Olga Freidenberg

Olga Freidenberg (March 15, 1890 in – July 6, 1955) was a Russian and Soviet classical philologist, one of the pioneers of cultural studies in Russia. She is also known as the cousin of the famous writer Boris Pasternak; their correspondence has been published and studied.

Biography Olga Freidenberg was born to Anna Osipovna Pasternak and Mikhail Filippovich Freidenberg in Odessa.

During the Stalin era she was persecuted and her brother was arrested. In 1950, as part of the persecution of "rootless cosmopolitans", she was fired from Petrograd University. Modern scholars, such as Nina Perlina and Nina Braginskaya, are now publishing new editions of Freidenberg's works in English. Freidenberg's work is now being reviewed and reassessed, particularly in examinations of early Greek thought.

Works

The Poetics of Plot and Genre: The Classical Period of Ancient Literature Image and Concept: Mythopoetic Roots of Literature Mif i literatura drevnosti