{"id":878,"date":"2018-11-01T11:18:46","date_gmt":"2018-11-01T15:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/?p=878"},"modified":"2022-01-19T08:29:44","modified_gmt":"2022-01-19T12:29:44","slug":"processing-loss-emigres-in-transition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/2018\/11\/01\/processing-loss-emigres-in-transition\/","title":{"rendered":"Processing Loss: Emigres in Transition"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Teffi in Paris.<\/em><\/p>\n

By Emily Erdmann<\/p>\n

Havighurst Center Colloquium students recently welcomed Dr. Polina Barskova, an associate professor of Russian literature at Hampshire College, for a discussion on \u201cThe Theme of a City in the Poetry of Russian Emigration.\u201d Through the lens of literature, Barskova painted the duality of a divided life in exile, torn between the new and the old \u201chome.\u201d There are two conclusions in particular that I took away from the discussion: the first being that the dualism of exilic writing reflects the author\u2019s perspective on their own nostalgia, and the second that this duality plays into Barskova\u2019s own writings on Leningrad\u2014even the ones about the Siege of Leningrad.<\/p>\n

Barskova discussed two different kinds of duality, one geographical and one temporal, that are embodied in texts such as Nadezhda Teffi\u2019s \u201cA Small Town on the Seine,\u201d Sasha Chorny\u2019s \u201cCoiffeur de chiens,\u201d Vladimir Nabokov\u2019s \u201cA Guide to Berlin,\u201d and Josef Brodsky\u2019s \u201cVenetian Stanzas.\u201d Geographical duality, she argued, was the domesticating or foreignizing of the diasporic landscape abroad, as compared to the home city back in Russia. Teffi\u2019s comedic prose overlays St. Petersburg on Paris. She notes that \u201cthe inhabitants started calling the river [the Seine] \u2018their little Nevka,\u2019\u201d in reference to the Neva River that flows through St. Petersburg.\u00a0 By applying familiar terms to a foreign environment, the emigres are slowly adapting to their new environment and attempting to process their growing nostalgia. Chorny\u2019s poem about the dog groomer is emblematic of the temporal duality discussed by Barskova. Here, \u201cAn old man with the features of a poet\u201d is displaced from his literary life and forced to make a living in a different way.\u00a0 And yet, these features of the past carry over to the present where the components of two separate lives coincide like oil and water; the past is always recognizable from the present as the emigres cannot live completely independently from their past selves.<\/p>\n

The way these dualities play out can show how the author is processing his or her nostalgia. Foreignizing may indicate the writer\u2019s rejection of this new land as profoundly different and harsher than the homeland, while domesticating may suggest a certain degree of openness to the transition as well as an effort to assimilate. However, in her chapter on \u201cA Tale of Two Cities: Ancient Rome and St. Petersburg in Mandelstam\u2019s Poetry,\u201d Zara Torlone argues that it is easy<\/em> to idealize cities of antiquity such as Venice (106), thus domesticating in Brodsky\u2019s (and others\u2019) case may be temporary denial as he is slowly in the process of coming to terms with his displacement.<\/p>\n

Towards the end of her talk, Barskova conceded that she herself writes of her city in a similarly nostalgic way. Although, she differs from the poets she studies in that she went on to write a piece about her city in a time period during which she herself was not present: The Siege of Leningrad. Despite having promised herself that she would do no such thing, she relented after years of looking at her city as a \u201cWritten City.\u201d This nostalgic palimpsest writing attempts to reconcile two distinct parts that can never be made whole again. The geography is different and even for those exiled in their own city, the era they know to be familiar has passed. After a while, thus, I wonder if such a writing is alienating to the extent that one may look at their city as simply a subject to be studied deeply. This one step of further removal may then enable Barskova to poeticize the Siege of Leningrad after a lengthy period of in-depth research and analysis, even though she did not personally experience it.<\/p>\n

In short, the duality of exilic literature speaks to the author\u2019s point of transition in their bereavement of the lost home\u2014the land itself and the time period. The attitude towards the new setting can therefore be interpreted as an indication of the author\u2019s psychological stage of loss.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bibliography<\/p>\n

Chorny, Sasha. \u201cCoiffeur de chiens.\u00a0\u00bb Poslednie novosti<\/em>, 18 June 1930.<\/p>\n

Teffi, Nadezhda. \u201cA Small Town on the Seine.\u201d The Small Town<\/em>, Paris, N.P. Karabasnikov,<\/p>\n

1927.<\/p>\n

Torlone, Zara. \u201cA Tale of Two Cities: Ancient Rome and St. Petersburg in Mandelstam’s<\/p>\n

Poetry.\u201d\u00a0Preserving Petersburg: History, Memory, Nostalgia<\/em>, edited by Helena Goscilo<\/p>\n

and Stephen M. Norris, Indiana University Press, 2008, pp. 88\u2013114.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Teffi in Paris. By Emily Erdmann Havighurst Center Colloquium students recently welcomed Dr. Polina Barskova, an associate professor of Russian literature at Hampshire College, for a discussion on \u201cThe Theme of a City in the Poetry of Russian Emigration.\u201d Through … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":781,"featured_media":879,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colloquium-talks","category-lecture_reviews","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/781"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}