Gail Lenhoff: Professor of Russian Literature

Contact Info

c/o Slavic Department
318 Humanities Bldg, Box 951502
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1502

Phone: (310) 825-6974
Fax: (310) 206-5263

lenhoff@humnet.ucla.edu
Professional Background
- Professor of Russian, 1993-, UCLA
- Assistant Professor of Russian, 1987-1988, University of Pittsburgh
- Visiting Assistant Professor of Russian, 1986, Columbia University
- Adjunct Assistant Professor of Russian, 1979-1986, University of Pennsylvania
- Assistant Professor of Russian, 1979-1981, Mount Holyoke College
- Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Michigan, 1978
- Freelance translator and editor, Progress Publishers and The Journal of the Moscow
- Patriarchate, Interpreter, ABC News Division, Translator, Bulletin of the USSR Copyright Agency; Moscow USSR, 1974-1978.
Recent Courses Taught at UCLA
Undergraduate
- Russian 25 The Russian Novel
- Russian 118 Middle Ages and Enlightenment
- Russian 119 Golden Age and the Great Realists
- Russian 120 Literature and Revolution
- Russian 124d Dostoevsky
- Russian 124n Nabokov
- Russian 124t Tolstoy
Pre-M.A. Graduate Courses
- Russian 211a Literature of Medieval Russia
- Russian 211b 18th-Century Russian Literature
- Russian 219 Movements and Genres
Graduate Seminars:
- History as Narrative
- Medieval Russian Saints' Cults and their Modern Reception
- Muscovite Literature and Culture: Church councils and theological polemics, genealogical legends and precedence disputes, chancery literature, legends of wonderworking icons
- 17th-Century Literature and Culture: historiography of the Time of Troubles, polemics, theology and writings of the Old Belief, court rhetoric and poetry in the reign of Aleksei Mikhailovich.
Research Mentorships and Advising:
- John Narins, "The Tale of Iurii of Smolensk as a Case Study from the Stepennaia Kniga" 2001
- Nora Ryan, "Archbishop Ioann of Novgorod and the Icon of the Virgin of the Sign" 2001
- Robert Romanchuk, "The Kirill-Belozersk Monastery as a Textual Community" 1998-1999
- Andrea Hacker, "Post-Factum Portrayal of Historical events (Four Accounts of How Stepan Razin's Men Killed Metropolitan Iosif in 1671)
- Anindita Banerjee, "Afanasii Nikitin's India: A Journey Through the Mind of a Medieval Traveler"
Current and Ongoing Projects
  1. A source study and commented critical edition of The Book of Degrees of the Royal Genealogy (Stepennaia kniga tsarskogo rodosloviia). This first narrative history of the Russian tsardom was written between 1555 and 1563, during Ivan IV's reign. Its authors trace the descent of the tsars to the Roman emperors and portray their successive reigns as the history of their nation's salvation. In collaboration with N. N. Pokrovsky, Novosibirsk; A. V. Sirenov, Petersburg and L. M. Kostiukhina, Moscow), CMRS and the Center for Digital Humanities (Links).
  2. Ecclesiastical Politics and Culture in Novgorod: Church vs. State (with Janet L. B. Martin, Mike Paul).
  3. UCLA Medieval Slavic Workshop
Publications
BOOKS:
Early Russian Hagiography: The Lives of Prince Fedor the Black.
Slavistische Veröffentlichungen Fachbereich Neuere Fremdsprachliche Philologien der Freien Universität Berlin, Band 82. Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 1997. (496 pages)
The Martyred Princes Boris and Gleb: A Socio-Cultural Study of the Cult and the Texts. Slavica Publishers, 1989. (168 pages)
The Making of the Medieval Russian Journey. University of Michigan, 1978. (266 pages)
EDITED BOOK:
Culture and Identity in Muscovy: 1359-1584 (with. A. M. Kleimola).
UCLA Slavic Studies, n.s., vol. III. Itz-Garant Publishers, Moscow, 1997. (606 pages)
ARTICLES AND REVIEWS:
  1. "Spectator and Spectacle: The Theater of Okhlopkov." The Drama Review (March): 9-15 (1973).
  2. "Kniga Palomnik: A Study in Old Russian Rhetoric." Scando-Slavica 23: 39-61 (1977).
  3. Klaus-Dieter Seemann. Die altrussische Wallfahrtsliteratur. Theorie eines literarischen Genres (1976). Reviewed in Canadian-American Slavic Studies 12, 1: 601-602 (1979).
  4. John Fennell, Ludolf Müller, Andrzej Poppe. Russia Mediaevalis III (1977). Reviewed in Slavic and East European Journal 23, 1: 125. (1979).
