Adaptational Strategy Of G.D. Grebenstchikoff's Linguistic Personality In Multicultural American Society

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of adaptation of the linguistic personality of an intellectual migrant in a multicultural society. The authors proceed from the assumption that the diversity of adaptation strategies ultimately has two extreme poles: cultural isolation or total assimilation. The question is whether ‘the golden mean’ strategy is possible in a multicultural society, which will neutralize and smooth out the extremes of isolation and assimilation? Turning to the historical experience of multicultural society in the United States of America, the authors of the article actualize the cultural experience of the Siberian-Kazakh writer George D. Grebenstchikoff (1883-1964), who immigrated to the United States in the first half of the 20th century. Based on the analysis of his works written in America, the article examines the writer's personal experience and determines its relevance for solving the problem of choosing an adaptation strategy in a modern multicultural society. To this end, the authors reconstructed and systematized the writer's views on the problem of cultural adaptation. It is concluded that the adaptation experience of George D. Grebenstchikoff carries a lot of useful, instructive and relevant for the 21st century. The successful adaptation of the writer in the United States in the 1920-1950s is a model of the adaptation strategy, that is, the optimal balance between cultural assimilation and cultural isolation, and can serve as a positive example for successful adaptation in a multicultural society.