Myth and fact in Russia-centered discourse: The case of (non-)fictional Shostakovich

Abstract

The starting point for the research was the observation of an increased attention to the figure of D. Shostakovich, who about the turn of the century appeared to become a milestone of the English-language Russia-centered discourse. This raised the questions of the specific nature of the English-language Russia-centered discourse, as well as the place D. Shostakovich holds in it and the transformation of the composer’s image within this discourse’ cognitive map. Methodologically, the research relies upon a combination of traditional in-depth stylistic, literary and linguaculturological analyses, on the one hand, and quantitative corpus methods, on the other hand. The research allowed to ascertain that the Russianism “Shostakovich” is usually employed for the sake of characterizing the character as either relating to intellectual elite or to Russians; or of introducing a motif, in particular the motif of Petersburg. The paper posits that applying a language to describing an external culture is, in fact, like translating this culture into the language of description. And translating culture is by necessity always selective — it is based on describing carefully selected milestones. One of such milestones in Russian culture translation is the concept of Petersburg, while Shostakovich is a milestone on which the concept of Petersburg is built. Both concepts are based on an intricate interweaving of fact and myth; the distortion being the result of an attempt at interpreting the external culture in understandable terms.