Mother Tongue, Other Tongue: Soviet-Born Jewish Writers in Their New Language Environment

227 Pages·2021·2.585 MB·

by  Sergii Gurbych

sergii gurbych
Mother Tongue,
Other Tongue
g
Soviet-born
u
r
b Jewish Writers in Their
gurbych y
c New Language Environment
Mother Tongue, Other Tongue h
he book examines the works of authors – e. g.
Katja Petrowskaja, Alex Epstein, Alona Kimhi,
Gary Shteyngart and Lara Vapnyar – who, after
M
immigration from post-Soviet countries, created
o
fiction in the language of their host countries t
h
( Germany, Israel, United States). Considering the
e
works of these writers, the study focuses on the r

elements of cultural identity and analyzes ways of T
o
transmitting the cultural codes of the writer’s native n
g
culture to the reader who was raised in another
u
culture. Unlike many studies on this topic, the e
,
author assumes that Soviet, rather than Russian,
O
culture is the native one for the authors in question.
t
h
After immigration, they develop a hybrid cultural
e
identity; this allows analyzing their texts in terms r

of transculturalism. All novels are viewed in terms T
o
of the Reader Response Criticism. Within the frame- n
work of the transcultural approach, each of the g
u
authors in question is considered in a certain aspect
e
that is most characteristic of his or her work.
beiträge
zur slavischen philologie
Herausgegebenvon
EdithW.Clowes,TheUniversityofVirginia
ChristophGarstka,UniversitätBochum
Horst-JürgenGerigk,UniversitätHeidelberg
UrsHeftrich,UniversitätHeidelberg
AdrianWanner,ThePennsylvaniaStateUniversity
Band23

sergii gurbych
Mother Tongue,
Other Tongue
Soviet-born JewishWriters in
Their New Language Environment
Universitätsverlag
winter
Heidelberg
BibliografischeInformationderDeutschenNationalbibliothek
DieDeutscheNationalbibliothekverzeichnetdiesePublikation
inderDeutschenNationalbibliografie;
detailliertebibliografischeDatensindimInternet
überhttp://dnb.d-nb.deabrufbar.
Dissertation,UniversitätHeidelberg,2021
Originaltitel:MotherTongue,OtherTongue:Soviet-born
JewishWritersinTheirNewLanguageEnvironment.
ThistextwaspresentedtotheHochschulefürJüdischeStudien
atHeidelbergUniversityasadissertation.
Firstadviser:Prof.Dr.AnatFeinberg
Secondadviser:Prof.Dr.UrsHeftrich
DayofthePhDdefense:22June2021
umschlagbild
DariaSemenova,PavelGilbo
isbn 978-3-8253-4905-9
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments.........................................................................................7
Introduction...................................................................................................9
Chapter1.MethodologyandResearchMaterial..........................................21
1.1.ResearchMaterial............................................................................21
1.2.Themainconcepts...........................................................................31
1.2.1.Transculturality........................................................................31
1.2.2.Transculturalismandliterature.................................................34
1.2.3.Transculturalismandtranslingualism......................................38
1.2.4.National,social,andculturalidentity.......................................42
1.2.5.Theimpliedreader...................................................................48
1.3.Thefocusandmethodologyoftheresearch.....................................51
Chapter2.GoingbeyondthenormsinHebrew-languageliterature............55
2.1.Generalbackground.........................................................................55
2.2.BorisZaidman:asociolinguisticanalysisofthenovel....................58
2.3.Micro-narrativesbyAlexEpsteinandthetradition
ofliterarynonsense..........................................................................75
2.4.AlonaKimhi’scriticalapproachtotheconcept
ofsocialandculturalnorms.............................................................91
2.4.1.BiographyandgeneraloverviewofKimhi’soeuvre................91
2.4.2.NightmarePoem......................................................................95
2.4.3.WeepingSusannah.................................................................100
2.4.4.LilylaTigresse.......................................................................107
Chapter3.English-languageimmigrantliterature:
Overcomingethnicstereotypes................................................117
3.1.Generalbackground.......................................................................117
3.2.LaraVapnyar:AnimmigrantbetweenthePastandthePresent....123
3.3.GaryShteyngart:mockingculturalstereotypes.............................129
3.3.1.TheRussianDebutante’sHandbook......................................133
3.3.2.Absurdistan............................................................................140
3.3.3.SuperSadTrueLoveStory.....................................................146
Chapter4.InterweavingofculturalcodesinGermanmigrantfiction.......157
4.1.Generalbackground.......................................................................157
4.2.KatjaPetrowskajaandtheconceptofpostmemory.......................167
4.3.OlgaGrjasnowa’scharacters:BetweenJewish
andMuslimworlds.........................................................................183
4.4.AlinaBronsky:sociallifeinsideandoutside
themigrantneighborhood.............................................................197
Conclusion.................................................................................................209
Bibliography..............................................................................................213
Acknowledgments
Thisbookwouldneverhavebeenpossiblewithoutthekindsupportofa
number of wonderful people whom I was fortunate enough to meet in
mylife.Firstofall,itisFrederekMusallandFrida Schatz, whoopened
for me the door to the academic world. Behind this door I met Anat
Feinberg, who became for me a guide and advisor in this world, and
without whom I would have gotten lost in it like Alice in Wonderland.
Thisentirebook,bothitsstyleandcontent,istheresultofherinvaluable
advice. Allthatisgoodinthis bookisprimarilyher merit;allthe short-
comingsofthisbookstemfromthefactthatIdidnotlistentoheradvice
enough. I am grateful to Valeria Sobol and Harriet Murav, who intro-
duced me to the world of American Slavic and Jewish studies, and
whose moral support has become an invaluable gift for me. Dmitry
Tartakovsky and LeiAnna Hamel carefully proofread the text of the
book, patiently reading all the additions and revisions that I constantly
made. Adrian Wanner, whose articles and books inspired my research,
and EdithClowesgavevaluable feedbackand suggestions to mymanu-
script so that I could improve the text of this book. Thanks to Urs
Heftrich,the publicationofthis book wasnotdelayed for several years;
he saved me a lot of the hassle and headaches associated with the pub-
lishing process, for which I am infinitely grateful. As for the authors I
am considering on the pages of this book, I should thank Olga Grjas-
nowa, Katja Petrowskaja, and Alex Epstein, who kindly agreed to an-
swer my questions regarding their work and gave me a lot of necessary
information. And, finally, I am infinitely grateful to my wife, Daria
Semenova, who, despite the enormous workload of her own academic
work, was always ready to help me both practically and emotionally,
andwhoneversaid“Itoldyouso”whenitturnedoutthattheoptionshe
recommendedprovedtobethebestamongalloptions(whichwasprac-
ticallyeverytime).

