Protivoslovo

[Olga Meerson]

Why I think counter-discourse may work:
It is really important to be aware of Bakhtin's meanings: his words are his own sets of terminology by which he means something very specific. This is the reason that protivoslovo will never be the same as vozrazhenie: vozrazhenie is a rejoinder in a chronologically laid-out discussion or argument, or even a fight. Protivoslovo is quoting a vozrazhenie in your own vozrazhenie to it--a world of difference. Similarly, dialogue in our sense of the word is a consecutive sequence of rejoinders, while in Bakhtin's sense, it is a bunch of voices embedded in the same speech and often simultaneously. That is the reason counterdiscourse may sound appropriate: discourse seems more embedded and less consecutively arranged than word. Incidentally, in 19th C. Russian. vozrazhenie just meant a rejoinder, not necessarily an objection or anything of the sort. Counterdiscourse is no more arcane than discourse, and as of today, both are no longer the same as speech or word: more idiosyncratic 
than the former and broader than the latter. Neither are they even the same as either langue or parole. 
Bakhtin's case is as complex as any in translation: on top of knowing the language (Russian), of knowing the idiolect of the author as compared to the sociolect at large, of being apt and flexible in the target language (English), the translator also has to understand and intellectually respect what the author actually means. English is not my native language, but as for Russain, I can vouch that vozrazhenie and protivoslovo are nothing alike. Just as Bakhtinian dialogue is not the same as Socratic or a dialogue in a play or in the pedestrian use of the word. This I know as a Bakhtin specialist, when it comes to Bakhtin's relevance for Dostoevsky. Caryl Emerson is not bad with equivalents but sometimes those of us who know both Russian and Bakhtin must address such problems without her help, and that is not her fault but results from the nature of trendy words in English. They begin to be used pretensiously and "trendily" but ultimately, in their pedestrian meaning. For exam
ple, when a non-Bakhtinian hears the words "Dialogic imagination", s/he may believe that the meaning of these words is obvious--an imagination that presents verbal reality as a series of rejoinders in what one sees as a dialogue, say, in a play. I have seen such terminological abuse often enough to suggest that Caryl is right in sometimes trying to invent a relatively arcane term in English to avoid the wrong associations. To me. the greatest analogy to protivoslovo is a counter-force, what we call a kontr-fors in architecture, or a podpruzhnaia arka: these things counter the main force AS AND WHEN it is in operation, not afterwards. That is why I think counter-discourse may actually work. Side from which, chuzhoe slovo in Bakhtin is very similar to chuzhaia rach', and in English both are often rendered as double-/pseudo-indirect DISCOURSE, as they are, incidentally, in French. In German, it is erlebte Rede (more analogous to rech'/speech) but still close enough to recognize 
as a related phenomenon to a literary theorist and even perhaps a linguist.
o.m.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul B. Gallagher" <paulbg at PBG-TRANSLATIONS.COM>
Date: Saturday, May 26, 2007 7:23 am
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Protivoslovo

> Lily Alexander wrote:
> 
> > Dear Colleagues,
> > 
> > Rereading yesterday Bakhtin, I ran into "protivoslovo."
> > 
> > I am surprised that I did not come across any attempts of its 
> theorization.> Of course Bakhtin invented many words, but this one 
> may have slipped 
> > through undiscussed. It is used in his "Marxism and the 
> Philosophy of 
> > Language."
> > 
> > As with all of his invented words (or reinvented), it is more 
> than what 
> > just meets the eye. It  certainly will be more than just 
> "vozrazhenie," 
> > counter argument, etc.
> > Slovo also connotes tale, myth, even epos, so it might have an 
> extended 
> > meaning beyond "word."  But of course, for starters, "word" and 
> > "utterance" would be the subject of his discussion.
> > ...
> > 
> > Slovo provokes protivoslovo in his context. This would be more 
> along the 
> > lines of passionate counterargument. Something polyarnoe in a 
> dialoical 
> > context, coming out of opposition or provocation and stimulated 
> by debate.
> > 
> > Any thoughts?
> 
> "Word/antiword" doesn't really work for me because it's too 
> narrow, too 
> specific, so my immediate reaction was to look for something 
> broader, 
> something that would denote an activity or practice rather than a 
> small 
> piece of the result. And of course I thought immediately of 
> "speech," 
> recalling the phrase "??????? ?????." Then "speech/counterspeech" 
> could 
> work. I'm sympathetic to the "discourse/counterdiscourse" 
> suggestion, 
> but it strikes me initially as esoteric or even arcane (is that 
> what 
> you're aiming for?)
> 
> But I'm no philosopher or Bakhtin expert, so take this with a 
> grain of salt.
> 
> -- 
> War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
> --
> Paul B. Gallagher
> pbg translations, inc.
> "Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
> http://pbg-translations.com
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> ------
> Use your web browser to search the archives, control your 
> subscription  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS 
> Web Interface at:
>                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> ------
> 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------