Thomas Barran
Professor
Modern Languages and Literatures
Professor Barran attended public schools in northeastern Ohio and gravitated to Russian literature. After earning his bachelor's degree, Barran spent four years teaching elementary school in a poor, rural area of northern Ohio. He spent a year in Leningrad on IREX/Fulbright Fellowship and has returned to Russia numerous times. While finishing his dissertation, he worked full-time as an index editor on the MLA International Bibliography, after which he worked at the Institute for International Education as an administrator on the Fulbright exchanges. He taught Russian at Washington University in St. Louis for two years before coming to Brooklyn College.
Show Scholarly Activities and Professional Accomplishments
Education:
M.A. and Ph.D., Columbia University - 1984 (Slavic Languages)
B.A., Columbia College - 1968 (Russian / English)
Areas of Expertise:
Russian links with French culture in the 18th and 19th centuries; first book: Russia Reads Rousseau, 1762-1825. He has published articles on dreams in Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, painting in Dostoevsky's Idiot and the politics of Tolstoy's What Is Art? He is passionate about new Russian cinema, and he is currently writing a book about Tolstoy and his adoption of the philosophy of F. Schopenhauer to explain the origins of evil in Anna Karenina.
Books and Publications
Professor Barran has been spending his summers in Paris working on Tolstoy with Professor Michel Aucouturier, emeritus professor of Russian, of the Sorbonne. He is writing a book on the origins of evil and the philosophy of Schopenhauer in Anna Karenina. He received an invitation from the Societe des Amis de Leon Tolstoi in Paris to participate in a colloquium by reading from his work in progress. He accepted and read a 30-minute presentation at the Institut des etudes Slaves in Paris (Nov. 19). "First time I spoke to an audience in French -- I was intimidated, or to be frank, plain scared. But all went well and the applause was generous." Barran also submitted an article in French on a Russian film, About Freaks and People, in response to an invitation by the prominent journal CinemAction. It will appear in the next issue. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2011
Submitted the final manuscript of an article in French on a Russian film, About Freaks and People, in response to an invitation by the prominent journal CinemAction. It will appear in the next issue. This is the first and longest treatment of the director Aleksei Balabanov in Western criticism. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2011
Creative Work
Continuing to write a book on Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina. 2011
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