Taboo Pushkin: Topics, Texts, Interpretations

Acknowledgments

xvii Ac­ knowl­ edg­ ments This book is the end re­ sult of a gen­ u­ inely col­ lab­ o­ ra­ tive ef­ fort, hav­ ing been first con­ cep­ tu­ al­ ized in the con­ text of a ­ three-day inter­ na­ tional con­ fer­ ence that was held in Jan­ u­ ary 2009 on the cam­ pus of the Uni­ ver­ sity of Notre Dame. With­ out the gen­ er­ ous fi­ nan­ cial sup­ port of the Nano­ vic In­ sti­ tute for Eu­ ro­ pean Stud­ ies, the In­ sti­ tute for Schol­ ar­ ship in the Lib­ eral Arts, and the Grad­ u­ ate ­ School, and the ca­ pable as­ sis­ tance of Har­ riet Bald­ win, di­ rec­ tor of ac­ a­ demic con­ fer­ ences for the Col­ lege of Arts and Let­ ters—all at the Uni­ ver­ sity of Notre Dame—such a major under­ tak­ ing would have been im­ pos­ sible. Par­ tic­ u­ lar ­ thanks are due to Jim McAd­ ams, di­ rec­ tor of the Nano­ vic In­ sti­ tute, and An­ thony Monta, as­ so­ ciate di­ rec­ tor, for their faith in this pro­ ject from its in­ cep­ tion to its final ­ stages. The ­ book’s pub­ li­ ca­ tion is made pos­ sible, once again, by sup­ port from the Nano­ vic In­ sti­ tute and the In­ sti­ tute for Schol­ ar­ ship in the Lib­ eral Arts, as well as from the Wis­ con­ sin Cen­ ter for Push­ kin Stud­ ies book se­ ries, whose ed­ i­ tor, David M. ­ Bethea, first pro­ vided me with the op­ por­ tu­ nity to chal­ lenge re­ ceived wis­ dom about ­ Pushkin’s life and works (in the con­ text of a grad­ u­ ate semi­ nar on Push­ kin in ­ spring 1992) and who has re­ mained a stim­ u­ lat­ ing con­ ver­ sa­ tion part­ ner and es­ teemed men­ tor to me ever since. I would also like to ex­ press my ­ thanks to Gwen ­ Walker, ac­ qui­ si­ tions ed­ i­ tor at the Uni­ ver­ sity of Wis­ con­ sin Press, for her in­ itial faith in this pro­ ject and her con­ tin­ u­ ing good­ will even as the ­ manuscript’s word count began to creep up and up, far be­ yond the orig­ i­ nally fore­ cast ­ length; to MJ De­ va­ ney for her care­ ful and ju­ di­ cious work as copy­ ed­ i­ tor; to ed­ i­ tor ­ Sheila McMa­ hon for her xviii Acknowledgments ex­ pert as­ sis­ tance with the ­ book’s final ­ stages; to Laura Pau­ lini for her strik­ ing cover de­ sign; as well as to the other ex­ cel­ lent per­ son­ nel at the press with whom I have had oc­ ca­ sion to work in bring­ ing this pro­ ject to com­ ple­ tion. Thanks, too, to Margie Towery for creating a thoughtful, comprehensive index. The two read­ ers for the press, Steph­ a­ nie San­ dler and Angela Brintlinger, pro­ vided care­ ful, de­ tailed read­ ings of the­ lengthy man­ u­ script and as­ tute sug­ ges­ tions for re­ vi­ sion, and my sin­ cere­ thanks go out to them as well. Ad­ di­ tion­ ally, I am grate­ ful to Katya Ho­ kan­ son for her as­ sis­ tance with this pro­ ject in its early ­ stages; she was a wel­ come in­ ter­ loc­ u­ tor and a con­ stant ­ source of en­ cour­ age­ ment and input, and in­ deed it was her panel pro­ po­ sal on taboo ap­ proaches to Rus­ sian lit­ er­ a­ ture for the AAASS Na­ tional Con­ ven­ tion in 2007 that first­ formed the ker­ nel of my idea for the book. A gen­ er­ ous sup­ ported re­ search leave from the Uni­ ver­ sity of Notre Dame in 2010–11 al­ lowed me the ­ much-needed time to carry this pro­ ject to com­ ple­ tion. Fi­ nally, I must ex­ press my tre­ men­ dous grat­ i­ tude to all of the ­ book’s con­ trib­ ut­ ing au­ thors for their wis­ dom, pa­ tience, for­ ti­ tude, gra­ cious­ ness, and un­ flag­ ging en­ thu­ siasm for our joint under­ tak­ ing. I have not only ­ learned a great deal in the pro­ cess of our work to­ gether but have de...