PhD in Philology (1977), Professor Emeritus
Education:
Zhdanov Leningrad State University, Faculty of Philology (1970)
PhD thesis:
The Work of Rudyard Kipling (1977)
Research interests:
Pushkin studies, textual criticism, history and theory of literature, Russian prose of the 19th–20th centuries, English and American literature, Russian-English literary relations. Dolinin wrote about the works of Walter Scott, Mark Twain, R. Kipling, W. Faulkner, A.S. Pushkin, F.M. Dostoevsky, I.A. Brodsky, prepared for publication the works of V.V. Nabokov, translated his prose from English.
Professional service:
1980s–1990s: member of the editorial board and commentator of the first collected works of V. Nabokov in the USSR.
1991–2017: Coordinator of academic programs at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literature at the University of Wisconsin.
1998–1999: Invited curator of the Pushkin jubilee exhibitions and conferences.
2000s — present: Expert and visiting curator of educational programs at the European University in St. Petersburg.
Honorary titles and awards: Andrey Bely Award nominee (2005), Efim Etkind International Award Winner (2008), Enlightener Prize nominee (2019), Alexander Pyatigorsky Award shortlist (2019), NOS Award shortlist and superfinal (2019), Enlightener Prize nominee (2020), Nabokov Online Journal (NOJ) Prize for the Best Book in the Area of Nabokov Studies from 2015 through 2020 for The “Commentary on Vladimir Nabokov's novel ‘The Gift’” (2021), the Globe Award in memory of E.Y. Genieva from the Znamya magazine and the All-Russian State Library of Foreign Literature (2021)
Other information:
Member of the St. Petersburg Writers' Union and the St. Petersburg PEN Club
Teaching activity:
1970–1986: Leningrad Institute of Finance and Economics.
1980s: Leningrad State University, Faculty of Philology (part-time).
1988–1998: Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) of the Russian Academy of Sciences (research work).
Summer 1991 : Middlebury College, Russian Summer School (guest lecturer).
1991–2017: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Professor of Slavic Studies.
Since 2017: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Professor Emeritus.
2000s — present: European University in St. Petersburg, visiting Professor (regular courses).
Academic publications (70 in total, including 10 monographs):
Monographs:
- From Sirin to Nabokov. Moscow, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie Publ., 2025. 520 p.
- A Journey Through the “Journey to Arzrum”. Moscow, Novoe izdatelstvo Publ., 2023. 308 p.
- About Pushkin, About Pasternak: Articles from Different Years. Moscow, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie Publ., 2022. 528 p.
- Pushkin. Angelo. The commentary by Alexander Dolinin. Moscow, Ruteniia Publ., 2022. 157 p.
- “The Decline of the West” and Other Memes: From Stories of Common Ideas and Verbal Formulas. Moscow, Novoe izdatelstvo Publ., 2020. 156 p.
- The True Life of the Writer Sirin: Works on Nabokov. 2nd ed. St. Petersburg, Symposium Publ., 2019. 567 p.
- Commentary on Vladimir Nabokov's Novel “The Gift”. Moscow, Novoe izdatelstvo Publ., 2018. 648 p.
- Pushkin and England: A Series of Articles. Moscow, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie Publ., 2007. 275 p.
- The True Life of the Writer Sirin: Works on Nabokov. St. Petersburg, Akademicheskii proekt Publ., 2004. 400 p.
- A Story Dressed up in a Novel: Walter Scott and His Readers. Мoscow, Kniga Publ., 1988. 315 p.
Articles:
- Joseph Brodsky’s Poem “Dorogaya, ya vyshel segodnya iz domu...” (“Brise Marine”): A Non-Biographical Approach. Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, no. 2 (192), 2025, pp. 260–271.
- Signs and Symbols in Nabokov's “Signs and Symbols”. Nabokov and His Contemporaries: Historical and Literary Almanac. St. Petersburg: Symposium Publ., 2023. pp. 166-193.
- Two Comments on the “Journey to Arzrum”. Bulletin of the Pushkin Commission, no. 34, 2020, pp. 130–143.
- Once Again About the Beginning of “The Life of Arsenyev”. Russian Literature, no. 2, 2018, pp. 272–273.
- Who Said That “We All Got out of Gogol’s ‘Overcoat’”? Russian literature, no. 3, 2018, pp. 163–170.
- Who Is “Sally Gorner”? About One Real Source of “Lolita”. Summer School on Russian Literature, vol. 14, no. 1, 2018, pp. 103–118.
- Karl Proffer and Vladimir Nabokov: On the History of Their Dialogue. Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, no. 1 (125), 2014, pp. 145–152.
