Russian accent: investment in football

[Penelope Burt]

Doom and gloom has perhaps also been attributed to, say, American  
literature of the nineteenth century (there was a [fine] book about  
Poe, Hawthorne and Melville by Harry Levin called The Power of  
Blackness), and to Kafka (but the story goes that his friends would  
roll on the floor laughing when he read his stuff to them aloud), and  
to Scandinavian literature (talk about the weather!). I think Russian  
literature in particular has suffered unduly by being read too  
sociologically and biographically (e.g., Gogol). Or think of all  
those maudlin productions of Chekhov’s plays. Perhaps also because  
Russian writers sometimes seem to take themselves so seriously, and  
this is always taken at face value, without looking at what and how  
they actually write. And it was and is hard to find good translations  
of Pushkin (Robert Chandler’s Captain’s Daughter shows what can be  
done though!). But it is a puzzlement – we had a thread about funny  
Russian stories and novels and the list was not overflowing with  
writers who have been translated at least into English. So perhaps  
the stereotype is due at least in part to the American/British need  
for it (which itself needs explanation I know).

Penny Burt

On Dec 10, 2010, at 10:45 AM, Slava Paperno wrote:

>> Olga Meerson raises an interesting point: has anyone given any
>> consideration to the question why Russian literature, taken  
>> generally,
>> has a reputation for being particularly gloomy, at least among  
>> English-
>> speaking non-specialists (if not non-readers)?
>
> That's because of the Russian weather :) Does anyone want to count  
> the bright sunny days in Russian novels?
>
> Slava
>
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