Olga Freidenberg (March 15, 1890 in

Odessa ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...

– July 6, 1955 in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

) was a Russian and Soviet classical philologist, one of the pioneers of

cultural studies Cultural studies is an academic field that explores the dynamics of contemporary culture (including the politics of popular culture) and its social and historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers investigate how cultural practices rel ...

in Russia. She is also known as the cousin of the famous writer

Boris Pasternak Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (30 May 1960) was a Russian and Soviet poet, novelist, composer, and literary translator. Composed in 1917, Pasternak's first book of poems, ''My Sister, Life'', was published in Berlin in 1922 and soon became an imp ...

; their correspondence has been published and studied.

Biography

Olga Freidenberg was born to Anna Osipovna Pasternak and Mikhail Filippovich Freidenberg in

. The family moved to

St Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

in 1903 and Freidenberg graduated from a gymnasium there in 1908. Restricted in her ability to pursue university education as a woman and a Jew, she travelled through Europe studying foreign languages on her own and living in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

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, and

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. As World War I broke out, she returned to Russia and became a military nurse. Freidenberg returned to her studies at Petrograd University in 1923 and wrote a Ph.D. thesis in 1924, titled ''The Origins of the'' ''Greek Novel''. The university had only started accepting women as students in 1917, and Freidenberg was the first woman to defend her thesis in

classical philology Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek and Roman literature and their original languages, ...

. In 1935 she was awarded the Russian highest scientific degree of Doctor of Science. Since all of the Classics Departments in Russia had been shut since 1921, Freidenberg played a key role in founding the new Classical Department at Petrograd University. Freidenberg also founded the chair of classical philology and was head of the Classical Department from 1932 to 1950. In her work, Freidenberg drew comparison between pagan erotic novels and both

Acts The Acts of the Apostles (, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; ) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its message to the Roman Empire. Acts and the Gospel of Luke make up a two-par ...

(Apocryphal and Canonical) and

Gospels Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the second century AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message was reported. In this sen ...

. She defined a narrative genre of ‘Acts and Passions’ of a hero as their common basis. Freidenberg was the first in Europe to conclude that the ‘Greek’ novel was Oriental in its origin. She noted that the archetypal patterns in the plots of its different narratives were versions of the ''legomenon'' which can be traced back to the ''dromenon'' of fertility cults. During the

Stalin era Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

she was persecuted and her brother was arrested. In 1950, as part of the persecution of "rootless cosmopolitans" she was fired from Petrograd University. For example, Freidenberg's 1935 dissertation ''The Poetics of Plot and Genre: The Classical Period of Ancient Literature'' was the only book published in her lifetime (in 1936) but was denounced by the Soviet authorities and taken out of circulation shortly afterwards. It was republished in 1997. Many of Freidenberg's works were not published in her lifetime and some are still unpublished. Modern scholars, such as Nina Perlina and Nina Braginskaya, are now publishing new editions of Freidenberg's works in English. Freidenberg's work is now being reviewed and reassessed, particularly in examinations of early Greek thought.

Works

* ''The Poetics of Plot and Genre: The Classical Period of Ancient Literature'' * ''Image and Concept: Mythopoetic Roots of Literature'' * ''Poėtika si︠u︡zheta i zhanra'' * ''Mif i literatura drevnosti''

References

External links

Online archive of Olga Freidenberg's work
{{DEFAULTSORT:Freidenberg, Olga 1890 births 1955 deaths People from Kherson Governorate Odesa Jews Ukrainian Jews Soviet philologists Russian women philologists Russian women linguists Classical philologists Saint Petersburg State University alumni Academic staff of Saint Petersburg State University Russian classical scholars Women classical scholars Burials at Bogoslovskoe Cemetery Academic staff of Herzen University

Biography

Works

Further reading

References

External links