How Americans Look at Russia - Summary

Tue Oct 16 23:20:35 UTC 2001

I enjoyed this interesting compilation of materials.  One significant addition
to the Americans speaking Russian in films list: James Earl Jones, with a great
deal of makeup on, as the Russian ambassador in Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove
or how
I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb.  He does an admirable job, I
think.

Keith Meyer-Blasing
Madison, WI

At 06:05 PM 10/16/01 -0400, you wrote:
>Dear colleagues,
>
>Some of you may still vaguely remember my request way back in June for
>suggestions for materials to include in a lecture or course on how
>Americans look at Russia.  At long last, here is the summary of responses
>I received to this query.  Many thanks to Konstantin Kustanovich, Laurel
>Schultz, Russell Valentino, and Olga Zatsepina for their contributions.
>I've also included a short bibliography of sources I found that might be
>of interest.  Since at this point I was only working on developing a
>lecture on the topic, the bibliography is not all that extensive.  You
>will notice that there is some crossover between how Americans look at
>Russia and how Russians look at America.  If the unscientific compilation
>I have created below sparks other ideas on the topic, please let me know!
>
>Best regards,
>
>Margarita Nafpaktitis
>University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
>
>************************************************************************
>
>
>Konstantin Kustanovich <konstantin.v.kustanovich at vanderbilt.edu> kindly
>shared a unique resource:
>
>"As for American views of Russia, last year I took ten students to St.
>Petersburg for a month to teach there a course on contemporary life
>and culture. At the end I asked them to write papers answering
>specific questions about Russia and Russians. I put these unedited
>papers at the address below. You might find them interesting and
>useful." (They really are wonderful reading! - MN)
>http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/Germanic-Slavic/russian/Maymester2000.html
>
>
>Laurel Schultz <lschultz at ix.netcom.com> recommended a "mean, funny, and
>interesting" story called, "The Very Rigid Search," by Jonathan Safran
>Foer in the June 18 &25, 2001 issue of the New Yorker for a cross-cultural
>perspective.  The narrator is a Ukrainian who ends up as a guide for the
>author, who is on a trip to Ukraine to find his roots.  But many of the
>misunderstandings and stereotypes that the American author and the
>Ukrainian narrator confront in this piece resonate with Russian culture as
>well. [And it *is* very funny! -- MN]
>
>Russell Valentino <russell-valentino at uiowa.edu> riffed on this theme and
>came up with a rich mix of genres:
>
>* Aksyonov's In Search of Melancholy Baby
>* "Two British texts that nevertheless are part of American culture: A
>Clockwork Orange, which is chockfull of Russian slang, and Conrad's Heart
>of Darkness in which the part of the harlequin (the nameless character
>who survives in the jungle and whose book Marlowe finds before arriving at
>Kurtz's jungle abode) is a Russian. In Coppola's adaptation for the screen
>(Apocalypse Now), this is the part played by Dennis Hopper, though
>unfortunately all the Russianness has disappeared."
>
>Then, I opened the can of worms and told Russell that I keep a list of
>movies where famous film/TV stars speak Russian, and we bonded.  Here is
>his list:
>* "just about every James Bond movie has at least one (stereotyped) image
>of Russia in it.   So many popular spy films and books do the same. Le
>Carre comes to mind, as well as Tom Clancy."
>*And then there are all those scenes in American movies where famous
>non-Russian actors speak Russian (even if they are not playing actual
>Russians):
>Sean Connery in The Hunt for Red October
>Pierce Brosnan says a few lines in the second James Bond film he did (I
>think it's The World Is Not Enough).
>Nicole Kidman and George Clooney both have lines in Russian in The
>Peacemaker.
>Michelle Pfeiffer plays a Russian and speaks a little in Russia House.
>Val Kilmer speaks some Russian in The Saint, as does the now American
>actor
>Rade Serbedzija.
>Lara Croft Tomb Raider, in which the heroine quips, "Kogo videt'?" to a
>little girl.
>Airforce One has lots.
>He concludes, "The best and most Russian I've ever heard spoken by an
>American actor is in a TV miniseries from the 1980s called The Winds of
>War. Robert Mitchum goes
>on for a good ten minutes in a speech to a bunch of Soviet diplomats. I
>think I remember an interview he did in which he was asked about it and he
