Book
Russian talk: culture and conversation during perestroika
Cornell University Press • Ithaca • Published In 1997 • Pages:
By: Ries, Nancy.
Abstract
This is an interpretive study of how everyday private conversations between Muscovites serve to produce and reproduce a distinctively Russian national character and emotional spirit. The discussion draws on narratives of state repression and economic hardships, and on litanies of complaints over broken hopes and elusive prosperity, collected during a period in which the Soviet Union was undergoing sweeping political and economic reforms just prior to dissolution. Framing the analysis with the perspective of interpretive anthropology, the author finds striking regularities in the central themes, genres, emotionally-loaded symbols, and keywords in the stories of Russians from different walks of life and in different social situations. Taken as a whole, these traits convey the image of a country plagued by extreme economic scarcity, hierarchical power relations, and a deeply "absurd" cultural logic.
- Region
- Europe
- Sub Region
- Eastern Europe
- Document Type
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator Type
- Anthropologist
- Document Rating
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- Analyst
- Teferi Abate Adem ; 2019
- Field Date
- 1988-1990, 1992, 1994-1995
- Coverage Date
- 1989-1990
- Coverage Place
- Moscow, Russia
- Notes
- Nancy Ries
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 203-214) and index
- LCCN
- 97010136
- LCSH
- Language and culture--Soviet Union
- Oral communication--Social aspects--Soviet Union
- Perestroĭka.