The Text of My Life — About Me
Who I am and what I write on Medium.
I have been writing on Medium for quite a while already, so I decided it was time to tell not only about literature and text analyses, but also about myself.
My name is Polina, I am 22 years old. I am from Russia and Russian is my native language. I graduated from Saint-Petersburg State University with honors in 2023 and since then I am considered to be a philologist specializing in Russian language and literature.
In summer 2023 I emigrated from Russia. Right now I live in Budapest, here I am getting my master’s degree in Russian language and literature (and yes, my study program is conducted fully in Russian). I am really enjoying this city. Other European cities I travel to are also great, but Budapest is still my favourite one, because it is cozy, warm and not huge and I feel amazing here.
I want to be a scholar, work at the university and study Russian literature. I am truly fond of my profession: I enjoy reading scholarly literature about text analyses in my free time and attend online-courses devoted to different narrow issues in literary studies.
During my studies I tried myself in different academic activities. I participated in the international conferences and contests, organized an international philological conference together with my colleagues and published an article in a prestigious Russian research journal.
Why I write (about) texts?
I have always been into writing texts of different genres. Since I was a child I have been journaling, loved writing fiction and sometimes even rhymes. I also enjoyed reading since I was a kid. I still remember that my Mum not only read me children’s books (mostly Swedish and Finnish, by the way, — Astrid Lindgren, Sven Nordqvist, Tove Jansson, etc.), but also admired classical literature a lot. I clearly remember her enthusiastically telling me when I was a child how great the language of Gogol’s «Dead Souls» was and how she enjoyed reading Balzak’s «Shagreen Skin». Of course, I have not read those texts when she told me about them, but I was deeply impressed by her emotions and dreamt of reading the books she loved so much one day and understanding their greatness. So, maybe it is no wonder that I became a philologist.
I have been thinking of creating a blog for a very long time, but could not make up my mind about the platform and the topic. I wanted not a lifestyle blog, but a place where I could share knowledge that is important for people, but I did not feel myself an expert in any niche. At the end of my bachelor studies I finally realised that I knew a lot about literature and reading strategies and that I wanted to share my knowledge with other people.
Almost every day I see evidence that humanities are not popular in our society, that they remain an underestimated and underappreciated area of our life. And I wanted to change this perception of humanities. That was how the idea of a niche which was truly mine and for me appeared. In spring 2023 I accidentally found Medium and since then I am here, writing about reading and understanding texts.
I write about the ways people perceive texts, difficulties which they face when reading, about history of reading and other things which are somewhere in between sociology of literature and classical poetics. I also share tips which can make comprehension of complicated texts (this means — practically any fiction text…) easier.
Who I am apart from being a philologist?
An emigrant, an elder sister, a friend, a volunteer, a graduate of Saint-Petersburg State University, a creative person approaching the life with a research interest.
Besides literary studies I am also fond of handicraft, photography and German language.
I enjoy making with hands everything that can be made with hands: jewelry, utensils, candles, bags, home decorations etc. I especially love pottery and cross-stitch.
One of my main hobbies is photography. I have been taking photos on my phone for 3 years now and in February 2024 I bought a photography course and learnt a lot of useful photography techniques. I find this hobby not only a way of expressing myself, but also a great form of therapy. It allows me to see the world from a completely different point of view and trains the eye to pay attention to details, which make the life more beautiful. It also makes me happy, because when taking photos I create aesthetic. My favorite photography genre is urban photography, I love taking photos of cities’ architecture, people at the streets, shadows, lights, reflections, etc.
Some of my photos were accepted by Italian PhotoVogue.
I also collect covers of the books I have read in all languages in which they were published. Each country publishes the same book in so different ways, and I really enjoy looking at different designs of covers and comparing them!
My collection is stored on Pinterest.
A short list to know me better
Favorite cities: Moscow, Budapest, Karmiel (Israel).
Favourite books: «The House on the Embankment» by Y. Trifonov («Дом на набережной»); «The Reader» by B. Schlink («Der Vorleser»); «Smoke Bellew» by J. London.
Favorite music: Russian chanson of the 1990-s. It is the music my Dad has always been listening to and my childhood is inseparable from Russian chanson. It was playing at home and in our car when we were driving to the countryside or anywhere else and a lot of songs have been imbedded in my memory exactly since childhood.
Favorite things to do: laugh, spend time with my close friends (cook, travel, talk, watch films, go to the theatre, etc.), invent (things to do, presents, posts for Medium, places to live, etc.), try new things (dancing tango, photo course), photograph cities, watch the most unpopular Soviet films which nobody knows, read about receptive aesthetics, reading practices and history of reading.
A laconic description of my character
«In every thing I want to grasp
Its very core.
In work, in searching for the path,
In heart’s uproar.
To see the essence of my days,
In every minute
To see its cause, its root, its base,
Its sacred meaning».
(B. Pasternak, “In every thing I want to grasp…”. Translated by N. Gotskaya).
This text by Pasternak really describes me the best way possible since I do not know what time.
I want to thank you a lot for reading my posts and sharing your opinions about them in the comments. Your genuine interest to the issues I write about means a lot for me and inspires me to write further. I will be glad to know you better in the comments!
Polina.
Here are my posts which I like the most and find especially important for my blog:
