The writings of Russian philosophers, theologians, writers, and linguists manifest
a deep fascination, almost obsession, with the word and a strong belief in its
potential for reification. In Russian culture the word is understood not only
as the symbol used in communication, but also (and primarily) as the carrier
of ideas and creative energy, i.e. as the Word-Logos. Myriad literary, religious,
philosophical, even folkloric texts, varying in form and content, point to “Russian
logocentricity--the obsession with the word that characterizes [Russian] culture”
(*Russian Life*, 45). The recently published book The Word Made Self
by Thomas Seifrid brilliantly illustrates what the author describes as an attempt
to stipulate a model of selfhood within the phenomenon of language (2005). The
Russian consciousness takes the word, both as a separate entity and as a constituent
of language as a system, very seriously – in the cultural context (word
as explicator of ethnic mentality) and in the theo-anthropo-cosmic sense (word
as carrier of spirituality and creative potential). My presentation will give
a brief survey of the history of Russian discourse on language and then argue
the central position of the (Russian) word within the mental space of Russian
culture and Russian kartina mira, or worldview. I will demonstrate
the centrality of the word in the conceptual system of the Russian language
as it is reflected not only in the separate entry “Slovo” (“Word”)
in the dictionary Константы.
Словарь русской
культуры. Опыт
исследования
compiled by Iu. Stepanov, but also in such fundamental works on language as
S. Trubetskoi’s Учение
о Логосе в его
истории, Bakhtin’s
Проблемы
поэтики Достоевского,
as well as works of Lossky, Losev, Florensky, Potebnia, Kolesov, and Bibikhin.
Pertinent examples will illustrate the ontological value of the word recognized
and repeatedly mentioned in Russian literature (by Pushkin, Gogol, Mandelshtam,
Akhmatova, Elagin, Rasputin, and many others) and in popular culture (comments
by the satirist Zadornov or Internet-commentator Leibov). Finally, my paper
will analyze some lexical manifestations of “the (Russian) word”
in Дочь Ивана, мать Ивана by V. Rasputin that
interprets this concept as Logos, the origin and roots of everything that constitutes
existence and the supreme truth. The interest in the (Russian) word and return
to it are thought by Rasputin to generate spiritual revival and productive activity,
which, in turn, will lead to the resurrection of the Russian soil.
References
Bibikhin, V., Slovo i sobytie. Moskva: URSS, 2001.
Kolesov, Vladimir. Zhizn’ proishodit ot slova. Saint Petersburg:
Zlatoust, 1999.
Rasputin, Valentin. Doch’ Ivana, mat’ Ivana. Moskva, 2004.
Russian Life, vol.48, no.2, March/April, 2005.
Seifrid, Thomas. The Word Made Self. Ithaca and London: Cornell University
Press, 2005.
Stepanov, Iurii. Konstanty. Slovar’ russkoi kul’tury. Opyt issledovaniia.
Moskva, 1997.