José Vergara Receives Award from The International Vladimir Nabokov Society
Assistant Professor of Russian José Vergara has received the Gennady Barabtarlo Best Essay Prize from The International Vladimir Nabokov Society. The prize was awarded for the chapter "Vladimir Nabokov: Translating the Ghosts of the Past," from Vergara's book All Future Plunges to the Past.
Awarded annually for the best academic article or book chapter on Nabokov, the award is named in honor of Russian-American Nabokov scholar and editor Gennady Barabtarlo.
From the judges:
"The judges were tremendously impressed by the historical scope and compelling close, comparative reading of Joyce and Nabokov undertaken here, re-framing and vivifying the thorny question of 'influence' in Nabokov studies. If Nabokov adapts certain key themes of Ulysses, Vergara nonetheless makes clear that he does so on his own terms and towards his own quite distinct ends. The tracing of invention/creation/discovery of literary paternity is extremely well done. The author does a magnificent job of presenting the multiplicity of socio-historical, literary-historical, and biographical contexts in which Nabokov’s engagement with Joyce took place, without ever reducing the business of close reading to mere context."
The Bryn Mawr College Department of Russian, established in 1943, offers an undergraduate program of study that has become nationally and internationally renowned. The program in Russian language is designed to help students successfully attain an advanced level of oral proficiency in Russian by the time they graduate. In addition to language courses at all levels, students have the opportunity to take a variety of courses in Russian literature, history, cinema, and culture.