Anonymous places

[Valentino, Russell]

It may have begun in some concrete circumstances but it quickly became a convention of texts with realistic impulses, one of many conventions that pretend not to be a convention. If I am hiding the identity of the place to protect the people who live there, there must really be such a place.
 
Russell
 
Russell Valentino
Associate Professor of Slavic and Comparative Literature
Interim Executive Director
Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry
319.353.2193

________________________________

From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list on behalf of Alina Israeli
Sent: Tue 7/22/2008 10:28 AM
To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Anonymous places



Robert,

I believe there are two reasons for that: a) not to put a spot light 
on any particular town, although in Chekhov and Turgenev we find 
easily identifiable towns S. and O. and b) to make it more universal, 
as we say it here "Any town USA", so similarly "Anytown" in Russia.

The device is used not just for cities, but also for people's names, 
particularly when nobility was involved, although of course there are 
other ways of obscuring the situation. One of my all time favorites 
comes from a French film "Les grandes maneuvres" where Gérard Philipe 
had a number 33 on his lapel. At the time portrayed in the movie 
there were 31 regiments (I am not strong in military terminology) in 
France.

Alina

On Jul 22, 2008, at 11:12 AM, Robert Chandler wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> A journalist friend has just asked me this question:
>
> ' I am writing a piece about place and I want to mention the 
> convention in
> some Russian novels of representing places by saying something like 
> 'In the
> town of P-' I wondered if you could possibly enlighten me as to why 
> these
> anonymity conferring initials were so widespread and whether they 
> still are
> a commonplace in Russian fiction?'
>

Alina Israeli
LFS, American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington DC. 20016
(202) 885-2387 
fax (202) 885-1076
aisrael at american.edu




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