in the city of N

[Anne L Lounsbery]

The "gorod N" convention comes from Latin "nomen." Yes, there are a number
of prerevolutionary works in which provincial cities that serve as settings
are given names (sometimes real and sometimes made up).



In case anyone is interested, I've published several articles relating to
these questions (see JSTOR).





Anne Lounsbery

Associate Professor and Chair

Department of Russian & Slavic Studies

New York University

19 University Place, 2nd floor

New York, NY 10003

(212) 998-8674













*From:* SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
[mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU] *On Behalf Of *Michele A Berdy
*Sent:* Monday, November 04, 2013 9:45 AM
*To:* SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
*Subject:* Re: [SEELANGS] in the city of N



I should have noted that we recalled Yalta (Chekhov) and Pyatigorsk
(Lermontov), Tula (Leskov) and some Soviet authors.





*From:* SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [
mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU <SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU>] *On Behalf
Of *Sarah
Hurst
*Sent:* Monday, November 04, 2013 6:37 PM
*To:* SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
*Subject:* Re: [SEELANGS] in the city of N



Дама с собачкой - Yalta.



Sarah Hurst



On Mon, Nov 4, 2013 at 2:19 PM, Michele A Berdy <maberdy at gmail.com> wrote:

Dear SEELANGers

An internet friend with an engaging blog called LanguageHat posed a
question a few days ago that I'm embarrassed to say I don't know the answer
to and in fact never thought to ask. He asked why Russian authors writing
about provincial cities called them "N" (or S, etc.). Beyond "it's a
convention" and "it gives an air of verisimilitude" - I have no idea. Where
did this convention come from? Has anyone written about this?



The second question that followed: can anyone think of pre-revolutionary
Russian fiction about provincial cities (other than St. Petersburg and
Moscow) where the city is identified?

Many thanks!

Michele Berdy



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