Introduction
In the past few decades, a significant number of relatively young au-
thors,mostlyofJewishorigin,immigratedfromtheformerUSSRtothe
Western world, where they achieved recognition and high praise for
theircontributiontotheliteratureoftheiradoptedcountries. Sincethese
authors chose to write in Hebrew, German or English, they appear to
have a peculiar transnational identity, which includes their Soviet cul-
tural roots, their Jewish ethnicity, the cultural heritage of their second
language, as well as German, American, or Israeli citizenship. The
emergenceofthesewritersbecameasignificantculturalphenomenonin
the literatures of their host countries, and some of their books became
international bestsellers. Following the success of these authors, there
has been a significant growth of scholarly interest in the fiction written
bypost-Sovietimmigrants,primarilyinGermanyandtheUSA.
As Adrian Wanner notes in his study,1 these writers often become
involvedinthepeculiarpracticeoftranslatingandinterpretingphenom-
enainherenttoaspecificcultureintothelanguageofanotherculture.To
some extent, such a writer plays the role of a Native Anthropologist,2
who attempts to explain his own culture to a foreign readership. The
writers’ choice of language reflects their intended readership; therefore,
aresearchercanidentifytheimpliedrecipientoftheauthor’smessageor
1AdrianWanner,OutofRussia:FictionsofaNewTranslingualDiaspora(Ev-
anston,Ill.:NorthwesternUniversityPress,2011),9–10.
2 The concept of Native Anthropologist was introduced in the early 80s, see
Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, “‘Native’ Anthropologists,” American Ethnologist
11, no. 3 (August 1984): 584–86; in the early21st century, it was critically
rethought regarding to migration processes in countries of modern Western
and Eastern Europe, see Marta Kempny, “Rethinking Native Anthropology:
Migration and Auto-Ethnography in the Post-Accession Europe,” Interna-
tional Review of Social Research 2, no. 2 (2012): 39–52, https://doi.
org/10.1515/irsr-2012-0015.