recent submissions

Fri Sep 14 23:14:37 UTC 2001

Dear SEELANGERS,

>The notes below encapsulate, roughly, the two poles of the debate
>initiated by a few submissions that raised questions about the
>historical background to the recent nightmare in our
>lives--questions that are seemingly beyond the parameters
>established for this list.

>  Dear Ms Efimenko and all others who want to share their views and
>feelings about Tuesday's tragedy!
>         I think it is time to say it clearly even though it might sound
>very rude. I believe that we all have something to say about the attack,
>myself included. But I do not believe that my NON-professional opinion
>about the causes of this attack and subsequent measures the USA, UN or NATO
>should take is worthy to be discussed publicly.
>         I take it for granted, however, that as a member of SEELANS
>Listserv you are a specialist in Slavic or East European languages. Trust
>me, your PROFESSIONAL opinion about any problem in the field of Slavic and
>East European linguistics is of a great interest to me.
>         It is quite possible that you are not only a specialist in these
>languages but also a specialist in the filed of modern American or Middle
>East politics, economics or history. It is also possible that you are a
>very important source of information. I will be overwhelmed with joy to
>meet your familiar name on any web-site or Listserv that are devoted to
>these fields. These are those listservs or web-sites which, I believe, we
>all frantically browse right now in order to learn more about what caused
>this tragedy and who was behind it. I look forward to find your opinions
>there.
>         SEELANGS listserv is a forum of specialists in a particular
>field--Slavic and East European Languages, their history, lexicology,
>morphology, syntax, etymology, etc. Let us use this listserv for this
>particular filed and let us do it professionally.
>Sincerely, Olga Strakhov
>
>
>
>My contact with friends and family limited since tuesday to my intermittent
>access to the internet, i'm finding that the personal contributions, vitriolic
>or otherwise, to the two message boards i'm subscribed to has helped
>me to feel
>connected to what is going on in the u.s. in ways that the cbc and cnn could
>only obstruct. thanks.
>bill martin (waiting it out in toronto...)

The narrow construction imposed upon the SEELANGS parameters in the
first note is more than a little disconcerting: Are we as academics
really to leave these democratic, national, and moral questions up to
specialists in other fields?  {I hasten to add that Olga Strakhov
affirms that she has opinions on these issues, but she does not
believe that this list is the appropriate place to express them.)

   Bill Martin, on the other hand, welcomes all that he hears from the
lists he is subscribed to, because it helps him to "feel connected to
what is going on"--presumably, to the opinions of others who are
struggling to absorb and come to terms with the unprecedented crimes
in the U.S. that we witnessed last Tuesday.

   I felt considerable sympathy with a note submitted, I think, by a
graduate student yesterday. She argued that there may be individuals
who find this list an important link to a community of people who
might listen sympathetically to the thoughts of other Slavic
specialists on this topic--people who are professionally academics,
but who are are not only academics.

   Should the rules governing this list be so inflexible that no one
could express their ideas, and more likely, their pain, in the
situation we now confront?  If not in these circumstances, then when?

   (Thank you, Alex Rudd, for cutting us all this slack in recent
days, despite your initial response, which was apparently the product
of short-term pressures on you as the list owner.)

   But is this question entirely outside the parameters for this list?
Olga Strakhov identifies the linguistic interests of this list
("SEELANGS listserv is a forum of specialists in a particular
field--Slavic and East European Languages, their history, lexicology,
morphology, syntax, etymology, etc."). But does that "etc." include
all our potential contributions here?

   Cultural studies has become a significant dimension of Slavic
studies in the past decade at least, and anyone with knowledge of
this area understands the meaning of the term "the Other."  It is not
necessary to enumerate the studies by Slavists who have explored this
idea in connection with the history of the former Soviet Union and
Russia before the Revolution.  Do we have nothing to add when our
President says repeatedly during the last few days that "This is a
struggle between Good and Evil"?  We have heard these same words in
the very recent past from Osama bin Laden.  So--despite all the
dissonance produced by our anguished reactions to the crimes of
September 11: Are there no cultural issues here that we can discuss
after the experience in the Soviet Union during the twentieth
century?  Do we, as Slavic specialists, have nothing to say?

Ken Brostrom

--
Kenneth Brostrom
Assoc. Prof. of Russian
Dept. of German and Slavic Studies
443 Manoogian Hall
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI 48202
Telephone: (313) 577-6238
FAX (313) 577-3266
E-mail: kenneth.brostrom at wayne.edu

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