10.3726/85617_67 “Botanical Confusion” and the Strangeness of Language in Two Works by Olga Grushin Julie Hansen 7KHQHZPLOOHQQLXPKDVVHHQWKHSXEOLFDWLRQRISRHWU\DQGSURVHÀFWLRQ by a new generation of Russian émigrés. These writers left the Soviet Union as children with their parents in the 1970s and 1980s, or as young adults around the time of the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. 1 A number of cir- cumstances distinguish this generation of Russian émigré writers from SUHYLRXVRQHV/LNHWKHÀUVWJHQHUDWLRQZKLFKHPLJUDWHGLQWKHZDNHRI the 1917 Revolution and witnessed the demise of tsarist Russia, the fourth generation comes from a country that has ceased to exist. Unlike the situa- tion during the Soviet period, however, emigration from Russia no longer FDUULHVWKHÀQDOLW\RIDRQHZD\WLFNHW,QDGGLWLRQKDYLQJHPLJUDWHGDWD young age, many of these contemporary writers received at least part of their education in a new language, and a considerable number of them write QRWLQWKHLUQDWLYH5XVVLDQEXWLQDQDFTXLUHGODQJXDJH8QOLNHPDQ\ZULW- ers from previous waves, who switched literary languages mid-career, this generation has been translingual from the outset. ,GHVFULEHWKHVHDXWKRUVDVWUDQVOLQJXDOй³йUDWKHUWKDQELOLQJXDOPXO- WLOLQJXDORUSRO\OLQJXDOй³йEHFDXVHLQP\YLHZWKLVWHUPFRLQHGE\6WHYHQ G. Kellman 2 , best conveys what these authors do with language. Their writ- ing exhibits a high degree of language play and punning, language mix- LQJ DQG FRGHVZLWFKLQJ 7KHLU WH[WV IUHTXHQWO\ FURVV OLQJXLVWLF ERUGHUV shuttling back and forth between languages like transnational commuters. Remarkable here is not only the impressive feat of writing literature in an 1 6FKRODUVKDYHGHOLQHDWHGWKUHHRUIRXUZDYHVRI5XVVLDQpPLJUpZULWHUV7KHÀUVWZDYH left Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution, the second left the Soviet Union in the wake of World War II, the third consisted primarily of Jewish and dissident émigrés in the 1970s, while the fourth wave took place after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. See, in particu- lar, Elizabeth Klosty Beaujour, Alien Tongues. Bilingual Russian Writers of the “First” Emigra- tion, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989, and Adrian Wanner, Out of Russia. Fictions of a New Translingual Diaspora, Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2011. 2 6WHYHQ*.HOOPDQGHÀQHVOLWHUDU\WUDQVOLQJXDOLVPEURDGO\DV´WKHSKHQRPHQRQRIDX- thors who write in more than one language or at least in a language other than their prima- ry one.” Steven G. Kellman, The Translingual Imagination, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000, ix. He also uses the subcategories of “ambilinguals”, who have written literary works in more than one language, and “monolingual translinguals”, who write in one, non- native language. Kellman, The Translingual Imagination, 12. Variations 22 / 2014 DFTXLUHGODQJXDJHEXWWKHYDULRXVZD\VLQZKLFKWKHVHDXWKRUVSXVKWKH limits of language, often bringing multiple tongues, both native and adopt- ed, into play simultaneously. Their novels, short stories and poems exude a consciousness of the contingency of language, but also a belief in the po- WHQWLDORIODQJXDJHWRGHSLFWWKHZRUOGLQVWULNLQJO\QHZZD\V)UHTXHQWO\ WKHHͿHFWLVZKDWWKH5XVVLDQ)RUPDOLVW9LNWRU6KNORYVN\WHUPHGostranenie, usually translated into English as “defamiliarization” or “estrangement”. 3 In his seminal essay “Art as Device”, Shklovsky explains, “By ‘estranging’ objects and complicating form, the device of art makes perception long and ‘laborious.’ The perceptual process in art has a purpose all its own and ought to be extended to the fullest”, 4 so that the reader can experience “the making of a thing.” 5 The presence of more than one language in a literary text undoubtedly complicates form, slowing down the reading process (or “perceptual process”, in Shklovsky’s words). As Kellman argues, “the work RIWUDQVOLQJXDOV>«@IRUHJURXQGVDQGFKDOOHQJHVLWVRZQPHGLXPй³йFUHDWHV WKHLPSHGLPHQWWRÁXHQF\WKDWLVWKHKDOOPDUNRIWKHDHVWKHWLFDFFRUGLQJWR 6KNORYVN\%RULV(LFKHQEDXPDQG-DQ0XNDʼnRYVNìµ 6 Language is intimately and intricately connected with culture, and WKXVWUDQVOLQJXDOLVPRIWHQHQWDLOVWUDQVFXOWXUDOLW\й³йWKHWHUPFRLQHGE\WKH philosopher Wolfgang Welsch to describe the ways in which the interaction RIGLͿHUHQWFXOWXUHVFDQOHDGWRWKHIRUPDWLRQRIQHZLGHQWLWLHV:HOVFKVHHV the concept of transculturality as more apt than traditional monological con- ceptions to describe the interactions of cultures in the contemporary world, which he argues are “largely characterized by mixes and permeations”. 