Culture of Odessa
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Culture_of_Odessa".

Culture of Odessa is a unique blend of Russian, Yiddish and Ukrainian cultures, and Odessa itslelf have played a notable role in Russian and Yiddish folklore.[1]

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Odessa language

The Russian language of Odessa is influenced by Yiddish and Ukrainian in grammar, vocabulary, and phraseology. As a result, many phrases sound inherently funny for Russian speakers and constitute a staple of the Odessa humour. And conversely, the Odessa Yiddish has plenty Russianisms.[1]

Cultural image of Odessa

To a significant extent the image of Odessa in Russophone culture is influenced by The Odessa Tales of Isaak Babel. Odessa is often referred to by the collocation "Odessa Mama", which originates in Russian criminal (blatnoy) subculture.[1] The reputation of the city as criminal center, originated in Imperial Russian times and early Soviet era, is comarable to that of Chicago of the Al Capone era.[2]

Odessa humor

The Odessa humor is a notable part of both Jewish humor and Russian humor.

Since 1972 Odessa has been hosting the annual festival of humor, Humorina, and for this reason Odessa was known as the "capital of humor" in the Soviet Union.

"Odessa Mama"

Main article: Odessa

Many places in Odessa are memorable not only for their intrinsic cultural value, but also for their place in Odessa folklore.

Odessa Jews

The History of Russian Jews in Odessa may be traced to the days of the founding of the city.[3]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c Robert A. Rothstein, "How It Was Sung in Odessa: At the Intersection of Russian and Yiddish Folk Culture", Slavic Review, vol. 60, no. 4 (2001), pp. 781-801 doi:10.2307/2697495
  2. ^ Roshanna P. Sylvester, " Tales of Old Odessa: Crime and Civility in a City of Thieves" (2005) ISBN 0875803466
  3. ^ Steven Zipperstein, "The Jews of Odessa: A Cultural History, 1794-1881" (1991) ISBN 0804719624 ()

References

  • Maurice Friedberg, "How Things Were Done in Odessa: Cultural and Intellectual Pursuits in a Soviet City" (1991) ISBN 0813379873 (The book is about the life and culture of Odessa of the Soviet era. Its title is an allusion to a Babel's short story "How Things Were Done in Odessa" from The Odessa Tales)
  • Anatoli Barbakaru, "Odessa-Mama: Kataly, Kidaly, Shulera" (1999) ISBN 5040028563 (Russian)
  • Rebecca Stanton, "Identity Crisis: The Literary Cult and Culture of Odessa in the Early Twentieth Century", Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Foreign Literatures 57, No. 3 (2003) pp. 117-126
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