Gasparov Mikhail Leonovich: biography, books

Academician Gasparov Mikhail Leonovich, a well-known literary critic, poet, philologist, historian of ancient literature, made a significant contribution to the theory of Russian and European versification. His scientific work became a real epoch in Russian literary criticism. Translations of ancient literature by Mikhail Gasparov are still among the best in Russian practice today.

Childhood

Born Gasparov Mikhail Leonovich April 13, 1935 in Moscow in an intelligent family. His mother Elena Nyurenberg, nee Budilova, worked in the magazine Bezbozhnik as an editor, later she defended her doctoral dissertation in psychology and worked at the Institute of Psychology of the APN USSR. She was married to a mining engineer, Leo Arsenievich Gasparov, a native of Nagorno-Karabakh. When Michael was very young, they divorced. But the boy's real father was a mother's colleague in the journal Bezbozhnik, who later worked in the journal Za Rulem and the publishing house of the USSR Academy of Sciences. However, Mikhail Leonovich never particularly talked about his father and said all his life that his mother raised him, which was true. With his father he met only when he was an adult.

Education

During the war, Michael went to Moscow school number 12, which he graduated in 1952. Already at school the humanitarian orientation of Gasparov was clearly manifested. Therefore, his choice of the classical branch of the philological faculty after school was not surprising. In 1957 he graduated with success from the Moscow State University. After the university Gasparov Mikhail Leonovich decided to continue studying science and entered postgraduate study.

Scientific career

His scientific interests are ancient literature. Mikhail Leonovich perfectly knew the ancient and modern Greek languages, Latin, he also possessed French, German, Italian. His Ph.D. thesis (1963) was devoted to the ancient fable. Ancient literature was devoted to many of his works and lectures. Since 1957, he for 33 years was an employee of the sector of ancient literature of the Institute of World Literature of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

In the 1970s, the second love of Gasparov appeared - versification. From 1971 to 1981 he participated in the work of the Moscow-Tartu semiotics school, which developed the works of Russian formalists, was interested in mathematical and applied linguistics, poetics. Doctor's thesis Gasparov "Modern Russian verse: metrics and rhythmics" became a link in his own theory of versification. In 1990 Gasparov Mikhail Leonovich became the main research fellow of the stylistics and Russian language sector of the Russian Language Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Since 1990, he is a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, since 1992 - an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Since 1992, he also worked at the RSUH, the Institute for Higher Humanitarian Studies. In 2002, he headed the department of structural linguistics and structural poetics at the Institute of the Russian Language of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in this capacity he remained until the end of his days.

Books and works of M. Gasparov

During his life, the philologist published many works. Gasparov Mikhail Leonovich, whose books are now classical both in the field of ancient literature, and in stylistics, literary criticism, became the author of several hundred articles and several monographs. His collected works in four volumes cover his best works on versification. All his works can be grouped into several large groups: research on ancient literature, work on medieval literature and modern literature, articles and books on Russian literature and studies on versification.

A separate part of the scientist's work consists of popular science books on ancient culture: "Capitol wolf", "Entertaining Greece". Gasparov was also the editor-in-chief of the Mandelstam Encyclopedia, a member of the editorial boards of such famous series as Literary Monuments, The Library of Ancient Literature, Proceedings on Sign Systems, the journals Literaturovedenie, The Herald of Ancient History, several foreign periodicals .

Translation activities

His fame was brought to Gasparov by translations of ancient texts. His productivity and virtuosity as an interpreter was simply amazing. Gasparov's translation from Ancient Greek Ovid, Aristotle, Aesop is still unsurpassed not only in accuracy, but also in stylistic elegance. In his translations, the Russian reader could also read ancient poetry, Cicero, Horace, Diogenes Laertius.

Teaching

Academician Gasparov for many years taught at the Department of History and the Theory of World Culture, created with his active participation, at the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University. In the Literary Institute . M. Gorky, he read courses on poetry and Russian poetry. These lectures were collected by a large number of students, since the lecturer Gasparov was inspired and bright. Later, some of these lectures were included in the book "On the Verses".

Collected Works

Gasparov's articles on versification and on Russian poetry were compiled in a four-volume edition of Selected Works. The first volume, On Poets, is devoted to ancient poetry as a source of the traditions of classical literature. The second volume, On Poems, is based on lectures at the university and is devoted to the analysis of works by Russian poets: Tsvetaeva, Pushkin, Fet, Khlebnikov, Mayakovsky, Russian avant-gardists, Brodsky. The analysis of texts from Gasparov is a sample of a subtle and original research with the broadest conclusions. The third volume, On Verse, is devoted to the theory of versification, stylistics and poetics. Volume four - "Linguistics verse" - is devoted to the interpretation and analysis of works of Russian poets.

Awards

Gasparov Mikhail Leonovich for his work has repeatedly received well-deserved awards. He is a laureate of the State Prize (1995), the owner of the awards "Illuminator", Malaya Bukerovskaya, and the prize of A. Bely. In 2004 he received an academic award to them. A. Pushkin for the publication "Selected Works" in 3 volumes.

Personal life

Gasparov ML was almost married to the literary editor Alevtina Mikhailovna Zotova for almost fifty years. The couple had a daughter, Elena, now a candidate of psychological sciences, worked at the Research Institute of Preschool Education of the agro-industrial complex of the USSR, and raised two grandsons of Gasparov.

last years of life

Since the late 1990s Academician Mikhail Gasparov has discovered a new field of activity for himself, he is fond of experimental translations of the poetry of the Middle Ages and the New Times. In his presentation appear in Russian poem by L. Ariosto "Frenzied Roland", poems by G. Geim. And the book "Experimental translations" became a real event in the literary world.

November 7, 2005 Gasparov died, he was buried with honor at the Moscow Cemetery in Moscow.

After the death of Mikhail Leonovich, the public became aware of yet another facet of his talent. His wife, Alevtina Mikhailovna, published several small collections of his own poems. Gasparov himself did not consider himself a poet, saying that it was only his reaction to the poems of the great creators.