Kevin O'Brien

Associate Professor of English; 1993
obrien@chapman.edu

B.A., Bard College; M.A., Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley

Kevin O'Brien received a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature (with a dual emphasis on literature in English and in Russian) from UC Berkeley. He also studied at St. Petersburg University in Russia. His course topics and literary interests are quite diverse, though among his areas of specialization are 19th and 20th century Russian literature, modernisms, poetry, and lyrical prose. His book publications include Saying Yes at Lightning: Threat and the Provisional Image in Post-Romantic Poetry, Kino-Eye: The Film Writings of Dziga Vertov (translation), and Elena Guro's The Little Camels of the Sky (translation).

He is on sabbatical Fall 2009, working on a book on Tolstoy’s War and Peace. The aim of the book is to demonstrate a pervasive underlying principle that gives unity and meaning to the vast and complex world of War and Peace.