THESIS ABSTRACT Svetlana R. Osadchuk Master of Arts
 Russian, and East European, and Eurasian Studies Program
 June 2018
 Title: The Physiology of Literature: A.A. Ukhtomskii and The Principle of The Dominant Russian physiologist Aleksei Alekseevich Ukhtomskii played exceptional role in the development of Russian humanities in general and Russian literary studies in particular; of special interest is his significant influence on the early works of Mikhail Bakhtin. He discovered and introduced into the scientific circulation the dominant principle that has become a point of departure in developing different important concepts such as dominant, chronotope, dialogue and others. This thesis, in a way, is a genealogical recounting of early 20th century Russian literary theory in light of its associations with the work of Ukhtomskii and a demonstration how his ideas can be used in further literary studies.