The 2024 Monty Raiser Senior Thesis Prize Winner is Abigail Litvak. Her thesis, submitted to the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, is titled "Dead Souls: An Elegy". She examines Nikolai Gogol's work as a poèma, written with Pushkin in mind, suggesting that it represents Gogol's reckoning with the death of Pushkin.

Abigail spoke with REEES about her thesis, including the selection of the topic and the process of writing it.

REEES: How did you choose your thesis topic?

AL: My junior paper was a study of Russian poetry (in particular, of Marina Tsvetaeva's Hamlet cycle). I wanted my thesis to be more of the same. Then, I read Dead Souls, and seeing that it was subtitled poèma, chose to continue my poetic education by writing a thesis on the category of poetry itself.

REEES: Was there a particular class or professor at Princeton that sparked your interest in this topic?

AL: SLA 512, or "The Evolution of Russian Poetic Form," which was taught by my thesis advisor, Prof. Michael Wachtel. It wasn't until I took SLA 512 that I had the guts (or the chops) to read a Russian poem. And it was only afterwards that I attempted Gogol in the original.

REEES: What was the biggest challenge in writing your thesis?

AL: Writing it! Reading Gogol, Pushkin, etc. was a pleasure; writing about them coherently (and constrainedly, i.e. without producing my own 'poetic forms') was less so. Often, I felt that everything I had to say was said better, and more persuasively, by the texts themselves.

REEES: What was the most enjoyable part of writing your thesis?

AL: Getting into Gogol's head. It's weird, and scary, and desperate in there. But it's also a place where poetry is important — really, really important. And I feel less alone knowing that such a place, such a person, existed.

REEES: Do you have any advice for students who are considering studying similar topics or joining the REEES program?

AL: Learn another language! Only by knowing another language can you have any perspective on your own.