The purpose of this study is to analyze characteristics of Russian Orientalism reflected in Russian literature from the past to the present. The study focuses on the reevaluation of 'oriental elements', which have been important components of Russian ...
The purpose of this study is to analyze characteristics of Russian Orientalism reflected in Russian literature from the past to the present. The study focuses on the reevaluation of 'oriental elements', which have been important components of Russian cultural identity, but which have not been fully understood as an important component of Russian culture. By reexamining oriental elements, the study seeks to provide comprehensive understanding of Russian identity with its uniqueness, historical development, present aspects, and perspectives.
After reviewing previous studies on Orientalism, we divided the history of Russian literature into three periods from the viewpoint of its evolution and covered each period per year: 1) the first period: Russian literature from the old times to the 18th century; 2) the second period: the 19th century Russian literature; 3) the third period: Russian literature from the twentieth century to the present. The study has been completed up to the second period.
In the first year, we reviewed Orientalism reflected in the Russian literature from the Old times to the 18th century. Paying special attention to historical and cultural meaning of geographical expansion of Russia to the Orient, we reviewed formation and variation of Old Russian Orientalism from both synchronic and diachronic perspectives. Orientalism in Old Russian literature is based on orthodox and patriotic paradigm, which could be characterized as radical binarism (i.e., 'свой' vs. 'чужой'). Historically, the Orient was the target of either discrimination or idealization, although objectification of the Orient is sometimes found.
The topic of the second year was the Orientalism in the golden age of Russian literature, that is, the 19th century Russian romanticism and realism. Among many writers, examined was Orientalism reflected in the works of such major ones as Pushkin, Lermontov, Tsutchev, Turgenev, Goncharov, Tolstoj, Dostoevskij, Chekhov and some others. We classified Orientalism into two types, i.e., romantic and realistic Orientalism, and tried to find out the mechanism of transition from romantic Orientalism to realistic one. From the 19th century, the Orient began to be considered in relation to the West. In particular, as Russian literature transits from romanticism to realism, the Orient began to be perceived as "real space" rather than "imaginary space". Writers critically reflected their traditional attitude toward the Orient, which was often called 'noble savage', and they kept distance from policy of Russian imperialism. Some writers regarded oriental elements as organic parts of Russian identity and tried to accept them as something Russian. However, the Orient still remained as 'the other' with no subjectivity, who was always characterized by the superior West. In this sense, it can be said that Russian literature in the 19th century could free itself from romantic perception on the Orient, but still could not escape from the domain of Orientalism.
Based on the results of analyses of major writers' works, we tried to show dominant tendency and characteristics of Russian Orientalism in each period, and to reconstruct our diachronic study in the context of history of literature. Furthermore, we tried to find out the mechanism of evolution of Orientalism in Russian literature. In addition, the results of the study will be published in academic journals.