Mikhail Leonovich Gasparov (, April 13, 1935 in
Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
– November 7, 2005 in Moscow) was a Russian
philologist
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...
and
translator
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...
, renowned for his studies 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, ...
and the history of
versification, and a member of the informal
Tartu-Moscow Semiotic School. He graduated from
Moscow State University
Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...
in 1957 and worked at the
Gorky Institute of World Literature, the
Russian State University for the Humanities
The Russian State University for the Humanities (RSUH; ), is a university in Moscow, Russia with over 25,000 students. It was created in 1991 as the result of the merger of the Moscow Urban University of the People (est. 1908) and the Moscow Sta ...
, and the
Russian Language Institute in
Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
. In 1992 Gasparov was elected a full member of the
Russian Academy of Science.
In 1995, Mikhail Gasparov was awarded the
State Prize of the Russian Federation
The State Prize of the Russian Federation, officially translated in Russia as Russian Federation National Award, is a state honorary prize established in 1992 following the breakup of the Soviet Union. In 2004 the rules for selection of laureates ...
.
In 1997, he shared the
Little Booker Prize with
Aleksandr Goldstein for their publications analysing
Russian literature
Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia, its Russian diaspora, émigrés, and to Russian language, Russian-language literature. Major contributors to Russian literature, as well as English for instance, are authors of different e ...
from a historical-philosophical point of view.
In 1999, Gasparov was awarded the
Andrei Bely Prize for his essay collection ''Notes and excerpts'' ().
Gasparov was also a poet. He published translations of classical and modern European poetry, yet only one of his own poems was published during his lifetime.
Gasparov was a member of the editorial board of ''Literary Monuments'' () book series, journals ''
Journal of Ancient History'' (), ''Literary Research'' (), ''
Elementa'' (United States), and ''
Rossica Romana'' (Italy).
Mikhail Gasparov published about 300 articles, translations and other works, including the monographs ''Fable in Antiquity'' (, 1971), ''Modern Russian Versification'' (, 1974), ''Overview of the History of Russian Versification'' (, 1984), ''Overview of the History of European Versification'' (, 1989).
During his last years Gasparov was actively engaged in publishing the collected works of the Russian poet
Osip Mandelstam
Osip Emilyevich Mandelstam (, ; – 27 December 1938) was a Russian and Soviet poet. He was one of the foremost members of the Acmeist school.
Osip Mandelstam was arrested during the repressions of the 1930s and sent into internal exile wi ...
.
On April 10, 2005, three days before his seventieth
birthday
A birthday is the anniversary of the birth of a person or figuratively of an institution. Birthdays of people are celebrated in numerous cultures, often with birthday gifts, birthday cards, a birthday party, or a rite of passage.
Many religion ...
, he was
baptized
Baptism (from ) is a Christian sacrament of initiation almost invariably with the use of water. It may be performed by sprinkling or pouring water on the head, or by immersing in water either partially or completely, traditionally three ...
according to the
Russian Orthodox rite. He died on November 7, 2005 and was buried next to his mother at the
Miusskoye Cemetery in Moscow.
Commemorating Mikhail Gasparov, the Russian State University for the Humanities organises annual conferences dedicated to the main fields of Gasparov's academic research --
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, ...
and Russian literature of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
[http://www.litkarta.ru/russia/moscow/persons/gasparov-m/ Михаил ГАСПАРОВ – Биография]
Publications
Books
*Gasparov M. L.
A history of European versification' (transl. by G. S. Smith &
Marina Tarlinskaja). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996. .
:*West, M. L
Review of ''A history of European versification'' by M. L. Gasparov; G. S. Smith; M. Tarlinskaja ''
The classical review'', New Series, Vol. 47, No. 2 (1997), pp. 431-432.
:*Pensom, Roger
Review of ''A history of European versification'' by M. L. Gasparov; G. S. Smith; M. Tarlinskaya ''
The modern language review
''Modern Language Review'' is the journal of the Modern Humanities Research Association ( MHRA). It is one of the oldest journals in the field of modern languages. Founded in 1905, it has published more than 3,000 articles and 20,000 book reviews. ...
