Tötösy de Zepetnek, Steven 1950–

PERSONAL: Born November 22, 1950, in Budapest, Hungary; son of Magdalena Haidekker (an accountant); married Joanne E. Toms (a director), December 10, 1976; children: Chantal Patricia, Julia Olga. Education: University of Western Ontario, B.A., 1980; Carleton University, M.A., 1983; University of Ottawa, B.Ed., 1984; University of Alberta, Ph.D., 1989.

ADDRESSES: Home—8 Sunset Rd., Winchester, MA 01890. Office—Dept. of Media Studies, University of Halle-Wittenberg, Rudolf-Breitscheid-Strasse 10, D-06110 Halle, Germany. E-mail—steven.totosy@medienkomm.uni-halle.de.

CAREER: Editor and writer. University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, 1984–2000, began as lecturer, became professor, assistant director, then associate director of Research Institute of Comparative Literature, 1989–97; Northeastern University, Boston, MA, lecturer, 2000–01, 2002–05; University of Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany, professor of media and culture studies, 2002–. Founder and editor of CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture (online journal), 1999–. Teacher of online courses in literature, communication studies, and media studies for several American universities.

MEMBER: International Comparative Literature Association, Modern Language Association of America, Canadian Comparative Literature Association.

WRITINGS:

(With others) Préfaces et manifestes littéraires (conference proceedings; title means "Prefaces and Literary Manifestoes"), Research Institute of Comparative Institute (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada), 1990.

(With others) Literatures of Lesser Diffusion: Proceedings of a Conference, Research Institute of Comparative Institute (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada), 1990.

(With others) Women's Writing and the Literary Institution (conference papers), Research Institute of Comparative Institute (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada), 1992.

The Social Dimensions of Fiction: On the Rhetoric and Function of Prefacing Novels in the Nineteenth-Century Canadas, Vieweg (Braunschweig, Germany), 1993.

A Zepetneki Tötösy család adattára: Records of the Tötösy de Zepetnek Family, Jozsef Attila University (Szeged, Hungary) 1993.

(Editor, with Jennifer W. Jay) East-Asian Cultural and Historical Perspectives: Histories and Society/Culture and Literatures (conference papers), University of Alberta (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada), 1997.

(Editor, with Irene Sywenky) The Systemic and Empirical Approach to Literature and Culture as Theory and Application (conference papers), University of Alberta (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada), 1997.

Wen xue yan jiu de he fa hua: yi zhong xin shi yong zhu yi: zheng ti hua he jing yan zhu yi wen xue yu wen hua yan jiu fang fa (translations of lectures given at Peking University, 1995–96), Beijing da xue chu ban she (Beijing, China), 1997.

(Editor, with Yiu-nam Leung) Canadian Culture and Literature: And a Taiwan Perspective (conference papers), University of Alberta (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada), 1998.

Comparative Literature: Theory, Method, Application, Rodopi (Atlanta, GA), 1998.

(Editor) Comparative Central-European Culture (conference papers), Purdue University Press (West Lafayette, IN), 2002.

(Editor) Comparative Literature and Comparative Cultural Studies, Purdue University Press (West Lafayette, IN), 2003.

(Editor, with Louise O. Vasvári) Imre Kertész and Holocaust Literature, Purdue University Press (West Lafayette, IN), 2005.

(Editor) Comparative Cultural Studies and Michael Ondaatje's Writing, Purdue University Press (West Lafayette, IN), 2005.

Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, editor, 1989–97; contributor to periodicals, including Modern Fiction Studies, MELUS, Mosaic, and Essays on Canadian Writing.

SIDELIGHTS: As a scholar and educator, Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek focuses on comparative culture and literature, as well as on media theory and communications. Many of his books, including Comparative Literature: Theory, Method, Application, and the edited volumes Comparative Literature and Comparative Cultural Studies and Comparative Central European Culture, combine these interests.

In Comparative Literature Tötösy de Zepetnek presents a theoretical framework and methodology for approaching the analysis of literary works as they relate to culture. Useful in specific theoretical contexts—such as feminist studies, translation studies, and ethnic and minority studies—Tötösy de Zepetnek includes numerous applications of this methodology—which he calls the Systematic and Empirical Approach to Literature and Culture—in practice. Reviewing Comparative Literature for symploke, Nicolae Harsanyi called Tötösy de Zepetnek's approach "innovative" and especially useful in the study of "cultural studies dealing with East Central Europe." The critic added that the author's "ubiquitous voice, alert pace of argumentation, subtle humor and irony enhance his persuasiveness."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Ariel, October, 1999, Estelle Dansereau, review of Comparative Literature: Theory, Method, Application, p. 168.

symploke, winter-spring, 1999, Nicolae Harsanyi, review of Comparative Literature, p. 215.

University of Toronto Quarterly, winter, 2000, Richard Cavell, review of Comparative Literature, p. 313.

ONLINE

Comparative Literature and Culture Web site, http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/ (August 24, 2005), information on life and works of Tötösy de Zepetnek.