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Sips & Scholars is a free lecture series in partnership with Brooklyn Institue of Social Research set in bars and restaurants all over Brooklyn. This session, entitled: "Too Many Wives: Polygamist Nightmares in Gogol’s Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Aunt" will be led by Professor Ruth Averbach. 

In Gogol’s short story Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Aunt, the author’s hero must confront his most primal fear - that he has too many wives. Often read as an allegory for Gogol’s repressed homosexuality, the story presents a nightmarish vision of female sexuality and compulsory heterosexuality. This talk considers the line between fate and free will in our most intimate relations and the (dis)similarities between polygamy and polyamory across time.

Everyone is welcome! Come ready to learn and open to discuss interesting questions together. Advanced reading is not required, but we encourage you to check out the suggested booklist. 

Ruth Averbach is Associate Faculty at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research and Lecturer of Russian language and literature at Smith College. She researches the intersection of gender, sexuality and political ideology in 19th century Russia. Her article “The (Un)Making of a Man" on Aleksandr Aleksandrov, Russia’s first trans writer, appeared in Slavic Review.