwestern University.Prior to this he was chair of the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at theUniversity of Pennsylvaniafor many years.
Academic career
[edit]Gary Saul Morson was born in New York City and attended theBronx High School of Science.After the high school, Gary Morson was accepted toYale University.Initially, Morson was interested in physics. However, he ended up graduating with a degree in Russian. "What I liked about physics is that it asked the ultimate questions. I loved how when you look at the world, all this amazing complexity had these very simple rules behind it. Now I believe the opposite — the argument of my favorite writer, Tolstoy, is that the world doesn't fit any system, because human psychology is so infinitely complex," Morson says.[citation needed]Morson spent a year atOxfordon a Henry Fellowship. At Oxford, he became friends withBill Clinton.“A great deal of my pitiful income from those years went to Clinton’s campaign for attorney general ofArkansas,”Morson says.[citation needed]After studying at Oxford, Morson completed his Ph.D. degree at Yale University.
In 1974 he started teaching at theUniversity of Pennsylvaniawhere he later became chair of the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. Since 1986 he has been teaching at Northwestern University.[2]His courseIntroduction to Russian Literatureattracts around 500 students – the largest Slavic language class offered in America. Together withMorton Schapiro,President of Northwestern University, he teaches a course called “Economics and the Humanities: Understanding Choice in the Past, Present and Future.”[when?]
Morson is the editor of a scholarly book series titled Studies in Russian Literature and Theory (SRLT) published byNorthwestern University Press,which is described as "reflecting trends within the field of Slavic studies over the years... providing perspectives on Russian literature from all periods and genres, as well as its place in the broader culture."[3]
Personal life
[edit]Gary Saul Morson lives inEvanston, Illinoiswith his wife Katharine Porter, MD, a psychiatrist (daughter of artist Fairfield Porter and poet Anne Channing Porter) whom he married in 2003. He was previously married to Jane Ackerman Morson with whom he has two children, Emily and Alexander.
Selected works
[edit]His critique of literalist translation methods appeared inCommentaryin 2010.[4]
- 1981 –The Boundaries of Genre: Dostoevsky's Diary of a Writer and the Traditions of Literary Utopia(University of Texas Press)ISBN0-292-70732-0.
- 1986 –Bakhtin, Essays and Dialogues on His Work(University of Chicago Press)ISBN0-226-54132-0.
- 1986 –Literature and History: Theoretical Problems and Russian Case Studies(Stanford University Press)ISBN0-8047-1302-2.
- 1987 –Hidden in Plain View: Narrative and Creative Potentials in War and Peace(Stanford University Press)ISBN0-8047-1387-1.
- 1989 –Rethinking Bakhtin: Extensions and Challenges(Northwestern University Press)ISBN0-8101-0809-7.
- 1990 –Mikhail Bakhtin: Creation of a Prosaics(withCaryl Emerson,Stanford University Press)ISBN0-8047-1821-0.
- 1994 –Narrative and Freedom: The Shadows of Time(Yale University Press)ISBN0-300-05882-9.
- 1995 –Freedom and Responsibility in Russian Literature: Essays in Honor of Robert Louis Jackson(Northwestern University Press)ISBN0-8101-1146-2.
- 2000 –And Quiet Flows the Vodka, or When Pushkin Comes to Shove(Northwestern University Press)ISBN0-8101-1788-6.
- 2007 –Anna Karenina in Our Time: Seeing More Wisely(Yale University Press)ISBN978-0-300-10070-9.
- 2011 –The Words of Others: From Quotations to Culture(Yale University Press)ISBN978-0-300-16747-4.
- 2012 –The Long and Short of It: From Aphorism to Novel(Stanford University Press)ISBN978-0-8047-8051-3.
- 2013 –Prosaics and Other Provocations: Empathy, Open Time, and the Novel(Academic Studies Press)ISBN978-1-61811-161-6.
- 2015 –The Fabulous Future? America and the World in 2040(withMorton Schapiro,Northwestern University Press)ISBN978-0-8101-3196-5.
- 2017 –Cents and Sensibility: What Economics Can Learn From the Humanities(withMorton Schapiro,Princeton University Press)ISBN978-0-691-17668-0.
- 2023 –Wonder Confronts Certainty: Russian Writers on the Timeless Questions and Why Their Answers Matter(Harvard University Press)ISBN978-0-674-97180-6.
He is a main author of the entry "Russian literature" in an online version of theEncyclopædia Britannica.[5]
Under the name Alicia Chudo
[edit]- And Quiet Flows the Vodka, or When Pushkin Comes to Shove: The Curmudgeon's Guide to Russian Literature and Culture.Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 2000.ISBN0-8101-1788-6,ISBN978-0-8101-1788-4
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^Gary Saul Morson,Literature and History: Theoretical Problems and Russian Case Studies(Stanford University Press, 1986:ISBN0-8047-1302-2), copyright page.
- ^Blackwell, Elizabeth."Russian Lit-Live".Northwestern Magazine Summer 2011.Northwestern University.
- ^Morson, Gary Saul."Studies in Russian Literature and Theory".nupress.northwestern.edu.Northwestern University.Retrieved10 May2020.
- ^Gary Saul Morson. "The Pevearsion of Russian Literature".Commentary,July 1, 2010.
- ^Morson, Gary Saul."Russian literature".Encyclopædia BritannicaOnline.Retrieved2024-05-19.
