Eliana Rozinov is a PhD candidate in the Department of English and Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies. Her research and teaching interests are situated at the intersection of literature, critical theory, and feminist cultural studies from the mid-nineteenth century to the present.  She is currently completing her dissertation project, entitled “Riddles of Women: Mythical, Modernist, Freudian.” This project rethinks Freud’s “great question”—what does a woman want?— by shifting the focus of his theory of the psyche to three versions of women: in myth, modern fiction, and psychoanalytic case study. It engages pre-modern and early modern works by Ovid and Tasso, modernist works by E.M. Forster, Katherine Mansfield, and H.D, and theoretical works by contemporary feminist and queer theorists. Through its points of triangulation, “Riddles of Women” not only shows how Freud’s theory of the psyche develops across different literary periods and genres, but also addresses postcolonialism and the law, biographical criticism and life-writing, and sexual and racial politics.

At Princeton, Eliana has taught courses on a range of topics in literary history, criticism and theory, including sections of “Rewriting the World: Literatures from 1350 to 1850” (ENG200) and “Modern Fiction” (ENG360). This Fall 2024, she will co-teach a new undergraduate seminar that she designed with Maria DiBattista—“A New Eve: Women, Myth, and Power”—on tropes of fallen women in 19th-20th century works of fiction and film. She has recent work on the psychosexual and psychosocial lives of women forthcoming in Katherine Mansfield and Germany (Routledge Studies in Twentieth-Century Literature) and published at the Los Angeles Review of Books. 

In addition to her work as a researcher and teacher, Eliana has served as a representative for the Working Group on Graduate Issues, social chair of the Department of English, co-coordinator of the Undergraduate Writing Workshops, and co-chair of the Theory Colloquium. Prior to coming to Princeton in 2020, she graduated summa cum laude from Cornell with degrees in Comparative Literature and English, and a minor in French.