7 As Adrian Wanner has shown in his study Out of Russia: Fictions of a New Translingual Diaspora, many contemporary Russian translingual writers have cultivated public personae that emphasize their Russian, and in some cases also Jewish, cultural backgrounds. Their depictions of immigrants’ reactions, adaptation and/or assimilation to North American culture con- tain autobiographical elements. “Part of the success of the various trans- lingual Russian writers”, Wanner argues, “can be attributed to the fact that WKHLUSURMHFWHG5XVVLDQLGHQWLWLHVKDYHEHHQWDLORUHGWRPHHWWKHVSHFLÀFGH- 3 As Alexandra Berlina has pointed out, Shklovsky’s ostranenie is a “meta-estranging neo- ORJLVPµZKLFKGLͿHUVIURP%HUWROW%UHFKW·VVerfremdung DQGKDVQRWEHHQDGHTXDWHO\WUDQV- lated into English. Alexandra Berlina, “Ostranenie and the Surreal in Translation”, paper presented at the conference “Translation in Russian Contexts: Transcultural, Translingual and Transdisciplinary Points of Departure”, Uppsala University, Sweden, 06. 06. 2014. 4 Viktor Shklovsky, “Art as Device”, in: Theory of Prose, translated from Russian by %HQMDPLQ6KHU1RUPDO'DONH\$UFKLYH3UHVVй²й 5 Viktor Shklovskii, “Iskusstvo, kak priem”, in: Idem, O teorii prozy, Moskva: Federatsiia, й²й My translation. 6 Kellman, The Translingual Imagination, 29. 7 Wolfgang Welsch´7UDQVFXOWXUDOLW\йй²йй7KH3X]]OLQJ)RUPRI&XOWXUHV7RGD\µLQ Mike Featherstone and Scott Lash (eds.), Spaces of Culture. City, Nation, World, London: Sage, й²й 68 Julie Hansen mands of their respective host nations.” 8 The émigré status of these authors is foregrounded in publishers’ marketing of their books, leading some crit- LFVй³йHVSHFLDOO\5XVVLDQRQHVй³йWRVXJJHVWWKDWWKHLUZRUNVSHGGOHFXOWXUDO stereotypes, “a constructed ‘Russianness’ for foreign consumption.” 9 The Russian-American novelist Olga Grushin stands out from her peers in this respect, for although she writes in English, most of her works FRQWDLQVSHFLÀFDOO\5XVVLDQVHWWLQJVDQGFKDUDFWHUV*UXVKLQZDVERUQLQ 1971 in Moscow, where as a teenager she attended School No. 45, which was known for its English-language concentration and exposed her to works of anglophone literature that were not typically part of the Soviet school cur- riculum. After one year in Moscow State University’s journalism program, VKHDFFHSWHGDVFKRODUVKLSIURP(PRU\8QLYHUVLW\EHFRPLQJWKHÀUVW6R- viet citizen to receive a bachelor’s degree in the United States. She is now a naturalized American citizen (while retaining her Russian citizenship) and currently resides near Washington, D. C. Having aspired to become a writer since childhood, she made a decision in her early twenties to begin writing ÀFWLRQLQ(QJOLVKLQRUGHUWRLQFUHDVHKHUFKDQFHVRIJHWWLQJSXEOLVKHGLQ her adopted country. 10 In this article, I will consider translingual and transcultural aspects of two texts by Grushin: her autobiographical essay “In the Shade of a Cran- berry Tree” (2004), and her second novel The Line (2010). 11 I will exemplify some of the ways in which Grushin’s writing moves between linguistic, cultural and literary contexts, mixing and ultimately transcending them in original ways. Translingualism and transculturality in Grushin’s texts en- rich the reading process with ambiguity and complexity, ultimately serving to highlight language as a creative medium, to deconstruct cultural stereo- types and to integrate literary traditions. ,QDQLQWHUYLHZ*UXVKLQVWDWHVWKDWLQZULWLQJKHUÀUVWERRNVKHZDQW- ed to produce a “Russian novel in English words”. 12 Indeed, an awareness of her anglophone audience is apparent in passages where the author ap- pears to meet the reader halfway by incorporating contextual background or explanations of Russian cultural phenomena. The unlikelihood that such explanations would have been included had Grushin been writing IRUD5XVVLDQUHDGHUVKLSVHHPVWREHFRQÀUPHGE\WKHLURPLVVLRQIURPWKH 8 Wanner, Out of Russia, 190. 9 Wanner, Out of Russia, 3. 10 “Olga Grushin: National Book Festival 2010 Webcast”, Library of Congress Webcasts, http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=5020 (07. 09. 2011). 11 Grushin’s novel The Line was published in the United Kingdom under the title The Concert Ticket (2010). 12 Sergei Moskalev (30. 12. 2006), “Ol’ga Grushina. ‘Ia schitaiu sebia russkoi pisatel’nitsei’”, Voice of America, http://www.VoaNews.com (04. 12. 2009). “Botanical Confusion” 69 Russian translation of The Dream Life of Sukhanov. 13 This raises interesting TXHVWLRQVFRQFHUQLQJERWKWKHUHDGHU·VFXOWXUDOFRPSHWHQFHDQGWKHUROHRI FXOWXUDOVWHUHRW\SHVLQWUDQVOLQJXDOÀFWLRQ “In the Shade of a Cranberry Tree” Cultural stereotypes are the focus of Grushin’s autobiographical essay “In WKH6KDGHRID&UDQEHUU\7UHHµZKLFKUHFRXQWVDÀYHGD\ERDWWRXUVKHWRRN with her father from Moscow to St. Petersburg. The other passengers are PRVWO\ YDFDWLRQLQJ UHWLUHHV IURP )UDQFH DQG 6SDLQй³йD FLUFXPVWDQFH WKDW arouses Grushin’s interest: “I was intensely curious to watch Russia un- IROGEHIRUHLWVÀUVWWLPHYLVLWRUVWRQRWHWKHLULPSUHVVLRQVWRVHHLWUHÁHFWHG in their eyes.” 14 The author’s curiosity, it is suggested, is heightened by her perspective as a visiting expatriate, having lived in the United States