Platonov - Kosnoyazychie

[Olga Meerson]

Platonov's ia chuvstvuiu--without an object or a clause governed by it--is analogous, first and foremost, to Platonov's own locution of the same structure elsewhere, in Kotlovan, ia zdes' ne sushchestvuiu, ia tol'ko dumaiu zdes'. In both cases, feeling and thinking are valuable independently of their objects or objectives. The model for that latter one, in Kotlovan, in turn, is a tongue-in-cheek polemic with Descarthes, who claimed that the latter was the sole necessary condition and guarantee of the former. Platonov is anti-Shklovskian in one particular respect: he reverses the device of defamiliarization. But I have written a whole book on that. Like Pilate but on a happier occasion, I may say that what I have written is what I have written. That is, I still stand by my conclusions in that book.
Olga Meerson 

----- Original Message -----
From: Alexandra Smith <Alexandra.Smith at ED.AC.UK>
Date: Monday, May 21, 2007 1:00 pm
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Platonov - Kosnoyazychie

> 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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