Russian Talk

by Nancy Ries

Book Overview

Soulful, theatrical, intense: Russian talk is notably full of existential musing and dark passion. However, despite the widespread appreciation of Russian talk, no one has analyzed it as a form of cultural performance. As one of the first Western ethnographers to undertake fieldwork in Moscow, Nancy Ries did just that. In this pioneering study, she shows how everyday conversation shapes Russian identity and culture.Dire stories about poverty, hardship,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801484162
• ISBN13: 9780801484162
• Release Date: August 1997
• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Insights into daily Soviet life through conversation

Ries's book has become one of the must-cite books among anthropologists working in Russia or the xSSR. This is one of the first, if not the first ethnographic work based on research in an urban setting. Anthropologists typically head to the tundra or the villages, but most Russians live in very large cities. She presents an ethnography of conversations, usually in the kitchen around drinking tea, which provides fascinating insights into the daily lives of urban people during perestroika. She includes an epilogue describing some of the changes after the fall of the Soviet Union.This is an ethnography, and not linguistic analysis or conversation analysis, so people looking for that kind of work may be disappointed. On the other hand, this is a book accessible to non-academics if you are willing to put in a little effort working through the subtle arguments.