The most recognizable landscape description in Russian literature

[E Wayles Browne]

-- 

> On Mon, 13 Nov 2006, Alina Israeli wrote:
>
>> Chuden Dnepr pri tixoj pogode. (Gogol)
>
> Isn't this in Ukraine?
>
> Is there a concept of Russian language literature which is separte from
> Russia itself?  Something akin to American and English Literature?
>
> Max Pyziur
> pyz at brama.com
>
Dear Max,
Of course there is! Every literature is free to write about other places.
"Mocart i Salieri" does not take place in Russia, and part of "Master i
Margarita" is set in the Holy Land. Saint-Exupery set his "Little Prince"
not in France but partly on various asteroids and partly in the Sahara.
Mark Twain's "1601" is not in America but in an imaginary England.
Shakespeare's "Hamlet" is in Denmark. Goethe wrote a poem about the
Italian landscape: "Kennst du das Land, wo die Zitronen blühn." The Basque
writer Bernardo Atxaga deliberately set his novel "Obabakoak" partly in
Germany and partly on the Amazon in order to counteract the notion that
Basque writers should write only about Basque topics.
And every language can be written by people from other places, if they're
good enough. Elias Canetti was from Bulgaria but he wrote in German.
Aleksandar Hemon (part Ukrainian, if you can believe him) is from Bosnia
but writes his fiction in American English.
Yours,


-- 
Wayles Browne, Assoc. Prof. of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics
Morrill Hall 220, Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853, U.S.A.

tel. 607-255-0712 (o), 607-273-3009 (h)
fax 607-255-2044 (write FOR W. BROWNE)
e-mail ewb2 at cornell.edu

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