Oboroten'

[Edythe Haber]

Dear SEELANGtsy,
 
Thank you all for your answers.  I certainly learned a lot about various metamorphosing creatures in different cultures, but I'm still not sure a I totally satisfactory solution.  Shape-shifters sounds a little too sci fi to me and doesn't seem to fit into emigre Russian discourse of the 1930s.  It also doesn't sound quite creepy enough.  And some of the other suggestions from various cultures, as well as more scientific-scholarly terms, don't seem to me the equivalent to a common word like oboroten'.  The "were" suggestion was interesting, but I'm not sure it would be readily intelligible.  Josh, although the term is applied to Russian emigres, on the symbolic level it is associated with the uncanny, diabolical, e.g.:  "Takie siuda d'iavoly ponaekhali -- priamo oborotni."  So -- I might stick to werewolf, or maybe changeling with a note.
 
Since I have all of your ears, or more accurately, eyes, I have a totally unrelated question.  I can't seem to be able to type in Cyrillic in Microsoft Outlook, although I think I was able to in the past.  I do the Shift-Alt toggle that works everywhere, else, but I get an entirely different set of (Latin) symbols.  Messages in Cyrillic from others come through fine.  Can anyone help?  Thank you.
 
Gratefully,
Edie Haber

________________________________

From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list on behalf of Josh Wilson
Sent: Wed 3/9/2011 1:11 PM
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] NY Times on Avant-Garde Russian Art Collection in Nukuz, Uzbekistan



"Shape-shifter" generally implies that the thing is able to shift between
species - a bit more dramatic than shifting identity as the description
seems to imply.

Without seeing more context, my instinct would be to go with something maybe
along the lines of just "shifters." "Metamorph," as Paul Gallagher suggests,
might also be appropriate, especially if your audience might know their Star
Trek. :)



Josh Wilson
Assistant Director
The School of Russian and Asian Studies
Editor in Chief
Vestnik, The Journal of Russian and Asian Studies
SRAS.org
jwilson at sras.org





-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
[mailto:SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Stefani, Sara Marie
Sent: Wednesday, March 09, 2011 8:46 PM
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] NY Times on Avant-Garde Russian Art Collection in
Nukuz, Uzbekistan

shape-shifter?

________________________________________
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
[SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU] on behalf of Edythe Haber [Edythe.Haber at UMB.EDU]
Sent: Wednesday, March 09, 2011 11:53 AM
To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] NY Times on Avant-Garde Russian Art Collection in
Nukuz, Uzbekistan

Dear SEELANGtsy,

I am having trouble finding the English equivalent for the word oboroten'.
Russian-English dictionaries I have consulted translate it as werewolf, but
that clearly does not fit the context of the text I'm working on:  a 1938
play by Teffi, in which emigres are called oborotni, since they keep
changing identities -- their names, nationalities, professions, etc.
Ozhegov defines the word as:  "chelovek, sposobnyi prevrashchat'sia v
kogo-chto-n. s pomoshch'iu volshebstva" -- in other words,  not only into
wolves.  I can't seem to come up with an English word denoting this.  I'd
much appreciate your help.

Thanks,
Edie Haber

________________________________

From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list on
behalf of Benjamin Rifkin
Sent: Tue 3/8/2011 9:48 AM
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: [SEELANGS] NY Times on Avant-Garde Russian Art Collection in Nukuz,
Uzbekistan



Dear SEELANGers:

This article may be of interest to many in our community:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/arts/design/desert-of-forbidden-art-igor-s
avitsky-collection-in-nukus.html?_r=1

Best wishes to all,

Ben Rifkin
The College of New Jersey



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