Irina Erman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Russian | Chair of German and Russian Studies | Affiliate Faculty - Film Studies and Women and Gender Studies
I specialize in 19th and 20th century Russian literature and literary theory. I have published articles on modernist autobiography and vampire literature, but my main research focus is Fyodor Dostoevsky. I co-edited a book on Funny Dostoevsky that will be out in 2024, and I am currently working on a book that deals with theatricality in Dostoevsky’s works. Spanning from 19th century literature to contemporary pop culture, my research and teaching are brought together by my underlying theoretical interest in marginality, monstrosity, and performativity. I teach classes on the following topics: Russian literature, vampires, bad books, autobiography, film, theater and performance studies, gender and sexuality studies, and contemporary Russia.
Education
Ph.D., Stanford University
M.A., Stanford University
B.A., Summa Cum Laude, Emory University
Courses Taught
All levels of Russian language
LTRS 210: 19th Century Russian Literature
LTRS 220: 20th Century Russian Literature
RUST 250: Vampires
LTRS 270: Studies in Russian Film
RUST 300: Gender and Sexuality in Russian Culture
Selected Publications
Funny Dostoevsky: New Perspectives on the Dostoevskian Light Side, co-edited volume with Lynn Patyk, forthcoming with Bloomsbury Academic Press in 2024
“Gogol and Dostoevsky,” in The Routledge Companion to Absurdist Literature, edited by Michael Bennett, forthcoming in 2024
“Ideas That Plague Us: Reading Crime and Punishment as a Pandemic Narrative,” Russian Literature Vol. 138-9 (May-June 2023), 43-61
“A Symposium with Vasily Rozanov” in Socrates in Russia, edited by Alyssa DeBlasio and Victoria Juharyan. Leiden: Brill, 2022, 104-123
“Nation and Vampiric Narration in Aleksey Tolstoy’s ‘The Family of the Vourdalak’,” The Russian Review 79 (January 2020), 7-27
“The Autobiography of ‘A Living Plagiary’: Vasily Rozanov’s Secret Dostoevskian Genealogy,” AvtobiografiYa No 7 (2018), 171-190
"'Husband Under the Bed': Cuckoldry, Logorrhea and Confined Spaces in Dostoevsky's Early Works," Russian Review 76:2 (April 2017), 311-330
Honors and Awards
Winner of the Levin Article Prize for best article published in Russian Review in 2020 for “Nation and Vampiric Narration in Aleksey Tolstoy’s ‘The Family of the Vourdalak’,” 2021
Dean’s Excellence Award for Research 2022
Wiley Top Downloaded Article for “Sympathetic Vampires and Zombies with Brains,” 2023
Press and Media
“The Vampires of A. K. Tolstoy,” interview on SRB Podcast, October 2021