Aleksandr Pushkin's devotion to beautiful Jewish women and Judith's archetype allowed him to subvert all possible stereotypes and norms. In his blasphemous poems, Jewesses are presented as powerful and liberated from gender normativity, romantic cliches, and political oppression. They subjugate men and do not obey Imperial Russia's power elite, embodying the democratic ideals of young Pushkin.

Lecture by Elena Petrova, PhD student in Slavic Languages at the University of Southern California.  Petrova received her BA from Lomonosov Moscow State University.  Her dissertation explores the images of Jewish women in the literature of the Russian Empire in the first half of the 19^th century.

Cosponsored by the Schwalb Center for Israel and Jewish Studies, Women and Gender Studies, The Foreign Languages and Literature department, and The English department.