on to "vicarious"

[Condee]

I agree, Alina, and would only add that the English is intentionally
non-normative as well, and therein lies the double burden.

Thanks to all who submitted ideas, both posted and direct to me.

Prof. Nancy Condee, Director
Graduate Program for Cultural Studies
2206 Posvar Hall
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
412-624-7232


-----Original Message-----
From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
[mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On Behalf Of Alina Israeli
Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2006 1:15 PM
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] on to "vicarious"

>I thought about the same term "oposredovannyj" but it seems that in this
>context Kenneth Katzner's dictionary has a better solution. It gives
>"chuzhoj" as the translation of "vicarious."  Then "Vicarious Catastrophe"
>becomes "Chuzhaja avarija."

I'd like to disagree with Katzner. "chuzhoj" is opposed to "svoj" in
Russian: Chuzhaja nosha ne tjanet, Svoja rubashka blizhe k telu. Someone
else's has no effect on you. Vicarious, on the other hand, is what you
experience second-hand, so to speak. One may get vicarious pleasure from
gift giving, for ex. Cambridge dictionary gives "vicarious thrill from
watching motor racing". Granted, vacarious is more common in English, but
so are many other psychological terms. While it's possible to find
"opsredovannoe udovol'stvie", it's not so easy with catastrophes, because
in this case Russians "sochuvstvujut" or "soperezhivajut".

__________________________
 Alina Israeli
 LFS, American University
 4400 Mass. Ave., NW
 Washington, DC 20016

 phone:    (202) 885-2387
 fax:      (202) 885-1076 

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