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Photograph of Roberta Rubenstein

Roberta Rubenstein Prof Emerita Literature

Additional Positions at AU
Professor of Literature
Degrees
Ph.D. in English Literature, University of London; B.A. in English, University of Colorado.

Bio
Professor Rubenstein's primary teaching interests include literary Modernism (fiction), women writers (specialties: Virginia Woolf, Doris Lessing, Margaret Atwood, Toni Morrison), 19th century Russian literature in translation, and feminist literary theory. She has published more than thirty articles and book chapters as well as six books, two co-edited books, and one monograph: The Novelistic Vision of Doris Lessing: Breaking the Forms of Consciousness (1979); Boundaries of the Self: Gender, Culture, Fiction (1987); Home Matters: Longing and Belonging, Nostalgia and Mourning in Women's Fiction (2001); Virginia Woolf and the Russian Point of View (2009); Literary Half-Lives: Doris Lessing, Clancy Sigal, and roman a clef (2014); and Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook After Fifty (co-edited with Alice Ridout and Sandra Singer, 2015). Her monograph, Reminiscences of Leonard Woolf (2005), traces her friendship with Virginia Woolf's husband. Rubenstein and and her husband, AU Professor of Literature Emeritus Charles R. Larson, co-edited Worlds of Fiction (1993; 2nd ed. 2001), an anthology of international short stories.

She has been honored with several awards for teaching and scholarship
at American University, including the College of Arts and Sciences Award for Outstanding Teaching (twice) and its Senior Scholar Award. She was named American University's Scholar/Teacher of the Year in 1994.
See Also
Literature Department
Virginia Woolf and the Russian Point of View
Literary Half-Lives: Doris Lessing, Clancy Sigal, and Roman a Clef
Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook After Fifty
For the Media
To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.

Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities

Honors, Awards, and Fellowships

BOOKS  

  • The Novelistic Vision of Doris Lessing: Breaking the Forms of  Consciousness.Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1979.        
  • Boundaries of the Self: Gender, Culture, Fiction.U of Illinois P, 1987.        
  • Worlds of Fiction, co-editor, with Charles R. Larson. New York: Macmillan, 1993, 2002 (2nd. ed.) Anthology of international short fiction: 126 stories with introduction, endnotes, and questions. Upper Saddle River NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2002.        
  • Home Matters: Longing and Belonging, Nostalgia and Mourning in Women’s Fiction New York: Palgrave, 2001.   
  • Reminiscences of Leonard Woolf. Bloomsbury Heritage Series, No. 40. London: Cecil Woolf Publishers, 2005.   
  • Virginia Woolf and the Russian Point of View.  New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. 
  • Literary Half-Lives: Doris Lessing, Clancy Sigal, and Roman a Clef, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. 
  • Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook After Fifty (co-ed. with Alice Ridout and Sandra Singer), Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.