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SIGNS: Distinguishing among émigrés,immigrants and refugees
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Sandy Drescher writes:
SKB is certainly correct:
>> Jansy/Anthony: surely the "almost forty years" here is not a
>> matter of "incomplete" or "vague" data. Isaac's "standing" as a
>> "real American" is not something that can be dated more precisely.
>> Rather, one envisages periods of gradual "acculturation" that vary
>> from émigré to émigré. All VN is projecting, I suggest, is that
>> Isaac's assimilation progressed earlier and more successfully than
>> that of his brother and sistet-in-law.
>>
>> Stan Kelly-Bootle
Brother Isaac arriving in the US in the late 1890's would not have
considered himself an "émigré" - the term suggests an attachment and
continuity with his previous identity in the "old country" [probably
Byelorussia or Lithuania]. Rather, he would have been called, and
called himself, an "immigrant"; his aim in life to assimilate as
quickly as possible and have his children [if not himself] become
"real Americans", a title rather than a description, translated from
the Yiddish equivalent.
The old couple, escaping Germany just before the Holocaust, would
have been called, and called themselves, "refugees". Traumatized and
facing an unwelcoming America, assimilation was hardly the question;
survival was enough. Their referring to Isaac as "The Prince" is a
mild slur focusing on his pursuit of wealth [parallel to Jewish-
American Princess], although VN has an additional reference in mind.
Cultured Russians leaving their beloved country after the Revolution
and after the Soviet era
identified with both what had been left behind and the activity of
their choice, distinguishing themselves from both immigrants and
refugees [in French] as émigrées.
One of the beauties of "Signs and Symbols" is how perfectly VN's
captured this moment in history.
Sandy [Sasha] Drescher, third generation American, second generation
"echte Americanishe".
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SKB is certainly correct:
>> Jansy/Anthony: surely the "almost forty years" here is not a
>> matter of "incomplete" or "vague" data. Isaac's "standing" as a
>> "real American" is not something that can be dated more precisely.
>> Rather, one envisages periods of gradual "acculturation" that vary
>> from émigré to émigré. All VN is projecting, I suggest, is that
>> Isaac's assimilation progressed earlier and more successfully than
>> that of his brother and sistet-in-law.
>>
>> Stan Kelly-Bootle
Brother Isaac arriving in the US in the late 1890's would not have
considered himself an "émigré" - the term suggests an attachment and
continuity with his previous identity in the "old country" [probably
Byelorussia or Lithuania]. Rather, he would have been called, and
called himself, an "immigrant"; his aim in life to assimilate as
quickly as possible and have his children [if not himself] become
"real Americans", a title rather than a description, translated from
the Yiddish equivalent.
The old couple, escaping Germany just before the Holocaust, would
have been called, and called themselves, "refugees". Traumatized and
facing an unwelcoming America, assimilation was hardly the question;
survival was enough. Their referring to Isaac as "The Prince" is a
mild slur focusing on his pursuit of wealth [parallel to Jewish-
American Princess], although VN has an additional reference in mind.
Cultured Russians leaving their beloved country after the Revolution
and after the Soviet era
identified with both what had been left behind and the activity of
their choice, distinguishing themselves from both immigrants and
refugees [in French] as émigrées.
One of the beauties of "Signs and Symbols" is how perfectly VN's
captured this moment in history.
Sandy [Sasha] Drescher, third generation American, second generation
"echte Americanishe".
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/