BOUNDARIES LEFT UNSPOKEN Competing Russian Language Ideologies in a Tbilisi Theatre MSc. Cultural and Social Anthropology University of Amsterdam September 12, 2018 Peer van Tetterode Student# 10448470 [email protected] Word count: 31016 Supervisor: dr. Julie McBrien 2nd reader: dr. Vincent de Rooij 3rd reader: dr. Artemy Kalinovsky 1 A note on plagiarism This thesis meets the rules and regulations for fraud and plagiarism as stated by the examination committee of the MSc Cultural and Social Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam. I hereby assure all readers that all ideas, concepts and passages of other authors’ works in this work are acknowledged and referenced in a way that is deemed proper within contemporary social sciences. Peer van Tetterode 2 Quote ‘So it is clear that redescribing a world is the necessary first step towards changing it. And particularly at times when the State takes reality into its own hands, and sets about distorting it, altering the past to fit its present needs, then the making of the alternative realities of art, including the novel of memory, becomes politicized.’ Salmon Rushdie1 1 Page 13 -14 in chapter ‘Imaginary Homelands’ in (1991) Imaginary Homelands: Essays and criticism 1981-1991 Granta books London 3 Abstract This thesis asks how a changing language ideology towards Russian in Tbilisi affects the usage and appreciation of the Russian language in the multilingual Griboyedov theatre environment. Two theoretical takes on language ideology are explored, one with a focus on power that engages with the debate about postcolonial theory’s place in descriptions of the post-Soviet condition. By using Gibson’s affordance it explores the possibilities of language ideologies’ ties to the material environment. I argue that Tbilisi is home to two different language ideologies that are historically rooted in the material environment and form two ends of a spectrum along which Tbilisi residents place their views. On the one hand Tbilisi residents perceive the Russian language as a symbol that is foreign to the Georgian nation and therefore the ‘multi-ethnic’ ‘Soviet’ Russian language’s ties to the material and public sphere are described as a phenomenon that has to vanish. On the other hand there is a language ideology that appreciates the Russian language as a symbol of continuous historical ties –that envisions Russian to be essential to a Tbilisi tolerant multicultural community, it imagines a primordial harmony between Russian speaking peoples. The study on the Russian language Griboyedov theatre shows that the latter perception dominates here and that this is also manifest when looking at the material environment and ritual appreciation of what is considered pure Russian speech. However when zooming in, Conversation analyses reveal that there are actually two speech communities within the multi-ethnic theatre staff that maintain mutual exclusivity when it comes to Georgian-Russian code switching patterns. Since the boundaries between the speech communities are isomorphic to ethnic categories, the findings in this thesis problematize common held assumptions about the neutrality of a lingua franca in current multilingualism studies, since ethnicity seems to mark the use of this common language. 4 Acknowledgements It is incredible how willing people are to help. Therefore my gratitude requires paragraphs. I first and foremost want to express my sincere gratitude to all those who have participated in this project and gave me a glimpse into their daily lives, views and aspirations. დიდი მადლობა! /Огромное спасибо вам! Personally I would like to thank my wonderful girlfriend Judith, my father Jan Roland, Adèle and my family for sticking with me and making me the person who I am. Although life has not been kind on us two, I too wish to thank my mother Ria in this regard and wish her all the strength she needs. A big shock for my friends and me was the young death of our friend Noud. I personally thank him for being the weird, beautiful and inspiring person that he was. Where the development of this master’s thesis research itself is concerned I would like to thank the wonderful people I met in Tbilisi for their help. My local supervisor, the knowledgeable ever kind Keti Gurchiani at Ilia State University helped me out with regaining the focus that I would lose every once and a while. A special thanks also goes out to my smart and vigorous research assistants Megi Sajaia and Salome Gogilashvili who have helped me out immensely with interpreting and support. Timothy Blauvelt is thanked for showing me around and being such an active member in Tbilisi’s academic community. Moreover I am grateful for the help of my Georgian teacher Maka Tetradze and her husband Alex Popiel. At the University of Amsterdam, I would like to thank my supervisor Julie McBrien; if readers stumble upon any cohesive arguments or clear descriptions in this thesis, then I can assure them that she had a part in tackling the sloppy filler that preceded these. At the anthropology department I want to thank my friends, particularly Senya and Nick for their company and general interest in this project and me. Lucie is greatly thanked for her spelling and phrasing check. Lastly, this thesis’s readers are thanked for their reading effort. 5 Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................ 7 Red Carnations 7 Setting 8 Post-colonial multilingual speech in a post-Soviet state 12 Language ideologies through a lens of power 17 Language ideologies’ ties to space and materiality 18 Purity and time 20 Position, methodology & ethics 22 Outline 26 1.................................................................................................................................................................................. 28 Trends, classroom stubbornness & hands-on jargon in a changing Tbilisi 2.................................................................................................................................................................................. 42 Chistaya Russkaya Rech’Purity and old ties in the Griboyedov theatre 3.................................................................................................................................................................................. 66 Awkward accommodations: Configuring identities in Griboyedov speech Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................. 80 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................................................... 86 6 Introduction Red Carnations Matvey informs me that the day before there was a big plane crash near Moscow. 71 deceased were the result of the Russian Saratov Airlines flight 703 crash. The commemoration takes place in front of the Russian embassy in Vake. We have a bouquet of red carnations with us. There are reporters from the Russian television-broadcasting channel ‘Russia 1’ who are filming. Daur, the Abkhazian stands in the spotlight. This is a strange moment, since he briefly before, together with Matvey and a friend was talking in Georgian all the time - yet when the reporter asks for his views he gets out on the stage and puts forth the most sincere Russian words of loss. Afterwards he immediately switches to Georgian and begins joking and laughing with his friends. They seem to be making fun of the situation. The actors and me all burn a tea light. There is a ritual walk to the fence where all the flowers and tea lights are stacked up. An official statement follows [in Russian]. Literally everyone that is involved in the memorial sermon speaks Russian at this moment. One of the actresses, Gulisa when she sees me, insists on speaking English. When we do, this feels highly inappropriate and rather alienating from the whole set up. An older lady asks her who I am and when she tells her who I am in Russian, the older woman nods and turns away before I can speak. This vignette is a description of the first day I had contact with the young actors of the Tbilisi based Russian language Griboyedov theatre. After a focus group interview the young actors and I went to a commemoration of a Russian plane crash. What leaves me puzzled initially in this chain of events is that Daur switches so easily between a Russian language enactment of a serious affair in front of Russian national television and a nonchalant, frivolous state of being with his friends in Georgian in a matter of seconds. It is very easy in this way to hop between linguistically bounded realms of social interaction that are so detached from each other that their whole atmosphere can be entirely different simultaneously. Later on an actress begins to speak with me in English, but only after everybody speaks in Russian. For the older woman this seems to be a sign that I cannot 7 communicate with her, and so I am excluded from the group. These swift linguistically bounded configurations of identity initially leave me puzzled and therefore are at the core of this thesis’ inquiry. To get more insight in these configurations I prompted the following question: How does a changing language ideology towards Russian in Tbilisi affect the usage and appreciation of the Russian language in the multilingual environment of the Griboyedov