Tiuriemno - "blatnaya" lirika

[John Dunn]

Perhaps I can rush in while the more angelic figures mentioned by Aleksandr Stratienko weigh up their position.  In fact, I entirely agree with Sasha Smith about the absence of Western parallels to the type of songs being discussed here.  All I would add is that someone who really felt the need to find some sort of anglophone equivalent might want to consider the works of 'Banjo' Paterson ('Waltzing Matilda', partly written in a sort of thieves' cant) or Robert Service ('The Shooting of Dan McGrew'), though even here I suspect that the differences would far outweigh the parallels.  

I would like, though, to take the discussion in a rather different direction by suggesting that many of the points made by Sasha Smith apply equally to the form of language known as 'blatnoj zhargon'.  Here too there is an absence of parallels in the different Western traditions, which is one of the reasons why zhargon is very difficult to translate into English (remember all the problems with Putin's 'zamochim v sortire').  And while it may be more difficult to make a case for considering zhargon to be a cultural construct, there are questions to be asked about the processes by which zhargon entered the mainstream language at the beginning of the 1990s.

John Dunn.

-----Original Message-----
From: Alexandra Smith <Alexandra.Smith at ED.AC.UK>
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 2009 20:52:00 +0100
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Tiuriemno - "blatnaya" lirika

Dear Alexander,

Although you are eager to find some analogies between Gorbovsky's  
rendering of one popular song  that in post-Soviet Russia would be  
defined as an example of the SHANSON genre (it's not related to the  
French tradition, it's a different cup of tea altogether), I would  
strongly encourage you to watch the documentary film on Arkady  
Severnyi titled "Chelovek, kotorogo ne bylo":  
http://www.5-tv.ru/video/1015676/
You would see for yourself that it is fruitless to look for any  
analogies  between the western traditions and the tradition of  
Odessa-like-semi-criminal songs that should be treated as a cultural  
construct of the Soviet intelligentsia of the 1960s-70s. The  
documentary on Severny demonstrates very well that this type of songs  
were imitated  by many bards and performers  in Russia as part of  
their escapist strategies. Thus Gorbovsky's song should be considered  
as part of this Leningrad dissident/semi-dissident imaginary utopian  
carnivalesque  space that enables the participants of this subcultural  
space  to laugh at the established Soviet cultural values and  
ideological dogma. One part of the film suggests that this type of  
songs were hugely enjoyed by some serious St Petersburg scholars  
including Dmitry Lichachev and Milena Rozdestvenskaya.

With best wishes,
Sasha Smith

Quoting Alexander Stratienko <a_strat at HOTMAIL.COM>:

> Thank you, Sasha, Olga and Alina... Anyway, I would like to hear   
> opinion of the English
> speaking SEELANGers... I know this song from my childhood - we sang   
> it yet back in school
> together with "На Дерибасовской открылася пивная", "В неапольском   
> порту..." или
> "Когда я был малой чувак..."... (всякому жанру свое время! :)) But   
> it do not match in
> my mind with the "House of Rising Sun" for example. I am just   
> curious do they feel the same?
> Robert Chandler? Andrew Jameson? Paul Gallagher? By the way, when I   
> realized what the
> Triaboliques are actually singing. I accepted it as a parody!
>
> 
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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