Background
Debreczeny, Paul was born on February 16, 1932 in Budapest, Hungary. Son of Zsigmond and Margit Ibolya (Csanady) Debreczeny. came to the United States, 1960.
( This study of the effect of literature on readers, both...)
This study of the effect of literature on readers, both as individuals and as members of social groups, focuses on Russia's national poet, Alexander Pushkin, as a model for investigating the aesthetic and social functions of literature. The individual reader's response to the literary text is demonstrated in Part One through a broad range of memoirs, diaries, and correspondences in which Russian readers recorded their reactions to Pushkin. Among the reactions are testimonies that Pushkin's works helped readers form their personalities, provided cathartic relief in times of stress, and aided them in releasing their suppressed emotions. In his analysis, the author draws on various psychological approaches, from studies of perception through developmental psychology to psychoanalysis. Part Two exposes the extent to which individuals' aesthetic responses are conditioned by their social environment. Against the backdrop of Russian social history in the early nineteenth century, the author describes the dissemination of new aesthetic norms, notably the relations of the Russian literary elite to "lowbrow" and "middlebrow" groups. In this context, he analyzes a number of Pushkin imitations (with Pushkin's responses to them) and links Nikolai Gogol's development as a writer to the social groups surrounding Pushkin. Among the other topics discussed are the popularization of Pushkin on the stage and his inclusion in school textbooks and anthologies. The aura surrounding the personality of an author is the subject of Part Three, in which the author shows how Pushkin's death in a duel with a foreigner contributed to his emergence as a symbol of the Russian nation, and how deep-seated anxiety about national identity gave rise to the Pushkin myth and to the canonization of the poet as martyr. The author also describes how the combined effect of the widespread reading of Pushkin's work and his legend as martyr allowed him to remain Russia's main mythic figure despite the Soviet Union's attempts to supplant him with Lenin. Throughout the book, theoretical arguments are buttressed by close readings of Pushkin's works, especially The Prisoner of the Caucasus, Eugene Onegin, Poltava, Egyptian Nights, and several lyric poems.
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Slavic language educator author
Debreczeny, Paul was born on February 16, 1932 in Budapest, Hungary. Son of Zsigmond and Margit Ibolya (Csanady) Debreczeny. came to the United States, 1960.
Bachelor in Russian Studies, Eotvos University, Budapest, 1953. Bachelor in Hungarian Studies, Eotvos University, Budapest, 1955. Doctor of Philosophy in Russian Literature, University London, 1960.
Research associate Institute Literature Studies,, Hungarian Academy Sciences, Budapest, 1955-1956; translations editor, Pergamon Press, Oxford, England, 1959-1960; from assistant to associate professor, department chairman, Tulane University, New Orleans, 1960-1967; associate professor, U. North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1967-1974; professor, chairman, U. North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1974-1979; professor Slavic languages, U. North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1979-1983; Alumni distinguished professor Russian and comparative literature, U. North Carolina, Chapel Hill, since 1983; chairman humanities division, U. North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1984-1986; director Center for Slavic, Eurasian and East European Studies, U. North Carolina-Duke U., Chapel Hill, 1991-1994.
( This study of the effect of literature on readers, both...)
Member American Association of University Professors, Modern Language Association, American Association Teachers Slavic and East European Languages (vice president 1978-1979), American Association for Advancement of Slavic Studies, Southern Conference on Slavic Studies (vice president 1979, president 1980, Senior Scholar award 1987), North America Pushkin Society (president 1993).
Married Gillian Marjorie Butterworth, October 30, 1959. Children: Louise, Martin.