Image: Dr. Sasha Spektor, Germanic and Slavic faculty and associate professor, has received the Jane Grayson First Book Prize from the International Vladimir Nabakov Society, for his book, The Reader as Accomplice: Narrative Ethics in Dostoevsky and Nabokov (October 2020, Northwestern University Press). This award is given annually for “a first book that creates an impactful contribution” to studies of the famed 20th-century Russian-American novelist, poet, and academic, Vladimir Nabokov. The Reader as Accomplice: Narrative Ethics in Dostoevsky and Nabokov explores Nabokov’s work within the context of an intriguing new analysis of the function of Dostoevsky’s authorship as well as Bakhtin’s use of polyphony and dialogue. In it, Dr. Spektor dissects the recurring division within Nabokov studies: the distinction between life and art. He also discusses the power dynamics between multiple players in stories such as the narrator and the reader. Dr. Spektor's essay, “Writing (as) Philosophy: Deconstructing Plato in Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky’s ‘In the Pupil.’” (March 1, 2018, Comparative Literature) analyzes the relationship between philosophical trends of Russian modernism and Krzhizhanovsky’s ‘In the Pupil’ through the lens of Plato. His research interests include Nineteenth- and Twentieth-century Russian prose and poetry; Dostoevsky; Russian contemporary poetry; Literary theory; Ethics in literature; Polish Modernism; Formation of literary identity; Russian and Soviet cinema, and translation. Dr. Spektor is an associate professor at the University of Georgia in Athens in the Department of Germanic & Slavic Studies. He regularly teaches courses on Russian Literature, some incorporating script-writing and performance of literature-inspired student creations.
