Byron Lindsey

Professor Emeritus of Russian

Photo: Byron Lindsey
Email:  bliny35@gmail.com

Research Area/s:

Russian

Biography:

Educational History:

Ph.D., in Russian Literature, Cornell University

M.A., in Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana

B.A., in English, University of Texas, Austin

Bachelor of Journalism, University of Texas, Austin

Research Interests:

My fundamental interests center on the Russian classics, especially Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Goncharov and Chekhov, with radial lines extending to the modernists Aleksandr Blok, Mikhail Bulgakov, Andrei Platonov, and post-modernists Vladimir Makanin, Sergei Dovlatov, and Galina Shcherbakova. Literature from and about the Caucuses, including pre-Revolutionary Dagestani poetry, is a special interest. As a Comparativist I continue to study Italian literature, particularly Dante Alighieri, Alessandro Manzoni, Italo Calvino, and Cesare Pavese in relation to Russian and European literature. A study of Mikhail Leonidovich Lozinsky’s translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy (1939-45) and its impact on subsequent 20th century Russian literature is a large and on-going project. Also, I am writing a creative fictional work based on my experience as a linguist for the US Citizenship and Immigration Service at the American Embassy, Moscow, 2010-11.

Selected Publications:

Books

  • Routes of Passage: Essays on the Fiction of Vladimir Makanin, Bloomington IN: Slavica Publishers. 2007
  • The Loss: Novella and Two Short Stories, Evanston IL: Northwestern University Press. 1998
  • The Wild Beach: Anthology of Contemporary Russian Stories, Ann Arbor: Ardis/Vintage-Random. 1993
  • Glasnost: Anthology of Russian Literature under Gorbachev, Ann Arbor: Ardis/Vintage-Random. 1990

Articles and Book Chapters

  • “Vladimir Makanin.” Russian Writers since 1980, Marina Balina and Mark Lipovetsky, ed. Coumbia SC: Bruccoli Clark Layman. 2003
  • “Foreword” Dmitry Bakin, Reasons for Living, London: Granta. 2002

Selected Other Translations

  • Yevgeny Shklovsky. “Babel in Paris”, Words Without Borders. Chicago. 2010
- “Cup of Coffee at the café on Ostozhenko.” AGNI. Boston: Boston University Press 
  • Vladimir Makanin. “The Brother's Keeper.” Words Without Borders: Chicago. 2008
  • Yuri Trifonov. “A Short Stay in the Torture Chamber.” The Exchange and Other Stories. New York: Random House, 1990

Recent Review Articles

  • George Pahomov and Nikolas Lupinin, eds. The Russian Century: Hundred Years of Russian Lives. Slavic and East European Journal. Vol. 53. 2009
  • Andrew Wachtel and Ilya Vinitsky. Russian Literature. Cambridge, 2009. Slavic and East European Journal. Fall, 2011
  • (Forthcoming) Angela Brintlinger. Chapaev and His Comrades. Boston: 2012. Slavic and East European Journal. Spring, 2014
  • (Forthcoming) Sarah Warren. Mikhail Larionov and the Politics of Late Imperial Russia. Burlington VT. Slavic and East European Journal. Fall, 2014

Representative Courses:

Recent Scholary Presentations

  • “Florence through a ‘Glass Darkly’: Aleksandr Blok's 1909 Trip and His Florentsiia Poems.” CARTA. University of Tulsa. April, 2012
  • “Problems of Narrative Design in Ivan Goncharov's Novel Obryv (The Precipice, 1869).” CARTA. Baylor University (Waco, TX). April, 2013. Abstract in CARTA Research Journal, 1, 9-10, 2013
  • (Forthcoming) “Yasha's Children in Putin's Russia: Galina Shcherbakova's Dark Homage to Anton Chekhov.” CARTA. University of Missouri, Columbia. March, 2014

Recent Professional Service

  • Member, Board of Directors, Central Association of Russian Teachers of America (CARTA)
  • Advisement on Russian Study and Travel. By e-mail appointment or through UNM Global Education Office
  • Coordinator, Italian Literature Study Group, Zimmerman Library (inquire via bliny35@gmail.com)

Other Information:

Recent Scholarly Presentations

  • “Florence through a ‘Glass Darkly’: Aleksandr Blok's 1909 Trip and His Florentsiia Poems.” CARTA. University of Tulsa. April, 2012
  • “Problems of Narrative Design in Ivan Goncharov's Novel Obryv (The Precipice, 1869).” CARTA. Baylor University (Waco, TX). April, 2013. Abstract in CARTA Research Journal, 1, 9-10, 2013
  • (Forthcoming) “Yasha's Children in Putin's Russia: Galina Shcherbakova's Dark Homage to Anton Chekhov.” CARTA. University of Missouri, Columbia. March, 2014

Recent Professional Service

  • Member, Board of Directors, Central Association of Russian Teachers of America (CARTA)
  • Advisement on Russian Study and Travel. By e-mail appointment or through UNM Global Education Office
  • Coordinator, Italian Literature Study Group, Zimmerman Library (inquire via bliny35@gmail.com)