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CULTURAL STUDIES AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE FACULTY


 Timothy C. Westphalen

 Associate Professor
Ph.D. – Harvard University 
westphalen
631.632.7387 | 1140 Humanities
  • Russian and Polish poetry; Russian Symbolism; verse theory; Bakhtin and cultural theory.  
  • Czech Structuralism and reception theory; orientalism.

Timothy C. Westphalen is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in Slavic Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Harvard University.

 Westphalen has written extensively about Russian and Polish poetry, particularly about Aleksandr Blok and the poetic culture of the so-called Russian Silver Age. His work has generally delved into the relationship of poetry to culture. His first book, Lyric Incarnate: The Dramas of Aleksandr Blok, examines the relationship of the poet’s lyric poetry to his dramas in light of what Blok himself called his “exit from lyric isolation.” In more recent projects, Westphalen has pursued the question poetry’s place in culture by investigating the changing status and role of poetry in Russia in the aftermath of the Perestroika era. Other projects have expanded the scope of this investigation beyond Russian and Slavic poetry to include questions of the broader context of poetry in European culture.

 Westphalen has also written about Russian culture and the theory of culture. He has been particularly interested in the work of Trubetskoy, Tynianov, Bakhtin, Lotman, Mukařovský, Vodička, Gasparov, and the Konstanz school.  

blok trilogy

 

lyric incarnate