spatial form

In Memoriam.

(1918-2013)

A memorial for Professor Frank will be held at The Stanford Humanities Center on Monday, May 20, at 4:00 PM.

Joseph Frank's obituaries:

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/march/joseph-frank-obit-030713.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/04/arts/joseph-frank-biographer-of-dostoevsky-dies-at-94.html

Joseph Frank’s first book of essays, The Widening Gyre (1963) contained an article called "Spatial Form in Modern Literature" dealing with the aesthetics of the modern novel that attracted a good bit of attention and led to the beginning of his academic career. He then became interested in Russian literature and focused his attention on Dostoevskys' Notes from the Underground, which then led him into a lifelong study of the works of Dostoevsky.

Between 1976 and 2002 he wrote five volumes, each devoted to Dostoevsky's life and work and particularly focusing on the ideological and cultural-historical sources of his creations. Each of these volumes won a national literary award (Christian Gauss Award (twice), National Book Critics Circle Award, a Russian Etkind Prize of the University of St. Petersburg).  In 1990-1991, he also published two volumes of essays, Through the Russian Prism, and The Idea of Spatial Form.

Since then he has published a volume of essays and book reviews dealing with works in Russian literature (Between Religion and Rationality) and is waiting to receive galleys for a collection of the same type dealing with non-Slavic material. His 5-volume work on Dostoevsky has just (2010) been revised and published as one volume.

Honors

Efim Etkind Prize for the best book about Russian Literature and Culture by a Western Scholar, European University in Saint-Petersburg, 2006
Docteur Honoris Causa, Sorbonne University, 1999
Honorary Ph.D., Northwestern University, 1998
Honorary Ph.D., Adelphi University, 1995
Honorary Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1992
Research Grant, National Endowment for Humanities, 1990-9
James Russell Lowell Prize, M.L.A., 1977, 1986
National Book Critics Circle Award, 1984
Guggenheim Fellow, 1956-57, 1975-76
Elected Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1969