  5. S. A. Maslix. Russkoe izrascovoe iskusstvo XV-XIX vekov (1976). Reviewed in Slavic and East European Journal 23, 3: 396-397 (1979).
  6. "Beyond Three Seas: Afanasij Nikitin's Journey from Orthodoxy to Apostasy." East European Quarterly XIII, 4: 431-447 (1979).
  7. S. I. Kotkov, Vygoleksinskij sbornik (1977). Reviewed in Canadian-American Slavic Studies 14, 1: 396-397 (1980).
  8. "Ignatii Smol'nianin in Constantinople: A Lesson in Muscovite Literary Etiquette." Russian History VII, 2: 29-46 (1980).
  9. "Three Protoexempla and Their Place in a Thirteenth-Century Pilgrim Book." Slavic Review 4, 4: 603-613 (1981).
  10. "The Aesthetic Function and Medieval Russian Culture." The Structure of the Literary Process: Studies Dedicated to the Memory of Felix Vodicka (M. Cervenka, P. Steiner, R. Vroon, eds.), John Benjamins Publishing Co., 1982: 321-340.
  11. "Hellenistic Erotica and the Kiev Cave Patericon 'Tale of Moses the Hungarian'." Russian History 10, 2: 141-153 (1983).
  12. "The Liturgical Poetry of Medieval Rus'." Scando-Slavica 29: 21-43 (1984).
  13. "Christian and Pagan Strata in the East Slavic Cult of St. Nicholas." Slavic and East European Journal 28, 2: 147-163 (1984).
  14. "Toward a Theory of Protogenres in Medieval Russian Letters." The Russian Review 43, 1: 31-54 (1984).
  15. "Chronological Error and Irony in Mikhail Bulgakov's Days of the Turbins." Russian Literature and American Critics (K. Brostrom, ed.). Michigan Slavic Publications, 1984: 149-160.
  16. "Trubetzkoy's 'Afanasii Nikitin' Reconsidered." Canadian-American Slavic Studies 18, 3: 377-392 (1984).
  17. Wolf-Heinrich Schmidt, ed. Gattungsprobleme der älteren slavischen Literaturen (1984). Reviewed in Slavic Review 44, 1: 575-576 (1985).
  18. Boris Gasparov. Poetika 'Slovo o polku Igoreve' (1984). Reviewed in The Russian Review 45, 1: 47-49 (1986).
  19. H. Birnbaum, M. S. Flier, eds. Medieval Russian Culture (1984). Reviewed in Russian History 45, 1: 49-51 (1986).
  20. "The Ordering of Old Russian Narrative: Po rjadu versus Nekako i Smutno." Studia Slavica Mediaevalia et Humanistica Riccardo Picchio Dicata (M. Colucci, G. Dell'Agata, H. Goldblatt, eds.). Edizione Dell-Ateneo, 1986): 413-423.
  21. "Categories of Early Russian Writing." Slavic and East European Review 31, 2: 259-271 (1987).
  22. "Problems of Medieval Narrative Typology: the Exemplum."Gattung und Narration in den älteren slavischen Literaturen (K.-D. Seemann, ed.). Otto Harassowitz, 1987: 109-118.
  23. "East Slavic Hagiographical Paradigms and Transformations." Semiotica 75, 3-4: 355-358 (1989).
  24. B. M. Kloss, ed. Matematika v izuchenii srednevekovyx povestvovatel'nyx istochnikov. Sbornik statej (1986). Reviewed in Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 37, 1: 116-117 (1989).
  25. "The Commercial and Cultural Context of Afanasij Nikitin's Journey Beyond Three Seas." (With Janet Martin). Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 37, 3: 321-344 (1989).
  26. Muriel Heppell, trans. The Paterik of the Kievan Caves Monastery (1989). Reviewed in Slavic and East European Journal 35, 1: 138-139 (1991).
  27. "La litterature de la Russie kievienne." Histoire de la litterature russe (E. Etkind, G. Nivat, I. Serman, V. Strada, eds.). Fayard, 1992: 29-58, 742-748, 815-817.
  28. "La litterature de la Russie du nord-est." Histoire de la litterature russe (E. Etkind, G. Nivat, I. Serman, V. Strada, eds.). Fayard, 1992: 125-148, 752-758, 818-820.
  29. "Die nordostrussische Hagiographie im literarischen Prozess: die Vita des Fürsten Fedor Chernyj." Gattung und Genologie der Slavisch-orthodoxen Literaturen des Mittelalters (Dritte BerlinerFachtagung, 1988). (K.-D. Seemann, ed.). Otto Harrassowitz, 1992: 63-104.
  30. "Canonization and Princely Power in Northeast Rus': The Cult of Leontij Rostovskij." Welt der Slaven 37, 2: 359-380 (1992).
