Areas of Interest: Nina Wieda's
research centers on the interconnections between nineteenth- and
twentieth-century Russian literature and intellectual history. In her
dissertation, Secular Kenosis in Russian Literature: How the Russian Soul is
Made, she focuses on the formation of Russian national identity between 1840s
and 1990s. In particular, she identifies and defines a tendency - for which she
coins a term secular kenosis - that represents the transformation of religious
kenosis into an ethic of everyday Russian life. Nina shows how secular kenosis
has established itself as essential to the Russian cultural understanding of
what it means to be Russian, of the “Russian soul.” Nina's dissertation
explores the genealogy of secular kenosis as it developed in the works of
Dostoevsky, Chekhov, post-WWII Socialist Realist writers, and Eduard
Limonov.
Currently, Nina is working on a project
investigating the ways in which Soviet-period literature and popular culture
reflect and influence the bilateral exchange of values between center and
periphery.
Nina's second area of interest is South Slavic languages and cultures, and
contemporary Serbian literature in particular.
As a hobby, Nina enjoys writing language textbooks. She has authored
“Everything Russian Practice”, and co-authored “Russian for Dummies.”
