Article

Name: The concepts of East and West in the identification processes of Russian literature Alekseev P. V. The conceptual sphere of the Orient discourse in the Russian literature of the first half of 19th century: A. Pushkin, F. Dostoyevsky. Monograph. Tomsk,

Authors: L. A. Khodanen

Kemerovo State University, Kemerovo, Russian Federation

In the section Review

Abstract: In the context of modern Oriental studies and Oriental concepts, the book covers Oriental theme in Russian literature. The object of study is the artistic works of the romantic era, journal publications, epistolary, travelogues. The author presents historiography of Russian Orientalism dealing with political, religious and philosophical aspects. The Quran is proposed to be a nuclear text of Russian Orientalism, marked by the reception of Sufi motifs forming the Eastern codes of Russian poetry. The central concepts of Russian Orientalism are specified as «Oriental poet» and «Oriental tyrant», the Oriental content of which is studied in the works of N. Gogol («Аl-Mamun») and the poetry of A. A. Fet. The genre-thematic unity of the Eastern text of the Russian literature is traced on the material of the Quranic narrative in the cycle of Pushkin’s «Imitations of Quran» in the Lermontov’s Turkish tale «Ashik-Kerib». The protest character of Lermontov’s Orientalism is emphasized. A special section of books is dedicated to Oriental travelogues and imaginative geography of Russian Orientalism (Syrian topos in the prose of O. Senkovsky, A. Veltman’s «pseudopotential» East, Arzamas travelogue of A. S. Pushkin) in which the image of the Russian people in the East is formed.

Keywords: Orientalism, the Koran, cortext, the Quranic narrative, oriental travelogue

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