Olga Freidenberg was a Russian and Soviet classical philologist, one of the pioneers of cultural studies in Russia.
13 Facts About Olga Freidenberg
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Olga Freidenberg is known as the cousin of the famous writer Boris Pasternak; their correspondence has been published and studied.
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Olga Freidenberg was born to Anna Osipovna Pasternak and Mikhail Filippovich Freidenberg in Odessa.
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The family moved to St Petersburg in 1903 and Freidenberg graduated from a gymnasium there in 1908.
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Olga Freidenberg returned to her studies at Petrograd University in 1923 and wrote a Ph.
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The university had only started accepting women as students in 1917, and Olga Freidenberg was the first woman to defend her thesis in classical philology.
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Since all of the Classics Departments in Russia had been shut since 1921, Olga Freidenberg played a key role in founding the new Classical Department at Petrograd University.
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Olga Freidenberg founded the chair of classical philology and was head of the Classical Department from 1932 to 1950.
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Olga Freidenberg defined a narrative genre of 'Acts and Passions' of a hero as their common basis.
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Olga Freidenberg was the first in Europe to conclude that the 'Greek' novel was Oriental in its origin.
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Olga Freidenberg noted that the archetypal patterns in the plots of its different narratives were versions of the legomenon which can be traced back to the dromenon of fertility cults.
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Many of Olga Freidenberg's works were not published in her lifetime and some are still unpublished.
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Olga Freidenberg's work is being reviewed and reassessed, particularly in examinations of early Greek thought.