'', Vol. 94, No. 1 (Jan., 1999), pp. 284-285.
*Gasparov, M. ''Storia del verso europeo'' (transl. by S. Garzonio). Bologna: Il Mulino, 1993.
Articles in periodicals
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Contributions to books
*
'Columbus's egg, or the structure of the novella'', in ''Persistent forms: explorations in historical poetics'', ed. I. Kliger, B. Maslov. New York, 2016, 392–396
*
'An anthology without names: 88 contemporary poems selected by Z. Gippius'', in ''Liber, fragmenta, libellus prima e dopo Petrarca: in ricordo di D'Arco Silvio Avalle: seminario internazionale di studi, Bergamo, 23-25 ottobre 2003'', ed. F. Lo Monaco, L. C. Rossi, N. Scaffai. Firenze, 2006, 405–409
* 'Introduzione', in ''Il verso europeo. Atti del seminario di metrica comparata (4 maggio 1994)'', ed. F. Stella. Firenze, 1995, 13-16
* (with M.L. Andreev, S.S. Averintsev, P.A. Grintser, A.V. Mikhailov) ‘Literary epochs and types of artistic consciousness’ in
Историческая поэтика. Литературные эпохи и типы художественного сознания', ed. P.A. Grintser. Москва, 1994, 481-509
* 'Quantitative methods in Russian metrics: achievements and prospects', in
Metre, rhythm, stanza, rhyme', ed. G. Smith. Colchester, 1980. (Russian Poetics in Translation, 7), 1–19
* 'Light and heavy verse lines', in
Metre, rhythm, stanza, rhyme', ed. G. Smith. Colchester, 1980. (Russian Poetics in Translation, 7), 31–44
* 'Towards an analysis of Russian inexact rhyme', in
Metre, rhythm, stanza, rhyme', ed. G. Smith. Colchester, 1980. (Russian Poetics in Translation, 7), 61–75
Bibliography
* Wachtel, Michael (2006)
Mikhail Leonovich Gasparov (13 April 1935-7 November 2005) ''
Slavonica'' 12 (1), 73–76.
* Emerson, C. ' In Honor of Mikhail Gasparov's Quarter-Century of Not Liking Bakhtin: Pro and Contra', in ''Poetics. Self. Place. Essays in Honor of Anna Lisa Crone '', ed. C. O’Neil, N. Boudreau, S. Krive (Slavica Publishers, 2007), 26–49
* Kirschbaum, H. (2008)
The Poetics of Paraphrase: The Positivist Postmodernism in Mikhail Gasparov’s “Experimental Translations”, in '' Russian Language Journal '' 58 (1): 47–68
* ''Frontiers in Comparative Prosody. In memoriam: Mikhail Gasparov '', ed. M. Lotman, M.-K. Lotman. Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, 2011
* Emerson, C. (2016)
Creative ways of not liking Bakhtin: Lydia Ginzburg and Mikhail Gasparov. ''Bakhtiniana'' 11 (1): 39–69
References
External links
*Wachtel, Michael (2006)
Mikhail Leonovich Gasparov (13 April 1935-7 November 2005) ''
Slavonica'' 12 (1), 73–76.
Brief memorial by Marina Tarlinskaja, friend, colleague, and translator
See also
*
Culturology
*
Vyacheslav Ivanov (philologist)
Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov ( ; 21 August 1929 – 7 October 2017) was a prominent Soviet and Russian philologist, semiotician and Indo-Europeanist probably best known for his glottalic theory of Indo-European consonantism and for placing ...
*
Aron Gurevich
*
Alexander Dobrokhotov
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gasparov, Mikhail
Writers from Moscow
Classical philologists
Literary theorists
Velimir Khlebnikov scholars
Translators from Ancient Greek
English–Russian translators
Italian–Russian translators
Latin–Russian translators
Full Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian people of Jewish descent
1935 births
2005 deaths
Moscow State University alumni
State Prize of the Russian Federation laureates
20th-century Russian translators
Soviet literary historians
Soviet male writers
20th-century Russian male writers
Corresponding fellows of the British Academy
20th-century Russian philologists
Russian Latinists