Studien zu den burlesken Dichtungen V. I. Majkovs by Manfred s> Schruba (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 309 typical of periods of upheaval, when language can be transformed -even if the world cannot. Ryazanova-Clarke defines a new genre: Western-style persuasive advertising , examining the subtleties of pronominal usage, rhetorical questions, imperatives (more regularly used than in the West: Reguljarno mojtegolovu 'Wash your hair regularly'), ellipses (Komplektes"e$ prakticnee'The set is even more practical'), informal and vernacular forms and aphorisms and repetitions. Ryazanova-Clarke concludes that the genre 'has created a new configuration of semantic resources' (p. I32). Krouglov depicts Soviet Russian as a tool designed to maintain power in the Republics, with linguistic norms imposed by the CPSU. By the I970S to the I98os Ukrainian had degenerated into 'the language of the "lower" strata of the population' (p. 38). Now attempts are being made to return to preSoviet times, and neologisms based on native roots are commoner in Ukrainian than in Russian. Lallukka's analysis of the status of Komi-Permiak epitomizes the fate of minority languages in the FSU, with Komi-Permiak relegated to colloquial registers. By the I980s Komi-Permiak had ceased to be a language of school instruction, and many parents favoured Russian as the language of social advance, while a society for the promotion of Komi-Permiak has been less than well supported in the I99os. Nadia Stang-Zhirovova examines the use of French loan-words in the language of Russian immigrants in Francophone Belgium. Most affected is the spoken language of the educated middle and upper class (Ja zvonila im, no u nichrepondeur automatique [for Russian avtootvetcik] 'I rang them but they have an answerphone'). The collection concludes with Ziel's piece on the fundamental question of the relationship between language and society in the writings of Aleskandr Potebnja,to markthe resumptionof the studyof neglected nineteenth-century figures. The proof-readinghas been thorough, with the odd misprint:'Institute'for 'Institut', 'Griefswald' for 'Greifswald' (p. xi), 'adverting' for 'advertising' (P. 131) 'Potenbja' for 'Potebnja' (twice, p. 159). There are occasional problemswith the umlaut('Stzrmer'for 'Sturmer',p. I64). Russianwordsare translatedin some papers. The book, particularly chapters two to nine, represents an illuminating contribution to the currentdebate on languages, more especially Russian, in post-CommunistEurope. Department ofModernLanguages TERENCE WADE University ofStrathclyde Schruba, Manfred. Studien zu denburlesken Dichtungen V.I. Majkovs. Slavistische Veroffentlichungen, 83. Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, I997. Viii + I78 pp. Bibliography.Index. DM 78.oo. IN the circle of young writerswho frequented M. M. Kheraskov'shouse in Moscowin the I76os andfromI 770 in St Petersburg, V. I. Maikovstooda 310 SEER, 79, 2, 2001 littleapart.Forone thing he was ten to fifteenyearsolderthan the otherguests and fiveyearsseniorto his host (hewas alreadythirty-threewhen, in 176I, he retiredfromthe armyand settledin Moscow). Secondly, althoughlikemost of them he was a dvorianin, unlike them he had been sketchily educated. His teenage years from 1742 to I747 had been spent not in some establishment for the young nobility in the capital, but on his father'sestate in the Iaroslavl' guberniia, where there was no one qualified to teach him. His ignorance of foreignlanguages,particularlyofFrenchand German,constantlyembarrassed him. Thirdly, his lack of influentialfriendsand relationsmeant that, when in 1747 he joined his regiment, the Semenovskii Guards, he had to serve long years in the ranksand as ajunior officer.However, once out of the army, he quicklyfell into the patternof life customaryfor Russianwritersof the second half of the eighteenth century: a succession of posts in the civil service, involvement with the theatre, collaboration in literaryjournals, and masonic activities. His subsequentlife reflectedits comparativelyunprivilegedbeginnings.For one thing it revealedin him a practicalentrepreneurialstreak,so thatwhen in 1770 a shortageof high-qualitysail-clothcame to light in the Russianfleet, he founded a factory in Moscow to produce it. There were also significant consequences for his literarycareer. A youth spent in the provinces followed by fourteenyearsin the guardsbroughthim into contact with the peasant and lower merchant classes, rural, urban and military. He observed them in the fields, the taverns and the barracks.He listened to their conversation, tales and songs,and absorbedtheirwaysof speech. It wasthisrangeof experiences, unusualfor a young nobleman, which equipped him to become Russia'sfirst poet of the burlesque. Dr Schruba examines Maikov's three burlesque narrative poems: Igrok lombera (The Playerof Ombre),firstpublishedin I 763...