Emil Draitser was born in Odessa in the U.S.S.R. By the time he emigrated to the United States in 1974, he was well known in the Soviet Union, under the pen name of Emil Abramov, as a writer of humorous pieces for such major periodicals as Krokodil, Literaturnaia Gazeta, Ogonek, Nedelia, and Iunost`. Once in this country, he earned a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, while teaching in the Russian language and creative writing departments of that university. He is currently a professor in the Russian Division at Hunter College in New York City, and also teaches in the School of Continuing Education at New York University and at the New School for Social Research. He has been the keynote speaker at the International and National Conferences on Satire and Humor. On page 9 of the preface to Taking Penguins to the Movies he wrote, "...it is the implicit assumptions of the culture that lie at the foundation of a joke. Analyzing and interpreting jokes makes it possible to deduce certain behavioral patterns and make explicit tacit operating knowledge of deeply held popular beliefs, the hidden underpinnings, of a culture."
Publications:
Russkie poety XX veka: antologiia dlia studentov. (Russian Poets of the Twentieth Century: An Anthology for Students.) Tenafly, NJ: Hermitage, 2000.
King Library PG2127.P63 R88 2000

Making War, Not Love: Gender and Sexuality in Russian Humor. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999.
King Library, PG3099.W5 D7 1999

Russkie poety XIX veka: antologiia dlia studentov. (Russian Poets of the Nineteenth Century: An Anthology for Students.) Tenafly, NJ: Hermitage, 1999.
King Library PG2127.P63 R87 1999

Taking Penguins to the Movies: Ethnic Humor in Russia. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1998.
King Library, DK510.33 .D73 1998

Techniques of Satire: The Case of Saltykov-Scedrin. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1994.
King Library, PG3361.S3 Z64 1994

"Sociological Aspects of the Russian Jewish Jokes of the Exodus." Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 7 (1994): 245-67.
King Library Periodicals (shelved by title)

Poterialsia mal`chik, i drugie rasskazy. (A Boy Is Lost, and Other Stories.) Moscow: Moskovskii rabochii, 1993.

"The Comic in Saltykov's Language." Slavic and East European Journal 34 (1990): 439-58.
King Library Periodicals (shelved by title)

"Fighting the Shadows: Four Crises of a Russian Satirist in Exile." Studies in Contemporary Satire: A Creative and Critical Journal 17 (1990): 15-30.
King Library, PN6149.S2 S78

"Soviet Underground Jokes as a Means of Popular Entertainment." Journal of Popular Culture 23 (1989): 117-125.
King Library Periodicals (shelved by title)

Peshchera neozhidannostei: rasskazy. (The Fun House: Stories.) New York: Effekt, 1984.

Forbidden Laughter: Soviet Underground Jokes. Rev. ed. Los Angeles: Almanac, 1978.
King Library, PN6210 .F6 1978

Sources of biographical information:
"Emil A. Draitser." Contemporary Authors Online. April 1999. Biography Resource Center. (18 January 2001).

Shepard, Richard F. "Humor Struggles on in the Soviet Union." New York Times, 2 February 1980, sec. C, p. 19.

"Emil A. Draitser" 1 May 2000. www.hunter.cuny.edu/classics/russian/draitser/draitser.htm (22 January 2001).