  31. Simon Franklin, ed. and trans. Sermons and Rhetoric of Kievan Rus' (1991). Reviewed in Slavic and East European Journal 36, 3: 86-87 (1992).
  32. "Torgovo-xozjajstvennyj i kul'turnyj kontekst Xozhenija za tri morja Afanasija Nikitina." Trudy Otdela drevnerusskoj literatury 47: 95-120 (1993).
  33. "The Ermolin Chronicle Account of Prince Fedor the Black's Relics and the Annexation of Iaroslavl' in 1463." The Frontier in Russian History (Proceedings of the Conference held at the University of Chicago, May 29-31, 1992). In: Russian History 19, nos. 1-4 (1992). Ed. Richard Hellie: 155-168.
  34. "The Notion of Uncorrupted Relics in Early Russian Culture." Christianity and the Eastern Slavs. Volume 1: Slavic Cultures in the Middle Ages. (B. Gasparov, O. R. Hughes, eds.). The University of California Press, 1993: 252-275.
  35. Paul Hollingsworth, ed. and trans. The Hagiography of Kievan Rus' (Harvard Library of Early Russian Literature, 1992. Reviewed in The Catholic Historical Review (April): 332-333 (1994).
  36. Marcia Morris. Saints and Revolutionaries: The Ascetic Hero in Russian Literature (1993). Review in Zeitschrift für SlavischePhilologie 54, 1: 224-226 (1994).
  37. Andreas Ebbinghaus. Die altrussischen Marienikonen-Legenden (Slavistische Veröffentlichungen, 1990). Reviewed in Slavic Review 54, 4: 137-1040 (1995).
  38. "Medieval Russian Saints' Lives in Socio-Cultural Perspective." Russian Literature 39. Special Issue "Old Russian Literature." Ed. W.-H. Schmidt: 205-222 (1996).
  39. "Kanonizacija i knjazheskaja vlast' v Severo-Vostochnoj Rusi: kul't Leontija Rostovskogo." Jaroslavskaja starina, vyp. 3: 13-22 (1996).
  40. "Introduction." (with Ann Kleimola). "Culture and Identity in Muscovy: 1359-1584. UCLA Slavic Studies, n.s., vol. III. Itz-Garant Publishers, Moscow, 1997: 7-10.
  41. "Unofficial Veneration of the Daniilovichi in Muscovite Rus'. "Culture and Identity in Muscovy: 1359-1584. UCLA Slavic Studies, n.s., vol. III. Itz-Garant Publishers, Moscow, 1997: 391-416.
  42. "Vsja svjatyja pomjanuvshe...": Strategies of Biographical Reconstruction in Muscovite Saints' Lives." Sprache--Text--Geschichte. Festschrift für Klaus-Dieter Seemann. Eds. A. Guski and W. Kosny. Specimina Philologiae Slavicae, Supplementband 56. Otto Sagner, Munich, 1997: 161-173.
  43. "Istochnik rasskaza ob otkrytii moshchej jaroslavskix knjazej v L'vovskoj i Sofijskoj II letopis'jax." Russian History 25, 1-2: 79-88 (1998).
  44. "The Cult of Saint Nikita the Stylite in Pereslavl' and Among the Muscovite Elite." Fonctions sociales et politiques du culte des saints dans les societes de rite grec et latin au Moyen Age et a l'epoque moderne. Approche comparative. LARHCOR, Warsaw, 1999: 331-346.
  45. "The 'Stixiry Ivana Groznogo' as a Cultural Myth." Essays in Poetics, Literary History and Linguistics. Presented to Vjacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday. OGI, Moscow, 1999: 45-54.
  46. Aleksandr V. Pigin. Aus der Geschichte der russischen Dämonologie des 17.Jahrhunderts: Erzählung der besessenen Frau Solomonija. Untersuchung und Texte (1998). Reviewed in Slavic Review: 928-930 (1999).
  47. "Marfa Boretskaia, Posadnitsa of Novgorod: A Reconsideration of her Legend and her Life." (With Janet Martin). Slavic Review 59, 2 (2000): 343-368.
  48. "How the Bones of Plato and Two Kievan Princes Were Baptized: Notes on the Political Theology of the Stepennaja kniga." Welt der Slaven 46, 2 (2001): 313-330.
  49. "The Tale of Tamerlane in the Royal Book of Degrees." The Place of Russia in Eurasia. Lorand Eotvos University Press, Budapest, 2001: 121-129.
  50. Evgenii G. Vodolazkin. Vsemirnaja istorija v literature Drevnej Rus (na materiale chronograficheskogo i palejnogo povestvovanija XI-XV vekov). (2000). Reviewed in Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas (2001): 611-612.