Antropologicheskij forum, 2020, no. 47

A Review of P. LOZOVYUK, A. PRIGARIN, A.O., ETNOLOGIYA ODESSY V ISTORICHESKOY I SOVREMENNOY PERSPEKTIVAKH [THE ETHNOLOGY OF ODESSA FROM HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY PERSРECTIVES]. Odessa: Irbis, 2017, 387 pp.

Julia Buchatskaja

Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences
3 Universitetskaya Emb., St Petersburg, Russia
julia.butschatskaja()yahoo.de

Denis Ermolin

Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences
3 Universitetskaya Emb., St Petersburg, Russia
denis.ermolin()gmail.com

Abstract: The reviewed monograph is devoted to the ethnology of Odessa in the broadest sense — from the stages of the formation of individual districts of the city and the image of Odessa in fiction, the press and memoirs, to various aspects of contemporary urban life, such as the functioning of markets, festive culture, the virtual image of the city, or the everyday life of sailors’ wives. The authors of the monograph primarily aim to examine the formation and stages of the evolution of Odessa as a multifaceted city with emphasis on certain subjects of urban everyday life. In the opinion of the reviewers, however, there is practically no analysis of urban spaces in the monograph, in spite of the “successful urbanistic model” of Odessa proposed by the authors. It is also important to emphasize that — with the existing insider knowledge and experience of living in Odessa — the authors of the monograph under review did not fully problematize the described social and cultural reality and the range of modern problems that the city and its inhabitants face with varying degrees of intensity. They thus remain within the comfortable captivity of the so-called “Odessa” myth and, to some extent, end up reproducing rather than deconstructing it through the theoretical tools and methods at their disposal.

Keywords: Odessa, urban anthropology, visual anthropology, urban everyday life, post-Socialist city.

To cite: Buchatskaja J., Ermolin D., ‘A Review of P. Lozovyuk, A. Prigarin, a.o., Etnologiya Odessy v istoricheskoy i sovremennoy perspektivakh [The Ethnology of Odessa from Historical and Contemporary Perspectives]. Odessa: Irbis, 2017, 387 pp.’, Antropologicheskij forum, 2020, no. 47, pp. 229–240.

doi: 10.31250/1815-8870-2020-16-47-229-240

URL: http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/047/buchatskaja_ermolin.pdf