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Dr Katherine New

MA, MSt, DPhil

I completed my BA in Classics and Modern Languages (Russian) at University College, Oxford, and my MSt in Medieval and Modern Languages (Russian) at University College, Oxford. I completed my DPhil in Medieval and Modern Languages (on 19th and early 20th-century Russian drama) at New College, Oxford. My DPhil research was funded by the AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership.

I have been involved in teaching and student support at Oxford University since 2017. I have held research and teaching positions, including a Stipendiary Lectureship at Oriel College (2021-2024), a Non-stipendiary Lectureship at University College (Michaelmas 2022), a Graduate Teaching Assistantship at New College (2019-2023); and a Research Assistantship at St Edmund Hall for the CatCor project (2020-21).

Research Interests

My research interests are focused on 19th-20th century Russophone literature, drama and theatre, and on gender studies. My publications include articles on Russian drama of the 19th-20th century (from Ostrovskyand Chekhov to Razumovskaya); Russian poetry (from Pushkin to Mayakovsky and Khodasevich); gender studies in modern Russian culture; the reception of ancient drama in Russian literature; narratological and intertextual studies.

My current research is based on a broadly comparative study of 19th and 20th-century Russian women’s drama as a creative system, entering into a dialogical relationship with European literary traditions. I address theoretical and practical issues arising from literary translations of dramatic works. My research has an interdisciplinary perspective since it combines the study of drama as a literary genre and as performative art (including stagecraft, music and choreography), demonstrating that Russian drama brings about a powerful creative revolution and the renewal of aesthetic and cultural paradigms of European literature and theatre. In recent years I have worked on a narratological and intertextual project on Russian mythological plays of the 19th and 20th centuries, which I studied in the context of Slavic cultures, European thought and Classical literary and visual traditions.

My other research interests include studies of social and ethnic Slavic cultures; mythology and folklore; philosophical and religious thought (I have written on Classical and modern European philosophy, giving special attention to the teachings of the pre-Socratics, Hylozoists and Panpsychists, as well as Nietzsche, Vyacheslav Ivanov and Vladimir Solovyov); translation studies, both theoretical and practical (I have published on the theory of diachronic, interlingual, transcultural translation); environmental humanities.

Selected Publications

Journal Articles
  • New K. A., ‘Gains and Losses of the Inter-lingual Methodology in the Theory of Diachronic Translation’. Journal of Philology. Voprosy filologii, № 2 (62). Moscow: The Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences (InstitutYazykoznaniya RAN), 2018. Pp. 56-67.
  • New K. A., ‘From Imitation to Refutation: The Canonisation and Decanonisation of the Metaphor of a Poetic Monument in Russian Literature’. Steps / Shagi, Vol. 4, № 3-4. Moscow: The Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, 2018. Pp. 247-274.
  • New K. A., ‘Docta Puella in Roman Culture’. Philology: International Scholarly Journal. Vol. 18, № Volgograd: Izdatelstvo Nauchnoe Obozrenie, 2018. Pp. 61-67. 
  • New K. A., ‘Roman comedy on the Russian stage: Alexander N. Ostrovsky’s There was not a Penny, but suddenly Altyn and Plautus’ Aulularia’Studia Litterarum, Vol. 4, №1. Moscow: Institute for World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IMLI RAN), 2019. Pp. 138-159. 
  • New K. A., ‘The Rehabilitation of Masculinity in Gumilev’s Play Acteon’The New Collection, Oxford, 2019. Pp. 24-49.
  • New K. A., ‘Nostalgic Motifs in a Historiographic Context’, Journal of Philology. Voprosy Philologii, № 2 (66). Moscow: The Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Institut Yazykoznaniya RAN) and Russian Academy of Linguistics, 2019. Pp. 186-197.
  • New K. A., ‘Deception, Illusion and Punishment in Classical Art and Russian Neoclassical Drama’. VoprosyPhilologii, № 4 (68). Moscow: The Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAN) and Russian Academy of Linguistics, 2019. Pp. 182-190.
  • New, K.A., ‘Italian Futurism in Russian Poetry: Vladimir Mayakovsky’s Poetic Revolution’, International Journal of Language and Linguistics, New York, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2020. Pp. 1-11.
  • New K.A., ‘Pushkin’s Mystification: Tatiana’s Letter, a Translation from French?’, The New Collection, Oxford, 2020. Pp. 39-60.
  • New, K. A., ‘On Intercultural Communication in Diachronic Translation’, Functional Aspects of Intercultural Communication. Translation and Interpreting Issues, vol. 7, RUDN University, Institute of Foreign Languages, Moscow, 2021. Pp. 352-359.
  • ‘From Condemnation to Revival of the Feminine: The Transmission and Reception of the Phaedra Myth in Tsvetaeva’s Drama’. In: The New Collection, Oxford, 2022, Pp.40-69.
  • New K.A., ‘Is All Russia Our Garden?  Chekhovian Topoi and Their Reception in Modern Russian Drama’, SEEJ, 2023, submitted.
  • New K.A., ‘Theorising Intertextual Narratology in Twentieth Century Slavic Mythological Drama’, PMLA, 2023, submitted.
  • New K.A., ‘Staging Politics in Pavel Katenin’s Andromache’, Russian Review, 2023, submitted.
  • New K.A., ‘Mythological tragedy as an ideological mask’. Mythological Tragedy in Russia and Eastern Europe: Performance, Translation, Ideology, ed. Z. Torlone, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023, submitted.
  • New K. A., ‘The Tragedy of the Russian Polyxena: Intertextual Adaptation and Nostalgic Innovation’, Modern Languages Review, 2023, submitted.
  • New K.A., ‘The Ecofeminist Agenda of Modern Russian Drama’, Ecofeminist Drama: Environment, Gender and Theatre, Ed. A. Höing, D. Vakoch. University of Illinois Press, 2023, forthcoming.
Articles in Edited Volumes
  • New K. A., ‘On Translating Homeric Epic into Modern Languages: English and Russian’. Linguistics and Translation Studies: Collection of Scholarly Articles. Ed. I.M.Netunaeva, A.M.Polikarpov. Arkhangelsk: Northern (Arctic) Federal University, 2018. Pp. 233-244.
  • New K.A., ‘The Intertextuality of Character Representation in Ancient Historiography’. Comparative Literature Across Cultures: Bridging Boundaries Between Verbal and Visual Arts. Ed. by Konrad Gunesch. London: Interdisciplinary Discourses, 2020. Pp. 31-48.
  • ‘The Reception of Horace’s Ode 3.30 in Russian poetry’. In: In Lieu of Duration: Spatiotemporal Excursions in Literature. Ed. M. Stasiowski. London: Interdisciplinary Discourses, 2021. Pp.44-64.
  • ‘The Language of Praise in Russian 18th Century Ode’. In: Music, Poetry and Language. Ed. K. Gunesch. London: Interdisciplinary Discourses, 2021. Pp.133-47.
  • ‘The Transformation of the Cult of the Virgin Goddess in Ancient and Modern Mythology’, Beyond Identities: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Gender. Ed. E. Domínguez-Rué. London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, 2021. Pp. 93-110.
Non-Academic Publications
  • New, K. A., ‘An Invitation to Vindolanda’ (in Latin). In: Linacre Lines, University of Oxford, 2012. Pp. 20-21.