Michael Nicholson, M.A., D.Phil. (B.A. Manchester)
Emeritus Fellow & Dean of Degrees, University College
Mike Nicholson passed away on 9 September 2022.
Research
The bulk of Nicholson's publications were on Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Varlam Shalamov, with other writings on Dostoevsky, Pil'nyak, D.S. Mirsky and Maurice Baring. He spent two years as O'Connor Visiting Professor at Colgate University and in 2005 was made an Honorary Professor of Henan University, China. His current project is a study of Solzhenitsyn's writing in the 1930s to 1950s, and he has translated several of Solzhenitsyn's writings, most recently the literary film scenario Tanks Know the Truth (2013).
Selection of Publications
"Discontinuities in the Evolution of Kolyma Stories and '"One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich".' Chapter 1 of The Gulag in Writings of Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Varlam Shalamov: Fact, Document, Fiction, ed. I. Karlsohn & F. Heffermehl (Leiden: Brill, 2021), 17-44.
"Десятилетние вехи литературного пути Александра Солженицынa." L. I. Saraskina, ed., Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: vzglyad iz XXI veka. Materialy mezhdunarodnoj nauchnoj konferentsii, posvyashchennoj 100-letiyu so dnya rozhdeniyq. (M.: Russkii put', 2019), .24-31.
“Odin den’ Ivana Denisovicha.” Video-recorded lecture series: Жизнь и творчество Александра Исаевича Солженицына, publ. by Pushkin State Institute of Russian Language/Moscow City Department of Education. Moscow, 2018. https://pushkininstitute.ru/school/external_courses/296
Curated: with N. Hearn, "Centenary Celebration of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Birth. Taylor Institution Library. 23 Nov.- 17 Dec. 2018. Incl. blog with video of introductory lecture: http://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/taylorian/2018/12/11/alexander-solzhenitsyn-centenary-exhibition/8.“
"Полотна художника «Кондрашева-Иванова» и эволюция солженицынской прозы конца 50-х гг.” L. I .Saraskina, ed., Lichnost' i tvorchestvo A. I. Solzhenitysna v sovremennom iskusstve i literature (М.: Gos. inst. iskusstvoznaniya/ Russkii put', 2018). 263-70. Variant, as “Солженицын в мастерской художника: «В круге первом» накануне «Ивана Денисовича».” Wang Yong, ed. Russkaya literatura i iskusstvo: Mezhdistsiplinarnye podkhody (Hangzhou, PRC: Zhejiang University Press, 2017), 85-96.
"On Dostoevsky's Shoelaces and the Vicissitudes of Literary History", Mundo Eslavo (Granada), 16 (2017), 183-91. (XVI Symposium of the International Dostoevsky Society). http://mundoeslavo.com/index.php/meslav/article/view/246/218
"Maurice Baring, D. S. Mirsky, and the Anglo-American History of Russian Literature” in Liu Wenfei, ed. Национальные истории русской литературы. National Histories of Russian Literature. Special issue of Beijing Slavic Review, vol.1, No.1 (2017), 221-46.
'"Жарко-костровый. Бледно-лампадный": Иван Денисович и становление зрелого Солженицына.' Melent'eva I.E., ed., "Ivanu Denisovichu" polveka : Mezhdunarodnaya nauchnaya konferentsiya k 50-letiyu publikatsii rasskaza Aleksandra Solzhenitsyna, Moskva, 15-16 noyabrya 2012 g. (Moscow: Dom russkogo zarubezh’ya imeni A Solzhenitsyna. 2013), 148-58.
'Grimasy ottepeli: Shalamov i Solzhenitsyn'', Slavic Cultural Studies (Tokyo), No.10, 2011, 4-10.
Chekhov and Solzhenitsyn', translated into Chinese as 契诃夫 与索尔仁尼琴 [Chekefu yu suoerrenniqin]. Theatre Arts (quarterly journal of the Shanghai Theatre Academy, China), No. 2, 2011, 37-45. Version of paper given in Russian at Nanjing University Chekhov Anniversary Conference, September 2010
'Solzhenitsyn kak "sotsialisticheskii realist"'. In E.E. Erikson ed. Solzhenitsyn: Myslitel', istorik, khudozhnik. Zapadnaya kritika 1974-2008 (M.: Russkii put', 2010), 476-98. 'Solzhenitsyn as "Socialist Realist" ', in: H. Chung ed., In the Party Spirit (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1996), 55-68.
'"Da gde zh ty byla, Dorozhen'ka?" Zhanrovye poiski Solzhenitsyna v 40-50-e gody'. In L. I. Saraskina, ed., Put' Solzhenitsyna v kontekste bol'shogo vremeni. Sbornik pamyati 1918-2008 (Moscow: Russii put', 2009), 256-64. Italian. as "La Stradina di Aleksandr", La nuova Europa (Seriate, Italy), No. 2 (362), March-April 2012, 47-54.
'Solzhenitsyn Reclaimed', TLS, 28 November 2008, 3-5.
'Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn i bremya teleologii', in Wang, Yangzheng & Wang Yong, eds., 语言–文化 – 交际 [Language, Culture, Communication] (Harbin: Heilongjiang Peope's Publ. House, 2007), 290-98.
'Dom i "dorozhen'ka" u Solzhenitysna', in N.A. Struve & V.A. Moskin, eds. Mezhdu dvumya yubileyami 1998-2003: Pisateli, kritiki, literaturovedy o tvorchestve A.I. Solzhenitsyna (Moscow: Russkii put', 2005), 270-86.
'Ivan Denisovich : mify proiskhozhdeniia ', in A.V. Urmanov, ed., Odin den' Ivana Denisovicha A.I. Solzhenitsyna: khudozhestvennyi mir, poetika, kul'turnyi kontekst. (Blagoveshchensk: Kafedra literatury BGPU, 2003), 3-36. Repr. in Kontinent (Moscow), No 118 (2003), 408-29. Repr. in P.E. Spivakovskii & T.V. Esina, eds. "Ivanu Denisovichu" polveka (Moscow: Russkii put', 2012), 653-80.
'Solzhenitsyn na mifotvorcheskom fone', Voprosy literatury (Moscow), No 2 (March-April) 2003, 50-77.
'Solzhenitsyn, Exile and the Genius loci'. Canadian-American Slavic Studies, 33, Nos.2-4 (1999), 307-34. Russian in D. Bak, ed., Sovremennye strategii kul'turologicheskikh issledovanii, Trudy Inst-a evropeiskikh kul'tur, vyp. 1 (Moscow: RGGU, 2000), 105-53.
'Shalamov v spore o lagernoi poezii', in IV mezhdunarodnye shalamovskie chteniya (Moskva 18-19 iyunya 1997 goda) (Moscow: Respublika, 1997), 104-13.
'Shalamov na zapade', Sovetskaia bibliografiia (Moscow), 6 (1990), 96-99. Repr. in V.V. Esipov, ed., Shalamovskii sbornik, vyp. 1 (Vologda, 1994), 211-15.
Editor, with John B. Dunlop, Richard S. Haugh, Solzhenitsyn in exile : critical essays and documentary materials (Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution, 1985).
Forthcoming: 'Авангард и соблазн «интеллектуального варварства»: Борис Пильняк.' In Liu Wenfei, ed. Russkii literaturnyi avangard XX veka. Beijing Slavic Studies Centre.