Zuseva-Ozkan, V., ed. (2025). Above borders: In memoriam Andrey Fyodorovich Kofman. Moscow: IMLI RAN. (In Russ.)

Abstract

The review considers a collection of papers dedicated to the memory of A. Kofman and discussing his versatile scholarly interests. A book celebrating the memory of a scholar belongs to a genre both melancholy and challenging. On the one hand, the goal is to venerate their memory and preserve the precious knowledge gleaned from reading their work, conversing with them, or enjoying a yearslong personal friendship. On the other hand, research is a forward-thinking occupation: one has to continue alongside, on the basis of, or in opposition to, the mentor’s ideas. Finally, the hardest task of all is to compile a semantically harmonious collection out of papers whose authors pursue diverse research topics. While over-coming the first two challenges, the editors were not as successful in combining diversely themed studies under the same cover. However, the overall logic of the collection is clearly identifiable and driven by the desire to create a worthy testament of the mentor’s life and work.