Russell pioneers queer theory in literature at Vassar

Famed Russian-American writer Vladimir Nabokov wrote, "For various reasons, I find it inordinately hard to speak about my other brother." Professor of English Paul Russell decided to investigate the rich story behind Nabokov's words in his newest book The Unreal Life of Sergey Nabokov: A Novel. Released last November, the book centers on Nabokov's gay brother, Sergey.

Nabokov barely mentions Sergey in his autobiography, and in 1915 publicly outed Sergey's homosexuality. In 1943, Sergey was arrested and sent to a concentration camp, where he died in 1945. "I wanted to reclaim that life, somehow, from all various forces—familial and historical—that conspired to essentially erase his existence," said Russell.

The book, Russell's seventh novel, was well received by critics. Publisher's Weekly praised it highly; an excerpt from their review reads, "Sergey's struggles with his sexuality, as well as his adventures and misadventures in the salons and clubs of pre-war Europe, are drawn with humanity. With compelling characters and steady prose, the reader will breeze through this pleasurable, heart-breaking account of the other Nabokov."

The Unreal Life of Sergey Nabokov differs markedly from Russell's other six novels; it is research-based, since it takes as inspiration the true life of Sergey Nabokov, and is set in a past Russell doesn't ordinarily work with. "I even joked when I was writing it that I'd have to write the first half of a sentence and do the research to write the second half of a sentence," Russell said.

His other novels­­—The Salt Point, Boys of Life, Sea of Tranquillity, The Coming Storm and War Against the Animals—are set in various American locations in a past much different from his most recent creation. Russell also has a work of nonfiction, entitled The Gay 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Gay Men and Lesbians, Past and Present, which has been translated into 10 different languages.

Russell teaches a variety of courses at Vassar. His academic interests include authors like Dickens and Proust, Nabokov, queer studies, 20th-century British and Irish literature and creative writing.

Currently, he is teaching a seminar on James Joyce's Ulysses, a six-week course on Virginia Woolf and a 200-level English course entitled Gay Male Fiction in America after 1945. Russell came to Vassar in 1983, and since then the courses he has taught have changed drastically—especially those centered on gay and lesbian studies.

Russell noted, "It's certainly made it a congenial intellectual environment for me, and I'm not sure that my career as a writer would have necessarily developed in the same way if I had been at a different institution."

Vassar clearly has a strong LGBTQ presence now, but in the 1980s, Russell taught the first-ever gay-themed course offered at Vassar, in the American Culture Department. The course was vaguely—and deliberately—called Minority Culture in America, and covered what Russell saw as the breadth of the nascent field.

"It was seen as very daring and experimental, and it's a sign of how times change that the administration wouldn't let me use the word gay or homosexual in the title of the course," Russell explained. "Having ‘gay' in the title of a course on your transcript was seen as something that would doom your employment chances forever."

Today, Vassar offers several queer studies courses. In 2000, the first independent queer studies major was approved. Russell teaches some, but not all of its classes.

"When I was putting my gay course together in the late 1980s I could feel that I mastered the subject, but now there is so much out there that there is no one person in the world that could master the field; it's gone viral as a subject," Russell said. "Today there are classes in queer studies in both the Philosophy Department and Women's Studies Program, and they don't share any common readings."

Russell has been influential in shifting Vassar's course selection, and more broadly its attitudes with respect to LGBTQ issues. He noted that Vassar as an institution was not exempt from feeling the brutal impact of the AIDS epidemic on social attitudes.

Still, the institution and the larger community has persevered. His recent book on Sergey Nabokov and his other gay characters, as well as his gay-themed classes, have all promoted tolerance of the LGBTQ community, and been influential in the creation of a vocal LGBTQ community.

"Some of my favorite students died of AIDS, but others have become prominent in gay activism. For example, Michael Silverman ['91], one of the most important lawyers for transgender issues in the United States, sort of got his intellectual start in one of my gay classes," Russell said.

"That's the kind of thing that makes you feel better when you wake up in the middle of the night and ask ‘Why am I doing this, is it just futile?'" Russell said. "It confirms that I have done my little part to make a difference and a difference has been made."