Willamette University

German and Russian

Mark Conliffe

Mark Conliffe

Mark Conliffe teaches Russian language, literature, and civilization. In his language classes he aims to ensure that students can communicate in Russian effectively and sensitively. The literature courses introduce the major works of nineteenth- and twentieth- century Russian literature, blending formal literary analysis with socio-historical and philosophical considerations of the works. The civilization course surveys significant social, artistic, philosophical, and scientific events in Russian history and discusses the impact the events had on that society.

His research focuses on Russian prose, and presently he is working on a study of Vladimir Korolenko's life and writing.

Education

  • PhD University of Toronto
  • MA McGill University
  • BA University of Toronto

Teaching Areas

  • Russian language, Russian literature, Russian culture, short stories

Recent Publications

  • “Valentin Kataev’s Later Writing and ‘Uže napisan Verter’: Time, Memory, and a Critical Dream.” Scando-Slavica vol. 56, no. 1 (2010): 7-26.
  • “On Tolstoy, Turgenev and Chernyshevsky: Love, Society and the Heroines in Semeinoe schast’e, Nakanune, and Chto delat?” Uchenye zapiski Tavricheskogo natsional’nogo universiteta im V.I. Vernadskogo. Seriia “Filologiia” vol. 21 (60), no. 2 (2008): 208-15.
  • “On Isolation.” The Midwest Quarterly vol. 47, no. 2 (Winter 2006): 115-130.
  • “Blindness and Misunderstanding: On Garshin’s Chetyre dnia.” Australian Slavonic and East European Studies vol. 18, nos. 1-2 (2004): 129-142.
  • “‘Skuchnaia istoriia’ as Coda: Isolation and Chekhov’s Prose of the 1880s.” Toronto Slavic Quarterly no. 10 (Fall 2004). 13 August 2007 <http://www.utoronto.ca/tsq/10/index10.shtml>.
  • “Mentalitet predstavitelei russkoi glubinki i ‘mif ‘ne ia’’ v ‘Istorii moego sovremennika’ Korolenko.” (Co-authored with N.P. Ivanova). Uchenye zapiski Tavricheskogo natsional’nogo universiteta im. V.I. Vernadskogo. Seriia “Filologiia” vol. 16 (55), no. 1 (2004): 176-186.
  • “The Fictional World of Garshin and Borchert: ‘The Red Flower’ and ‘The Dandelion.’” Germano-Slavica vol. 14 (2003): 87-99.
  • “Sládek’s Intent: Reading Václav Havel’s Audience.” Balagan vol. 8 (2002): 3-16.