in the city of N

[Fusso, Susanne]

I always tell my students, "It's like at the end of every Dragnet episode:  'The names have been changed to protect the innocent.'"  Then I have to explain what Dragnet is.

Susanne Fusso
Professor of Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies
Wesleyan University
262 High Street
Middletown, CT  06459
860-685-3123


From: Michele A Berdy <maberdy at GMAIL.COM<mailto:maberdy at GMAIL.COM>>
Reply-To: "SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list" <SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU<mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU>>
Date: Monday, November 4, 2013 9:19 AM
To: "SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU<mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU>" <SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU<mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU>>
Subject: [SEELANGS] in the city of N

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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