Mikhail Gasparov

Mikhail Leonovich Gasparov (Михаи́л Лео́нович Гаспа́ров, April 13, 1935 in Moscow – November 7, 2005 in Moscow) was a Russian philologist and translator, renowned for his studies in classical philology and the history of versification, and a member of the informal Tartu-Moscow Semiotic School. He graduated from Moscow State University in 1957 and worked at the Gorky Institute of World Literature, the Russian State University for the Humanities, and the Russian Language Institute in Moscow. In 1992 Gasparov was elected a full member of the Russian Academy of Science.

In 1995, Mikhail Gasparov was awarded the State Prize of the Russian Federation.

In 1997, he shared the Little Booker Prize with Aleksandr Goldstein for their publications analysing Russian literature from a historical-philosophical point of view.

In 1999, Gasparov was awarded the Andrei Bely Prize for his essay collection Notes and excerpts (Записи и выписки). Gasparov was also a poet. He published translations of classical and modern European poetry, yet only one of his own poems was published during his lifetime.

Gasparov was a member of the editorial board of Literary Monuments (Литературные памятники) book series, journals Journal of Ancient History (Вестник древней истории), Literary Research (Литературоведение), Elementa (United States), and Rossica Romana (Italy).

Mikhail Gasparov published about 300 articles, translations and other works, including the monographs Fable in Antiquity (Античная литературная басня, 1971), Modern Russian Versification (Современный русский стих. Метрика и ритмика, 1974), Overview of the History of Russian Versification (Очерк истории русского стиха: Метрика, ритмика, рифма, строфика, 1984), Overview of the History of European Versification (Очерк истории европейского стиха, 1989).

During his last years Gasparov was actively engaged in publishing the collected works of the Russian poet Osip Mandelstam. On April 10, 2005, three days before his seventieth birthday, he was baptized according to the Russian Orthodox rite. He died on November 7, 2005 and was buried next to his mother at the Miusskoye Cemetery in Moscow.

Commemorating Mikhail Gasparov, the Russian State University for the Humanities organises annual conferences dedicated to the main fields of Gasparov's academic research -- classical philology and Russian literature of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Publications

 * Gasparov M. L. A history of European versification (transl. by G. S. Smith & Marina Tarlinskaja). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996. ISBN 0-19-815879-3.
 * West, M. L. Review of A history of European versification by M. L. Gasparov; G. S. Smith; M. Tarlinskaja. The classical review, New Series, Vol. 47, No. 2 (1997), pp. 431-432.
 * Pensom, Roger. Review of A history of European versification by M. L. Gasparov; G. S. Smith; M. Tarlinskaya. The modern language review, Vol. 94, No. 1 (Jan., 1999), pp. 284-285.


 * Gasparov, M. Storia del verso europeo (transl. by S. Garzonio). Bologna: Il Mulino, 1993.

Contributions to books

 * 'Columbus's egg, or the structure of the novella', in Persistent forms: explorations in historical poetics, ed. I. Kliger, B. Maslov. New York, 2016, 392–396
 * 'An anthology without names: 88 contemporary poems selected by Z. Gippius', in Liber, fragmenta, libellus prima e dopo Petrarca: in ricordo di D'Arco Silvio Avalle: seminario internazionale di studi, Bergamo, 23-25 ottobre 2003, ed. F. Lo Monaco, L. C. Rossi, N. Scaffai. Firenze, 2006, 405–409
 * 'Introduzione', in Il verso europeo. Atti del seminario di metrica comparata (4 maggio 1994), ed. F. Stella. Firenze, 1995, 13-16
 * (with M.L. Andreev, S.S. Averintsev, P.A. Grintser, A.V. Mikhailov) ‘Literary epochs and types of artistic consciousness’ in Историческая поэтика. Литературные эпохи и типы художественного сознания, ed. P.A. Grintser. Москва, 1994, 481-509
 * 'Quantitative methods in Russian metrics: achievements and prospects', in Metre, rhythm, stanza, rhyme, ed. G. Smith. Colchester, 1980. (Russian Poetics in Translation, 7), 1–19
 * 'Light and heavy verse lines', in Metre, rhythm, stanza, rhyme, ed. G. Smith. Colchester, 1980. (Russian Poetics in Translation, 7), 31–44
 * 'Towards an analysis of Russian inexact rhyme', in Metre, rhythm, stanza, rhyme, ed. G. Smith. Colchester, 1980. (Russian Poetics in Translation, 7), 61–75