>responded that actors are supposed to be able to do that kind of thing.
>Too bad it's so rare."
>
>[My own additions to this include:
>Sandra Bullock in the opening scenes of "Miss Congeniality" telling a
>bunch of Russian Mafiosi to hit the floor
>Kevin Costner in No Way Out
>Arnold Schwarzenegger in Red Heat
>John Cleese speaking pseudo-Russian in A Fish Called Wanda
>Various episodes of the X-Files
>
>I have long wondered whether a compilation of these screen moments played
>on continuous loop at student orientations might just get some of them
>thinking about Russian?  If the Air Force can use Top Gun as a recruiting
>tool...   -- MN]
>
>
>Another category Russell has  explored is "American (and
>Amero-Brit) film adaptations of Russian literature, as they say a lot
>about
>stereotyping and audience expectations. A few I have used (and would
>recommend) are:  Anna Karenina (1) with Sophie Marceau in the title role,
>(2) with Greta
>Garbo, and (3) with Vivian Leigh. Students seem to like (1) best. It's
>historically all mixed up, but is probably the most watchable today.
>David Lean's Dr. Zhivago gave the balalaika more airtime than any other
>American film ever.
>In my opinion, Audrey Hepburn makes a better Natasha Rostova in the 1956
>Hollywood War and Peace than does Bondarchuk's actress (whose name escapes
>me) in the Soviet version.
>Haven't yet watched the Onegin (with Ralph Feinnes and Liv Tyler), though
>I plan to watch it this summer."
>
>
>Olga Zatsepina <culturelink at worldnet.att.net> and her husband, who is a
>psychologist, have written an article on how Russian students understand
>American values, and "why they are so negative to them."  She said it's
>available on their website: http://culturelinks.net/, and while I didn't
>find it there, I did find their  article on Russian vs. American business
>practices, which could also be useful. Her contact information is also on
>the site, so you could get in touch with her directly if you're
>specifically interested in the article she mentioned.
>
>
>And here's the short bibliography that I came up with:
>
>Anschel, Eugene, ed. The American Image of Russia, 1775-1917. New York:
>Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1974.
>Anthology of primary sources, e.g., 14-year-old John Quincy Adams' essay
>written about his trip to St. Petersburg in 1781-1782 while serving as
>secretary and interpreter to the American diplomatic mission led by
>Francis Dana.  Also, useful introduction and some period line drawings
>from American periodicals.
>
>Barson, Michael and Steven Heller. Red Scared! The Commie Menace in
>Propaganda and Popular Culture. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2001.
>Sketchy narrative, no bibliography, but pages and pages of full-color
>reproductions of lurid Cold War book jackets and movie posters.
>
>Dallek, Robert. "How We See the Soviets." In Shared Destiny: Fifty Years
>of Soviet-American Relations. Ed. Mark Garrison and Abbott Gleason.
>Boston: Beacon Press, 1985.
>
>Filene, Peter G., ed. American Views of Soviet Russia, 1917-1965.
>Homewood, Ill.: Dorsey Press, 1968.
>
>Gaddis, John Lewis.  Russia, the Soviet Union, and the United States: An
>Interpretive History. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1990.
>
>Grayson, Benson L., ed. The American Image of Russia, 1917-1977. New York:
>Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1978.
>Anthology of primary sources, including, e.g., Langston Hughes' account of
>"The Experiences of a Black Visitor" and Eleanor Roosevelt's essay, "I
>Should Die If I Had to Live There."
>
>Laserson, Max M. The American Impact on Russia -- Diplomatic and
>Ideological -- 1784-1917. New York: Macmillan, 1950.
>
>LaFeber, Walter. America, Russia, and the Cold War: 1945-1992.  7th ed.
>New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993.
>
>Saul, Norman E. Concord and Conflict: The United States and Russia,
>1867-1914. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 1996.
>Comprehensive history with many many primary sources cited in footnotes.
>
>Saul, Norman E. War and Revolution: The United States and Russia,
>1917-1921. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2001.
>Comprehensive history with many many primary sources cited in footnotes.
>
>Scott, John.  Behind the Urals: An American Worker in Russia's City of
>Steel. Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1942.
>
>Steinbeck, John. A Russian Journal. With photographs by Robert Capa. New
>York: Penguin, 1999.
>
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