Platonov - Kosnoyazychie

[Alexandra Smith]

Dear Lily,

I think that your reading of Platonov could stretch further, beyond  
Shklovsky, pointing to some analogies with the issues related to the  
philosophy of language discussed in the writings of Diderot and other  
18th-c. thinkers. See, for example, Smoliarova's excellent article:  
Tatiana Smoliarova, ?Distortion and Theatricality: Estrangement in  
Diderot and Shklovsky?, Poetics Today, Spring: 27:1, 2006. The article  
also sheds some light on the issue related to Chaplin and Shklovsky's  
notion of estrangement.
However, having done a considerable amount of research on Platonov and  
his language at some stage of my life, I  came to the conclusion that  
to a large extent Platonov's language has some strong links with the  
language of various Soviet newspapers of the 1920s and some colloqual  
and non-standard language used in Southern parts of Russia (Voronezh  
region, etc.). It is not always a product of clever tricks and  
lingistic games. Naturally, Platonov had a very good ear for picking  
up lots of things that deviated from the norm, so to speak.
In the sentence that includes the phrase "Ia chuvstvuiu" the  
strangeness comes from the fact that in the Russian language this  
phrase is not used by itself, it appears to be incomplete, since  
native speakers would usually continue this type of sentences along  
the lines "I feel that..." (Ia chuvstvuiu, chto...) or "ia chuvstvuiu,  
kak"...
It seems to me that the phrase discussed earlier stands close to the  
idiomatic expression "Ia boleiu vsei dushoi".... but in the end of the  
day the translator still needs to preserve the stylistic mask of a  
simpleton used by Platonov and look for similar cases that exist in  
non-standard English. I'm not sure though whether Robert Chandler and  
Olga Meerson (who already wrote a wonderful book on Platonov's  
estrangement) are prearing their new translation for British or US  
readers ... I would imagine that the factor of readership should  
determine to a large extent  the narrative and translation strategies  
that the translators of this story would like to develop...
I agree with your description of the narrator though but I think that  
you are reading too much into this text. In the end of the day,  
readers of the story should be aware of some eccentric qualities of  
the narrator's speech who is not as sophisticated as Platonov. But one  
shouldn't forget about the stylistic mask of a simpleton that Platonov  
uses here.

All very best,
Sasha Smith




=====================================
Alexandra Smith (PhD, University of London)
Lecturer in Russian
School of European Languages and Cultures
The University of Edinburgh
David Hume Tower
George Square
Edinburgh EX8 9JX
UK

tel. +44-(0)131-6511381
fax: +44- (0)131- 650-3604
e-mail: Alexandra.Smith at ed.ac.uk

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