Dr Claire Whitehead, Senior Lecturer
Contact Details
cew12@st-andrews.ac.uk
Phone: 01334 462951
Office: Quad 44
Research and Teaching
Dr Whitehead's research interests focus on prose fiction in Russia and France from the nineteenth century onwards. Having published her first monograph on the fantastic short story with Legenda in 2006, she is currently researching a book-length study of detective fiction in Russia from the 1860s to the present day. Authors of interest in this genre include, amongst many others, Sokolovskii, Stepanov, Timofeev, Dostoevskii, Panov, Shkliarevskii, Chekhov, Geintse, Shaginian, Semenov and Akunin. In her work she combines close textual analysis with the application of critical theory, particularly narratology, and a consideration of socio-historical factors. She has recently completed an article on 'Debating Detectives: The Influence of publitsistika on nineteenth-century Russian crime fiction' which will appear in Modern Language Review in January 2012. She is currently preparing one article on Marietta Shaginian's 1923 novel Mess-Mend or Yankees in Petrograd and another on Boris Akunin's recent 'Sister Pelagia' trilogy of novels. Dr Whitehead teaches all components of Russian language as well as Honours and postgraduate modules on the fantastic, crime fiction, nineteenth-century Russian prose and critical theory. She would welcome enquiries from postgraduate students on all aspects of nineteenth-century Russian literature as well as comparative literature.