Protivoslovo
Lily Alexander
lily.alexander at UTORONTO.CA
Sat May 26 09:50:04 UTC 2007
Dear Colleagues,
Rereading yesterday Bakhtin, I ran into "protivoslovo."
I am surprised that I did not come across any attempts of its theorization.
Of course Bakhtin invented many words, but this one may have slipped
through undiscussed. It is used in his "Marxism and the Philosophy of
Language."
As with all of his invented words (or reinvented), it is more than what
just meets the eye. It certainly will be more than just "vozrazhenie,"
counter argument, etc.
Slovo also connotes tale, myth, even epos, so it might have an extended
meaning beyond "word." But of course, for starters, "word" and
"utterance" would be the subject of his discussion.
I have two questions. Have anyone seen or read (or written!) any
theoretical work discussing it as a term or concept? I saw in one
semiotic paper - it was mentioned in passing.
How to translate it?
Trying to translate it, I came up with "antiword" (like antiworld), or
"counterword" (like counter-culture). I saw "counterword" used in an
article in an journal on aesthetics simply as "vozrazhenie." It is also
interesting what both (or any other possible) translations would connote
in English.
Antiword is part of the software engineering vocabulary. Counterword is
translated in Multitran - definitely far from what Bakhtin meant. See below:
Counterword
??????????????????? ?????
<http://www.multitran.ru/c/m.exe?t=654038_2_1>; ???????????? ??????????
????? ?? ??????? ?????????-?????????? ?????????
<http://www.multitran.ru/c/m.exe?t=1357637_2_1>
1) a desemantized word, 2) an emotionally colored word with faded
[objective-logical] meaning
This will be something fossilized - exactly the opposite to what was
meant by Bakhtin, as "I am feeling" :-)
Bakhtin was rarely interested in anything "stertoe," but rather of the
the things that "stick out."
Slovo provokes protivoslovo in his context. This would be more along the
lines of passionate counterargument. Something polyarnoe in a dialoical
context, coming out of opposition or provocation and stimulated by debate.
Any thoughts?
Thanks you.
Lily Alexander
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