Help with translation

[Michele A. Berdy]

We had stranovedenie at the Pushkin Institute, and I called it "Russian 
history and culture." It's harder to translate when it's standing alone, 
say, in a school's list of courses. I think I've translated it as "area and 
country studies," which is still sort of lame. ("Country studies" alone 
sounds like (to me) those US govt books.) I'd love to hear other ideas.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Dunn" <J.Dunn at SLAVONIC.ARTS.GLA.AC.UK>
To: <SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 5:31 PM
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Help with translation


>I have some doubts about the appropriateness of the term 'area studies' to 
>translate страноведение [stranovedenie].  To me area studies means the 
>study of large areas of the globe, e.g. Russian, Central and East European 
>Studies, Latin American Studies.  In the academic circles in which I used 
>to move страноведение tended to be left untranslated, which is, I know, 
>pretty feeble, though it does indicate the difficulty of finding an 
>equivalent.  Given the essentially ancillary nature of the studies 
>described by Tatyana Buzina, a possible solution might be 'background 
>studies'.
>
> John Dunn.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tatyana Buzina <tbuzina at YANDEX.RU>
> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
> Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 12:56:15 +0300
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Help with translation
>
> Usually, we use "area studies" (or sometimes "regional studies," too) to 
> translate "stranovedenie" which applies to whole countries while 
> "kraevedenie" is local and is used mostly in regard to places within 
> Russia. "Stranovedenie" is something taught to students of foreign 
> languages. "Kraevedenie" is offered to students of various aspects of 
> Russian history and culture.
> Regards,
> Tatyana
>
>
> John Dunn
> Honorary Research Fellow, SMLC (Slavonic Studies)
> University of Glasgow, Scotland
>
> Address:
> Via Carolina Coronedi Berti 6
> 40137 Bologna
> Italy
> Tel.: +39 051/1889 8661
> e-mail: J.Dunn at slavonic.arts.gla.ac.uk
> johnanthony.dunn at fastwebnet.it
>
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