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curriculum vita


                                                                  Curriculum Vitae

 

Shira Wolosky                         

Full Professor, English and American Literature

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Jerusalem, Israel

 

Born: 1954, New York, U.S.A.

 

Education:

           Jan. 1981:  Ph.D. with distinction, Department of Comparative Literature, Princeton University

                             Major Specialization: English and American Literature, nineteenth and

                             twentieth centuries

           1978‑1979:  Fulbright Scholar at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem

           June, 1978: M.A. with distinction, Department of Comparative Literature, Princeton University

           June, 1975: B.A.  summa cum laude, Comparative Litera­ture, Brown University

 

Dissertation: "Linguistic Poetics: Literary Responses to Modern Cultural Crisis."

Directors: Robert Fagles, Joseph Frank, Emory Elliott, A. Walton LItz

                                                     

Academic Honors:

Jan-March, 2008: Drue Heinz Visiting Professor, Rothermere Institute, Oxford University

                       Jan-June, 2007: Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton: School of History

                       August, 2003: Einstein Forum Fellowship, Potsdam, Germany

November, 2001: Fellowship at the Center for Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania      

                       2001-2002:  Littauer Foundation Grant

                       2000-2001:  Guggenheim Fellowship

                       1993-1995:  Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities Research Grant

1985‑1986:  Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies, The Hebrew University in Jerusalem

                       1983‑1984:  Morse Fellowship, Yale University

                       June, 1983:  Whitney Griswold Research Grant, Yale University

                       June, 1982:  American Council of Learned Societies Grant‑in‑Aid

June, 1981:  Sidonie Claus Dissertation Award in Comparative Literature, Princeton University

1978‑1979:   Fulbright‑Hayes/Israel Government Grant, Hebrew   University in Jerusalem

                       1978‑1979:  Whiting Fellowship in the Humanities

                       1975‑1978:   Princeton University Fellowship

                       1975: Rosalie Colie Award in Comparative Litera­ture, Brown University        

                       1975:  Phi Beta Kappa, Brown University

 

 

Academic Positions:

 

                       From 1998: Full Professor, Hebrew University

                       1998 - 2005:  Fellow, Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem

                       1987: Senior Lecturer, Hebrew University  [Tenure: 1994]

                       Jan. 1987:  Visiting Professor, Hebrew University

                       1985-6: Associate Professor of English Literature, Yale University

                       1984‑1985: Assistant Director of the Whitney Humanities Center, Yale University

                       198O‑1985: Assistant Professor of English Literature, Yale University

                       1976‑198O: Teaching Fellow, Princeton University

                       1974‑1975: Teaching Fellow, Brown University

                      

Teaching Awards: 1989, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2005

 

Publications:

 

Books:            

1) Emily Dickinson: A Voice of War.  New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984       

2) Language Mysticism: The Negative Way of Language in Eliot, Beckett and Celan, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995

3) The Art of Poetry, Oxford University Press, 2001; second printing, 2002

4) Major Voices in Nineteenth-Century American Women's Poetry, Selected with Introductory Essays, London: Tobypress, 2004

5) Poetry and Public Discourse (1820-1910), The Cambridge History of American Literature Vol. IV, ed. Sacvan Bercovitch, Cambridge University Press 2004,  147-480

6) Defending Identity with Natan Sharansky, NY: Public Affairs,  2008  in production

 

Edited:

1) 20th-Century American Women’s Poetries of Engagement,  Sources Spring 2002, No. 12, with Cristina Giorcelli and Cristanne Miller

2) Edited with introduction: Walt Whitman: Collected Poems Toby Press, 2003

 

Articles:

 

1)       “Derrida, Jabes, Levinas:  Sign Theory as Ethical Discourse," Prooftexts, vol. 2, 1982,  283‑3O2.

2)        "Emily Dickinson's War Poetry:  The Problem of Theodicy," The Massachusetts          Review, vol. 25, no. 1, 1984, 22‑41.

3)       "The Slayers of Moses," Association for Jewish Studies, Vol IX No. 2 Fall 1984, pp. 273‑281

4)       "Paul Celan's Linguistic Mysticism," Studies inTwentieth Century Literature, Fall, 1986, 191-211.

5)       "Mystical Language and Mystical Silence in Paul Celan's 'Dein Hinu"bersein,'" in Argumentum e Silentio, Amy Colin, ed., New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1987, 364-374.

6)       “Rhetoric or Not: Hymnal Tropes in Emily Dickinson and Isaac Watts,"  The New England Quarterly, Volume LXI, No. 2, June, 1988, 214-232.

7)       "Samuel Beckett's Figural Evasions," in Languages of the Unsayable, Sanford Budick and Wollfgang Iser, eds. New York: Columbia, University Press, 1989, 165- 186.

8)       "Representing Motherhood: The Trope of Mother/Bird in Anne Bradstreet and Marianne Moore," Hebrew University Studies in Literature and the Arts 18, 1990, 156-176.

