The New York Text in Contemporary Russian-American Fiction
Stemming from the classical studies by Yuri Lotman and Vladimir Toporov on urban semiotics, the paper focuses on the main features of the so called New York text of Anglophonic Russian American fiction where the “Hudson note” of Russian literature that appeared in the 19 th century gains force. Many...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences
2019-09-01
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| Series: | Studia Litterarum |
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| Online Access: | http://studlit.ru/images/2019-4-3/Butenina.pdf |
| _version_ | 1828881272721637376 |
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| author | Evgenia M. Butenina |
| author_facet | Evgenia M. Butenina |
| author_sort | Evgenia M. Butenina |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Stemming from the classical studies by Yuri Lotman and Vladimir Toporov on urban semiotics, the paper focuses on the main features of the so called New York text of Anglophonic Russian American fiction where the “Hudson note” of Russian literature that appeared in the 19 th century gains force. Many Russian immigrants of the fourth wave — Gary Shteyngart, Lara Vapnyar, Irina Reyn, Keith Gessen, Michael Idov, and Anya Ulinich — live in New York and emphasize their New York identity as authors. All of them are professional philologists who, unlike all the previous generations of immigrants, received their education in the USA. To perceive their intercultural status, they transfer some features of the most literary-centric Russian text — that of Petersburg — onto the New York text. The paper argues that Russian-American literature grasped some of the main features of the Petersburg text and transferred them into the narrative of the most immigrant American city: these are eccentricity (the location “on the edge”), eschatological myth, the (meta)literary, theatricality, and transitory state. Thus, the coexistence of two cultures finds its natural expression in the hybridization of the textual space within the immigration narrative framework. However, as а result of such cultural transfer, New York becomes a less tragic literary “brother” of Petersburg, to echo the line of Osip Mandelshtam’s apocalyptic poem that gave name to Petropolis by Anya Ulinich. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T10:03:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-567c884380b3457487e5907e4503ff02 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2500-4247 2541-8564 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T10:03:18Z |
| publishDate | 2019-09-01 |
| publisher | A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Studia Litterarum |
| spelling | doaj.art-567c884380b3457487e5907e4503ff022022-12-21T23:51:35ZengA.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of SciencesStudia Litterarum2500-42472541-85642019-09-014315817110.22455/2500-4247-2019-4-3-158-171The New York Text in Contemporary Russian-American Fiction Evgenia M. Butenina0Far Eastern Federal University, Russky Island, FEFU campus, 690922 Vladivostok, RussiaStemming from the classical studies by Yuri Lotman and Vladimir Toporov on urban semiotics, the paper focuses on the main features of the so called New York text of Anglophonic Russian American fiction where the “Hudson note” of Russian literature that appeared in the 19 th century gains force. Many Russian immigrants of the fourth wave — Gary Shteyngart, Lara Vapnyar, Irina Reyn, Keith Gessen, Michael Idov, and Anya Ulinich — live in New York and emphasize their New York identity as authors. All of them are professional philologists who, unlike all the previous generations of immigrants, received their education in the USA. To perceive their intercultural status, they transfer some features of the most literary-centric Russian text — that of Petersburg — onto the New York text. The paper argues that Russian-American literature grasped some of the main features of the Petersburg text and transferred them into the narrative of the most immigrant American city: these are eccentricity (the location “on the edge”), eschatological myth, the (meta)literary, theatricality, and transitory state. Thus, the coexistence of two cultures finds its natural expression in the hybridization of the textual space within the immigration narrative framework. However, as а result of such cultural transfer, New York becomes a less tragic literary “brother” of Petersburg, to echo the line of Osip Mandelshtam’s apocalyptic poem that gave name to Petropolis by Anya Ulinich.http://studlit.ru/images/2019-4-3/Butenina.pdfPetersburg textNew York textRussian-American literature of the fourth wavecultural transfer |
| spellingShingle | Evgenia M. Butenina The New York Text in Contemporary Russian-American Fiction Studia Litterarum Petersburg text New York text Russian-American literature of the fourth wave cultural transfer |
| title | The New York Text in Contemporary Russian-American Fiction |
| title_full | The New York Text in Contemporary Russian-American Fiction |
| title_fullStr | The New York Text in Contemporary Russian-American Fiction |
| title_full_unstemmed | The New York Text in Contemporary Russian-American Fiction |
| title_short | The New York Text in Contemporary Russian-American Fiction |
| title_sort | new york text in contemporary russian american fiction |
| topic | Petersburg text New York text Russian-American literature of the fourth wave cultural transfer |
| url | http://studlit.ru/images/2019-4-3/Butenina.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT evgeniambutenina thenewyorktextincontemporaryrussianamericanfiction AT evgeniambutenina newyorktextincontemporaryrussianamericanfiction |