The New Russia. Readings on Russian Culture by Nijole s> White (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 71 I that her goal is 'to investigate variation and norms in stress, not to find the reasonsfor this variation' (p. 35). In chapterstwo and three she discussesthe notion of norm and lists many examples of the non-normativity of so-called orthoepic works. On page 94 we get down to the multi-dimensional survey wherethe subjectswere askednot only to readthe stressedwordbut to express opinions: 'I say it likethat and I know that is right/and I thinkthat it is right/ but I knowit is not right';'I don't sayit likethat and I don't knowif it is right/ I thinkit is not right/I know it is not right'.The wordschosen forthisexercise were all verbs that are noted with alternative stresses in standard works. Altogether the surveyincluded 292 verbs. The IO9 subjectswere Moscovites born andbred.Their agesrangedbetween seventeen and sixtywith secondary education as a minimum. Appendices 4-7 give the reportedpercentageusage of stressescodified as normative; from these we are to conclude that over a half of the normative stressesare ignored. Hence the author's'implicit'norm and herconclusionthat 'thecodificationof Russianverbalstressisperfunctory and frequently does not reflect the actual norms. The explicit norm is in certain cases not perceived as the prestige variant. This discrepancy is most likely a result of subjectivism and conservatism, the hallmarks of Russian normativisation,which in their turn are partly linked to normative tradition and politics' (p. 252). The dictionary makers have a very long haul before them but thisstudyofferspointerson the way. Leamington Spa VERONICA Du FEU White, Nijole. TheNewRussia.Readings onRussian Culture. BristolClassicalPress and Duckworth, London, 2000. I58 pp. Notes. ?9.99 (paperback). WITH Nijole White's collection of reading passages from the Russian press, Russian language teachersare being done a good service. The taskof finding useful,interestingand intellectuallystimulatingtextsis cumbersome.Not only is it time-consuming,but it is also fairlydifficultto find textswhich will not be out of date in an instant and are written in good language. The texts in this volume present 'a snapshot of political discoursein the late I99OS' (P. 2) and arecarefullychosen to give an impressionof and insightinto Russiathatraises them above yesterday'soutdated newspaper. They are taken from the daily Jiezavisimaia gazetaand the two weekliesMoskovskie novosti andArgumenty ifakty. TheNewRussianot only provides linguistic fodder but also introduces the student to the culture of the country whose language he or she is acquiring. Apart frompresentinga good overviewof the countryand its society it moves language learning into a different sphere. And one would hope also that it would encourage students of Russian politics, history, sociology and social sciences to use primarysourcematerial. The texts are divided into six chapters covering the subject areas of selfidentification ,political culture, family, men and women, the socio-economic sphere, and culture and the market. The book gives the student an unusual opportunity to examine Russian culture by zooming in on the specifics that make up post-Soviet society. What does it mean to be a Russian? How do people acquirewealth or cope with poverty?Is Russianhigh cultureon a low? 7I2 SEER, 8o, 4, 2002 What makes these texts even more intriguing and relevant is that they were written by Russians for Russians. In other words, the student gets a contemporary insider'sperspective and is exposed to issues in current social and culturaldiscourse. In her introduction, the author provides a helpful synopsisof the chapters and some of the articles and gives some necessary background information, explaining why the topics concerned are both important and engaging. And, as the preface describes,the subjectsare varied, as are the respectiveauthors' points of view. The reader is usefullyintroduced to some of the writersof the texts and their position within Russia's political, cultural and journalistic establishments. Although perhaps not the most pressingconcern of a language book, what would give this publication an even greater strengthwould be annotation of all texts according to academic conventions, i.e. proper dating of the papers from which they are extracted and names of authors. As it is we get the occasional mention of the author(s),either in the footnotes of a section or in the book's introduction, sometimes in both: dates are less frequently mentioned . More exact annotation would not only put the extracts...