image of the foreigner

[Valentino, Russell]

One more reverse example occurs to me. Sinyavsky in his Soviet Civilization: A Cultural History ruminates on the general imperfection and amorphousness of the Russian national character. This has always seemed to me to imply an other, non-Russian whose national character is relatively well-formed and stable. He doesn't explore the implication, but it seems to rely on exactly the kinds of images the list has been generating, as well as some popular assumptions. It also ties to the lateness of Russia's national project vis-a-vis some of its European neighbors and the spread of print culture and reading (as Jeff Brooks reminded us in his post). As part of the national project, the images running through my head (from Gogol's "Asiatic" money lender from Portrait to the foreigners and foreignish Russians in Turgenev's mid-century novels or War and Peace) all tend to show what authentic Russians are supposed to be like to a group that is rather unsure about it; the transition to what Soviets are supposed to be like is pretty seemless.

________________________________

From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list on behalf of Allison Pultz
Sent: Fri 3/21/2008 12:01 AM
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: [SEELANGS] image of the foreigner



I love reading SEELANGS-- it's even more fun when the emails are in response to one's own query.  Thanks to everyone for all the great references!  If any more secondary criticism on the image of the foreigner comes to mind, please post or email me.

best,

Allison
pultz at usc.edu

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