9)       "The Negative Way Negated: Samuel Beckett's Texts for Nothing," New Literary History No. 22, 1991, 213-231

10)   "The Need of Being Versed: Robert Frost and the Limits of Rhetoric," Essays in Literature, Vol. 18,  No. 1, Spring 1991: 76-92

11)   "Pharisaic," Common Knowledge, Vol. 2, No. 2, Fall, 1993, 66-80.

12)   "Representing Other Voices: Rhetorical Perspective in Elizabeth Bishop," Style Volume 29, No. 1, Spring 1995, 1-17.

13)   "Language Asceticism in "Four Quartets," in I silenzi dei testi e i silenzi della critica, ed. Carla Locatelli, Universita degli studi di Trento, 1996, 221-243.

14)   "An American-Jewish Typology: Emma Lazarus and the Figure of Christ," Prooftexts Vol.16 No. 2 May 1996,113-125.

15)   "On Cavell on Whitman: Questions about Application" Common Knowledge Vol. 5 no. 2 Fall 1996, 61-71.

16)   "An "Other" Negative Theology: On Derrida's "How to Avoid Speaking: Denials," Poetics Today 19:2, Summer 1998, 261-280.

17)   "On (Mis-)Translating Paul Celan," Conditio Judaica, Band 28 1999 145-154.

18)   "The Metaphysics of Language in Emily Dickinson and Paul Celan," Trajectories of Mysticism, ed. Philip Leonard, St. Martin's Press, 2000, 25-45.

19)   "Apophatics and Poetics: Paul Celan Translating Emily Dickinson,"in Language and Negativity, ed. Henny Fiska Hagg, Oslo: Novus Press, 2000, 63-83.

20)   "Emily Dickinson's Manuscript Body," Emily Dickinson Journal, VIII, 2, 1999, 87-99.

21)   "Santayana and Harvard Formalism," Raritan XVIII:4, Spring 1999 51-67.

22)   Dickinson’s Emerson,” Emily Dickinson’s Journal, IX: 2, 2000, 134-141.

23)   “Democracy in America: By Dr. Seuss” Southwestern Review, Vol. 85 No. 2, Spring 2000, 167-210.

24)   “Modest Selves: Dickinson’s Critique of American Identity,” Emily Dickinson at Home, ed. Gudrun Grabher and Martina Antretter, Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2001, 1-12.

25)   “The Lyric, History, and the Avant-Garde: Theorizing Paul Celan,” Poetics Today, Vol 22, No 3, Fall 2001, 651-668.

26)    “Interpretation Beyond Metaphysics”  Judaism and Modernity, ed. Jonathan Malino, Hampshire, England: Ashgate, 2004, 53-64.

27)   “Charlotte Gilman’s Public Poetry,” Sources, Spring No. 12, 2002, pp. 11-28.

28)   “Melville’s Unreading of the Bible: Redburn and The Confidence Man, Letteratura D’America,  XXI n. 88-89, 2001, 31-52

29)   “John Hollander,” Jewish Writers of the Twentieth Century, London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2003.

30)   Israel and America: Revisioning History” Michigan Quarterly Review Winter 2003 42:1, 39-50

31)   “Walt Whitman’s Poetic Worlds,” Walt Whitman: Collected Poetry, ed. Shira Wolosky, Tobypress, 2003,  1-18

32)   "American Visions of Light: Emerson, Whitman, Dickinson," Light, (Jerusalem: Adi Foundation, 2004) (Hebrew).

33)    “A Jewish-American Poetics”  Cambridge Companion to Jewish-American Literature, ed. Michael Kramer and Hannah Wirth-Nesher, Cambridge University Press, 2003, 250-268

34)   "Women's Bibles," Feminist Studies, Vol. 28, no. 1 Spring 2002, 191-211.

35)   “Moral Finitude and the Ethics of Language,” Common Knowledge 9:3 Fall 2003 406-423

36)    “The Claims of Rhetoric: Towards an Historical Poetics,” American Literary History, Spring 2003 15:1,  14-22

37)   “Public Women, Private Men: American Women Poets and the Common Good,” Signs, Winter 2003 Vol. 28, no. 2, 665-694

38)   "Being in the Body," Cambridge Companion to Emily Dickinson, ed. Wendy Martin, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002, 129-141.

39)    “Public and Private in Emily Dickinson’s War Poetry,” A Historical Guide to  Emily Dickinson, ed. Vivian Pollack , (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 103-132

40)   "The Lonely Woman of Faith," Judaism,  Vol. 52. Nos. 1-2, 2004, 3-18

41)   "The Ethics of Foucauldian Poetics: Women's Selves," New Literary History, Vol. 35, No. 3, Summer 2004, 491-506

42)   "Medical-Industrial Discourses in Muriel Rukeyser's "Book of the Dead,"" Literature and Medicine  2006

43)   "Emily Dickinson: Reclusion against Itself" Common Knowledge,   April 2006

44)   “Gershom Scholem’s Linguistic Theory,” in Gershom Scholem, ed. Joseph Dan and Peter Schafer, J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tubingen, 2006

    

 

 

Reprinted:

 

"A Syntax of Contention," (reprinted) in Emily Dickinson, Harold Bloom, ed., New York: Chelsea House,  1986, 161-186;

"Emily Dickinson: A Voice of War," (reprinted) in American Women Poets, Harold Bloom, ed. New York: Chelsea House, 1986, 17-22

From Emily Dickinson: A Voice of War in She Wields a Pen, ed. Janet Gray, U of Iowa Press, 1997, 333-334

“The Need of Being Versed: Robert Frost and the Limits of Rhetoric,” Harold Bloom, ed. New York: Chelsea House, 2003.

