Scholarly record
PERFORMATIVITY OF "RUSSIANS" AND "RUSSIANNESS" IN THE COLLECTION OF JANA EGLE'S STORIES "STRANGERS OR MILENKIJ TI MOJ"
Abstract
The current study focuses on the intersection of ethnic identity in the political discourse in ethnically binary post-conflictual (post-Soviet) territories, exploring it through the postcolonial approach to performativity, Judith Butler’s theory on performativity and its certain concepts in further performativity research. Jana Egle’s book “Strangers or Milenkij Ti Moj”1 (Svesie jeb milenkij ti moj, 2018) projects a specific interpretation of Russians, i.e. as a complex concept represented through speakers’ ethnic, political, social and language performativity. A collection of stories that virtually forms a plot-united composition focuses specifically on the determination of Russians as “strangers” simultaneously deconstructing many stereotypical markers of the concept “Russians” in Latvia. By frequently using the elements of the Russian language in Latvian, the stories of the book argue that both the use of “Russianness”: Russian words and Russian cultural signs, are a common and widespread practice in the Latvian everyday language and household culture and that the image of Russians is an integral component of Latvian social and political discourse which faces cliches and different attitudes to Russians among Latvians in Latvia. Just like identity forms the foundation for the discursive significance of the performativity, the book by Egle dwells upon the question of what the inclusive or exclusive tactics of the definitions of the Latvian social identity and the ethnicity of “Russians” is in the process of construction of the Latvian identity. Rather than providing a political reading of a character “Russian” and concept of Russianness, determined by the events and consequences of the Baltic annexation by the Soviet Union and the resulting colonial instrument – Soviet hegemony, the essay offers a critique of the representation of the stereotypical perception of Russians in Latvia and distinguishes different alternative cases that can be viewed through the lens of the concept of performativity. In this article, I investigate the linguistic performativity of everyday practices – doings and sayings – that work to constitute identities through different affective intensities. Examples of body performativity show body modifications of particular ethnicity representatives by which the power of action on the body is increased or diminished.
Publication Impact Profile
Publication details
References17
Balode, IngmДЃra, SveЕЎu man tevi nevajag, Satori, https://www.satori.lv/article/svesu-man-tevi-nevajag [accessed 31.05.2019.], 2019.
Burima, Maija, Pašidentifikācijas un modernitātes projekcija 19.–20. gadsimta mijas latviešu literatūrā, Letonica, Vol. 25, pp. 23–59, 2013. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283706801_Pasidentifikacijas_un_moder nitates_projekcija_19-20_gadsimta_mijas_latviesu_literatura [accessed 31.07.2019.]
Butler, Judith, Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory. Theatre Journal, Vol. 40/ No. 4, published by The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 519–531, 1988.
Butler, Judith, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, New York, Routledge, 1990.
Butler, Judith, Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex”, New York, Routledge, 1993.
Butler, Judith, Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assemblay, Harward, Harward University Press, 2015.
Gregson N., Rose G., White socio-spatial epistemologies. Social and Cultural Geography 1(2), pp. 209 – 222, 2000.
Egle, Jana, Tabu tД“mu nav [interview with Arturs Skutelis], Punctum, 28.02.2017, https://www.punctummagazine.lv/2017/02/28/tabu-temu-nav/ [accessed 31.07.2019.].
Egle, Jana, Svešie jeb miļeņkij ti moj, Rīga: Latvijas Mediji, 2018.
Freinberga, Ieva, Vai latvieЕЎu grДЃmatas vieno tautieЕЎus pasaulД“? 18.03.2019., https://www.latviesi.com/jaunumi/raksts/vai-latviesu-gramatas-vieno-tautiesuspasaule [accessed 03.06.2019.]
Laketa, Sunčaka, Between “this” side and “that” side. On performativity, youth identities and “sticky” spaces, Environment and Planning (D): Society and Space, Vol. 36/(1), pp. 176–196, 2018.
Melgalve, Ieva, Asaru rulete https://www.punctummagazine.lv/2018/12/04/asarurulete/, 2018, [accessed 31.07.2019].
My interview with J. Egle. [08.06.2019. My personal archive – M. B.]
PД“tersons, Rihards, IedzД«votДЃji. JЕ«rmala. Daba un kultЕ«ras mantojums, RД«ga, Neputns, 2004.
Rose-Redwood R., Glass M., Introduction: Geographies of Performativity. In: Glass M. and Rose-Redwood R. (eds.), Performativity, Politics, and the Production of Social Space, New York, Routledge, pp. 1-34, 2014.
Thomas M.E., ”I think it’s just natural”: The spatiality of racial segregation at a US high school, Environment and Planning, A 37(7), pp. 1233 – 1248, 2005.
Шульгин Н.Н., 2003. За горизонтами политкоректности, Вопроси Философи, Вол. 6, pp. 54–68., 2003. From: Boldane, Ilze, Contemporary Ethnic stereotypes of Latvians: Regional Diffrenece, Acta humanitarica universitatis Saulensis, T. 14, pp. 65 – 77 (66), 2012
View or Download full articleAccess options
SWS access login
Login as SWS Scientific CommitteeLogin as SWS Scientific PartnerLogin as SWS AuthorAuthors and approved SWS contributors will read and export their own linked papers after identity matching by SWS profile, email and SGEM GlobalID.
For librarian assistance: [email protected]
Purchase Instant Access
- Article can be downloaded after successful payment.
- Article may be used according to SWS library access terms.
- Article cannot be redistributed.