"gender neutral pronouns"

[Valentino, Russell]

It seems you could go either way with it -- "her" tips slightly towards the foreign usage to my ear, "its" towards an unmarked contemporary English. The latter is less colorful. The former strikes me as slightly archaic or archaizing. It could also be quaint or nationalistic in some contexts. Gender is likely part of this (because of the personification of the country as a woman). I can see the reason for an editor wanting to use "its," e.g., to tone down a text. But if its part of an author's style or is otherwise important for conveying tone, it would make sense to keep "her."

Two cents.

Russell 

-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [mailto:SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Robert Chandler
Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2008 9:11 AM
To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
Subject: [SEELANGS] "gender neutral pronouns"

Dear all,

I¹m curious to know how people react to the following sentence:
³Pushkin was both Russia¹s greatest poet and its first great historian.²

It is by me, as changed, against my wishes, by one of my editors.  To my
ear, it grates horribly.  I would prefer Œher first great historian¹.
Apparently ³house style¹ favours ³gender-neutral pronouns².

Am I being silly, sentimental, old-fashioned, sexist...?  Does anyone else
feel strongly, either way, about this?

Best Wishes,

Robert 

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