“Public Woman, Private Man,” (Hebrew) Democracy Institute, Jerusalem, 2003–09–29

abstract and index information has been included as part of CSA Sociological Abstracts from CSA: Title: Public Women, Private Men: American Women Poets and the Common Good Journal: Signs 

 

Reviews:         

"Past Continuous," The Boston Review, Oct. 1985

"Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson", Agnieszka Salska, for American Literature

Golden Doves with Silver Dots, Jose Faur, for The University of Chicago Journal of Religion

Mystical Languages of Unsaying for Common Knowledge

Choosing Not Choosing for Common Knowledge

Nietzsche and Jewish Culture for Common Knowledge

Gadamer on Celan for Common Knowledge

Emily Dickinson Journal VIII.1, Spring 1999

Caputo on Derrida, Common Knowledge

Jabes, Poet of Exile  Partial Knowledge

 

Conferences and Lectures:

 

1985:  Director, Conference "On Poetry and Pro­phecy," Whitney Humanities Center, Yale U

1980: "Paul Celan's Poetry of Difficulty," M.L.A.,N.Y.

1981: "Of Grammatology and the Kabbalah," Vassar College,

1982: "Emily Dickinson's Blasphemy," M.L.A. Los Angeles

1983: "Emily Dickinson, Poet of War," Franklin and Marshall College

1983: "Paul Celan's Linguistic Mysticism," Bar‑Ilan Conference, Israel

1984: "Mystical Language and Mystical Silence in Paul Celan's 'Dein Hinu"bersein,'" Celan Symposium, University Of Washington, Seattle

1985: "Paul Celan: Prophecy's Negative Moment," Conference: "On Poetry and Prophecy," Yale

1986: "Emily Dickinson and Isaac Watts," Conference:"Visionary Language," Bar Ilan University

1986: "Samuel Beckett's Figural Evasions," Conference:"Absence and Negation," Institute for Advanced Studies, Jerusalem

1988: "The Negative Way Negated: Samuel Beckett's "Texts for Nothing," Conference: "Hermeneutics," Jerusalem

1991: "Elizabeth Bishop's Many Voices," Conference: "Translation of Cultures," Jerusalem

1994: invited keynote: "Language Asceticism in Four Quartets," Conference: "The Theory of Silence and the Silence of Theory,"                        Trent, Italy 

1994: "Longfellow on (Dead) Language," Conference: "The Figure of Death," Tzfat, Israel

1995: "On Cavel On Whitman," Conference: "Acknowledging Stanley Cavell," Jerusalem

1996: "On Mis-Translating Paul Celan," Conference:  "Translating Paul Celan," Jerusalem

1996: invited keynote: "Being in the Body," Association for Literary Scholars and Critics, Boston 

1996: "Slave Spirituals and Black Typology" Israel Association of American Studies, Jerusalem

1997: invited keynote: "The Metaphysics of Language in Emily Dickinson" Conference on "Apophaticism" University of Bergen, Norway

1997: "The Lyric and History," Conference: "Poetics of the Avant Garde," Tel Aviv

1998: "Walt Whitman: The Poet as President," European Association for American Studies, Lisbon

1999: "Women's Bibles" Israel Association of American Studies

2000: "Modest Selves," Emily Dickinson Society, Amherst

2000: “Representative Women,” Conference on Cultural Institutions, Jerusalem

2001:  “Being in the Body,” Emily Dickinson Society keynote, Trondheim

2001: “The Claims of Rhetoric,” American Literature Association

2001: “American-Jewish Theory” Center for Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania

2002:  “Moral Finitude and American Poetics,” Einstein Forum, Berlin

2003:  “Gershom Scholem’s Linguistic Mysticism,” Dubnov Institute, Leipzig

2003: Invited Lecture at St. John's College, Oxford: "Robert Frost's Ethics of Language"

2004: "The Passion of Christ in America: Old Testament Visions and Edward Taylor's Poetry of Covenant" Israel Academy, Jerusalem

2005: "Medical-Industrial Discourses in Muriel Rukeyser's "Book of the Dead," Haifa University

2005: "American Women's Liberal Religion," Conference on Gender and Religion, Helsinki

2005: Invited Lectures at St. John's College, Oxford:  American Women Poets

2006: Ginor Seminar, Jewish Theological Seminary

2006: Religion and Gender in Nineteenth-Century America, Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton

2006: Panel on the Cambridge History, MLA

2006: Democracy and Identity, Hartman Institute, Jerusalem

 

Languages:  French, reading, speaking, writing; German, reading, speaking; Hebrew, reading, speaking, writing; Italian, reading, speaking; Latin, reading knowledge