lexicography/pher as a literary/philosophical motif
Evgeny Steiner
es9 at SOAS.AC.UK
Sat Jun 21 15:31:09 UTC 2008
Try also 'Alphabet as a Cultural Code' - http://www.polit.ru/lectures/2008/02/14/azbooka.html
-----Original Message-----
From: Toma Tasovac <ttasovac at PRINCETON.EDU>
To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2008 10:34:31 +0200
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] lexicography/pher as a literary/philosophical motif
Many thanks to Olga, Alexandra, Frank, Jan, Russel, Bob and William
for excellent suggestions. I am getting giddy with possibilities that
the works mentioned in this thread offer.
A lexicographer is, in many ways, like Benjamin's collector: somebody
who takes objects (in this case -- words) out of their natural
context and in doing so clears a space for a different kind of
meaning. The dictionary is surely a model for the organization of
knowledge that may be driven by an innate fear of infinity, but it
is also a text like any other, which means that it has its own
remainders, i.e. moments which are left out by the analytic mapping
of language. If a lexicographer is a madman -- figuratively and
sometimes, quite literally -- there is, of course, method to this
madness, and that's what makes his whole enterprise so fascinating.
Ellen Elias-Bursac also suggested to me yesterday off-list an
interesting dissertation by Kristin Vitalich, "Lexicographic doxa:
The writing of Slavic dictionaries in the nineteenth century" (UCLA,
2005) -- available on ProQuest -- about Karadzic, Dal' and Linde.
It's about how three important Slavic dictionaries in the 19th
century suggested a common Romantic ideology and forged a common,
Greater Slavic cultural identity, without necessarily elaborating or
fully committing to either.
I have no doubt that I will die a fool (durakom pomriu), but for the
time being I'll keep reading them dictionaries... :)
All best,
Toma
On 21.06.2008., at 07.01, Olga Meerson wrote:
> I forgot the most important, near contemporary book by Mikhail
> Leonovich Gasparov-- Zapiski i vypiski (arranged alphabetically and
> deliberately selectively). It is so much fun to read other people's
> suggestiions! You live and learn, or as the Russian say, vek zhivi--
> vek uchis'--durakom pomresh'. But seriously, even the discussion
> itself is very instructive.
> o.m.
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