Sara Karpukhin

Language(s): Russian; reading knowledge of French, Latin, Ancient Greek, Czech, German

Research/Language Interests: Vladimir Nabokov, creative writing, queer theory, reparative knowledge, contemporary Russian culture, Russian emigre culture, classical antiquity.

About Me: My main research interest has been Vladimir Nabokov. My dissertation was about the uses of the classical tradition, the reception of Greek and Roman cultures in Russian interwar émigré literature and in Nabokov’s works. I studied the uses of Greek and Roman sexualities in the creation of modernist high art and am currently working on a queer(ing) approach to Nabokov’s work. I am generally fascinated by the ways in which “tradition” subverts itself in order to grow and expand, and Nabokov’s legacy interests me from the point of view of liminality and adaptability, from the standpoint of reparative attitudes to loss of country, culture, and language; intellectual and creative strategies for adapting to ideologically and physically hostile environments. I am also interested in similar approaches to teaching region-specific history, culture, and language.

Education:
• University of Wisconsin – Madison, Ph.D. in Russian Literature (2015)
• University of Virginia, M.A. in Slavic Studies (2007)
• Irkutsk State University, B.A. Department of Philology and Journalism (2004)