External links
- Ewa M. Thompson’s Homepage Archived 2011-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
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Ewa M. Thompson | |
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| Born | Ewa Majewska 1937 Kaunas, Lithuania |
| Alma mater | University of Warsaw Vanderbilt University [1] |
| Known for | Imperial Knowledge: Russian Literature and Colonialism |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Slavic studies |
Ewa Majewska Thompson (born 1937) is a Polish-American literary scholar, slavicist, and cultural critic. [2] She is Professor Emerita of Slavic Studies at Rice University in Houston, Texas, where she taught from 1970 until her retirement in 2006. A specialist in Russian literature, Central and Eastern European cultural history, and postcolonial theory, Thompson is recognized as one of the first scholars to systematically apply colonial discourse analysis to Russian imperial culture. [3] She is best known for her book Imperial Knowledge: Russian Literature and Colonialism (2000), which argues that Russia used literature to justify and normalize its imperial domination of neighboring nations. [4]
She was the editor of the Sarmatian Review .
Thompson was born in 1937 in Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania, to a Polish family displaced by the Soviet annexation of Eastern Poland. [5] After the Second World War, she was raised in Gdańsk, Poland, in modest circumstances that she has described as formative for her sensitivity to issues of power, exclusion, and cultural survival. [6]
Initially trained as a pianist, Thompson studied at the Sopot Conservatory of Music, receiving an M.F.A. in 1963. In the same year, she completed a B.A. in English and Russian at the University of Warsaw. Pursuing her interest in literature and philosophy, she emigrated to the United States for doctoral study, earning a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Vanderbilt University in 1967. [7]
Thompson began teaching in the United States in the late 1967. She held positions at Indiana State University (1967–1968), Indiana University (1968–1970), and the University of Virginia (1973–1974). [8]
In 1970 she joined Rice University in Houston, Texas, where she remained for the bulk of her career. [6] She was promoted to Professor of Slavic Studies in 1979, chaired the department from 1987 to 1990, and became Research Professor of Slavic Studies in 2006. She was named Professor Emerita in 2018. [5]
Thompson also held visiting professorships at the University of Warsaw (1978, 2001) and the University of Bremen (1999). [5]
In 1981 Thompson founded Sarmatian Review , a quarterly devoted to Polish and Central European studies, which she edited until 2017. The journal provided a long-standing English-language platform for scholarship on the region. [9]
She has served on editorial boards including Studies in Twentieth Century Literature, Chesterton Review, Modern Age, Intercollegiate Review, South Central Review , Znaki Czasu, and the Slavic and East European Journal. [2] From 2009 to 2015 she was an area editor of the World Literary Encyclopedia. [10]
Thompson and her late husband, mathematician James Thompson, endowed the John Paul II Institute at the University of St. Thomas in Houston with a $200,000 gift. [11]
Thompson’s early works compared Russian Formalism with Anglo-American New Criticism (Russian Formalism and Anglo-American New Criticism, 1971). [12]
She later explored themes of religious irrationalism and cultural archetypes in Understanding Russia: The Holy Fool in Russian Culture (1987; revised 2001). [13]
In April 2022, Thompson delivered a lecture titled “Non-Germanic Central Europe – Can Christian Europe Survive Without It?” at the St. John Paul II Institute of Culture at the Angelicum in Rome. [14]
In 2023, Thompson contributed the Introduction to Paweł Włodkowic, Writings (1416–1432): The Struggle for the Self-Determination of Central Europe, published by the St. John Paul II Institute of Culture ((Rome: AngelicuM University Press). [15]
Her most influential work, Imperial Knowledge: Russian Literature and Colonialism (2000), applied postcolonial discourse analysis to Russian imperial culture. In this book she argued that Russian literature often functioned as a tool of empire, legitimizing conquest and suppressing the historical memory of non-Russian nations. The recurring trope of the powerless “little man” in Russian literature discouraged notions of civic agency and political freedom. [16]
Thompson's book Imperial Knowledge: Russian Literature and Colonialism was published in Polish in 2000. In it, she strongly asserted the need for revising textual practices around Russian literature that had legitimized colonial practices more brutal than what she called "canonical" colonial practices legitimated in British and French literature. She linked the silence about Russian hegemony about Central European colonies and colonial practices with a Western fascination with Russia, and subsequently with the Soviet Union. Although the book did not initially receive much recognition, it has been rediscovered and reinvigorated following the publication of Slavist Clare Cavanagh's works. [17]
Thompson has written widely in both scholarly and popular venues, often linking literature, politics, and cultural survival. [2]
Thompson has been critical of the enduring imperial orientation of Russian culture, contending that Russian society “lacks an epistemological foundation” for self-criticism and remains shaped by expansionist narratives. In recent writings she has argued that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine reflects long-standing cultural patterns rather than a temporary political aberration. [2]
Thompson distinguishes between what she calls “aggressive nationalisms” of Russia and other empires and the “defensive nationalism” of Poland and smaller Central European states, aimed at preserving cultural identity. [18] She has been a strong advocate of Ukrainian independence and argues that preserving Ukraine’s sovereignty is essential for a free Europe. [19]
In her “Seen from Houston” columns, Thompson has addressed debates about prepositions in Polish usage (e.g. in Ukraine vs. on Ukraine), contending that linguistic prescriptivism imposed from outside reflects cultural insecurity. She has also argued that Polish schools should unapologetically serve the function of Polonization, by teaching Polish children their national history and heritage, while allowing minorities to draw their own conclusions. [5]
In interviews she has described Nikolai Gogol as a “frontier writer” whose language choice and career ambitions tied him to Russian literature, despite his Ukrainian origins. She argues that Gogol’s Taras Bulba reveals hostility to Ukrainian nationhood, though his Ukrainian tales are “so beautiful” and represent Ukraine rather than Russia. She regards Mikhail Bulgakov as an “interesting novelist” but not central to Ukrainian cultural identity, suggesting that his work should not be claimed for Ukraine merely because of biographical ties. [2]
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