CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2009
| Author | Polouektova, Ksenia |
|---|---|
| Title | FOREIGN LAND AS A METAPHOR OF ONE'S OWN: TRAVEL AND TRAVEL WRITING IN RUSSIAN HISTORY AND CULTURE, 1200S-1800S |
| Summary | In attempting to reconstruct a cultural history of travel and travel writing in Russia I read practices and narratives of travel as forms of discourse on matters of national character, cultural identity, and on ways of imagining foreign and domestic space. Understanding travel and travel writing as a “means of world-making and self-fashioning” presents travel as a fascinating venue for the exploration of the development of modern identity. My specific focus on the history of Russian travel and travelogue determines the two-fold thrust of this work. On the one hand, I look at the historical evolution of European styles and ideologies of travel and forms of travel writing (particularly focusing on the moments of transition). On the other hand, I analyze the relationship between western European textual models, ideologies and practices of travel and travelogue and their Russian adaptations, tracing continuities and ruptures between the historically evolving notions of both Russia’s domestic and foreign spaces from medieval religious imagination to modern secular consciousness. What conceptual framework should one apply to the nuances of the specifically Russian context without relapsing into patronizing, Orientalist appropriations? To what extent are western paradigms useful, if at all, in writing the history of Russian travel and travelogue? What is the role of social and cultural determinants in the evolution of Russian travelogue, a genre, which is too often considered exclusively in terms of its textual characteristics? My assumption is that the historically sensitive analysis of paradigms of travel and travel narratives illuminates mechanisms of cultural, social and ideological change and cross-cultural translation/adaptation, of which these practices are both agents and upshots and that the poetic essence of travelogues (e.g. narrative strategies, inter-textuality, sophisticated imagery) is coeval with their political contingency. Practices and narratives of travel reflect and elaborate conceptions of space and place, border (of separation or of distinction?) and border crossing, devising imaginary, symbolic maps for the actual landscapes covered during the journeys. They highlight conjunctions between the perception/imagination of space and the national character and psyche. Ultimately, and most importantly, the exploration of foreign realm and encounter with difference inevitably compels the traveler to engage with his or her own individual, national or artistic identity. It is here that the foreign country truly becomes a springboard for reflecting on one’s own, a metaphor of the native realm. |
| Supervisor | Kovacs Andras |
| Department | History PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2009/nphpok01.pdf |
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