Travelogues in the perspective of gender Orientalism (A case study of texts by K. D. Mintslova, E. K. Vereshchagina,
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25178/nit.2023.2.10Keywords:
travelogue; gender Orientalism; female writer; masculine; coloniality; ethnographic; civilization; savagery; colonial discourse; postcolonial studiesAbstract
The article presents a comparative analysis of travelogues in the postcolonial perspective. The results obtained are considered from the point of view of the theory of gender Orientalism. The materials for the case study comprised the texts written by Sergei R. Mintslov and his wife Kseniya D. Mintslova (“Secret Assignment: A Journey to Uriankhai” and “A Faraway Krai: A Journey through the Uriankhai Land”) dedicated to the joint journey of the married couple to the Uriankhai Krai in 1914 (today known as Tuva), as well as the work of Elizaveta K. Vereshchagina (“Essays about a Journey to the Himalayas”) and a book by Yuri N. (George Nicolas de) Roerich (“Along the Paths of Central Asia”) written during the trans-Himalayan expedition of 1925–1928.
Being considered in the postcolonial aspect, travelogues make it possible to identify new identities and new languages that differ from the colonial language of describing colonized cultures and peoples. The authors define gender Orientalism, according to which the subordinate position of a woman in the masculine Western culture determines the features of Orientalist discourse, where she occupies an intermediate position between the colonizer and the colonized.
Thereupon, the anticolonial aspect of female travelogues is highlighted and a comparison with similar male texts is presented. The ambivalence of the position of female writers is expressed in the features of their feminine writing that is heterotypically enclosed in the masculine discourse of colonialism, but nevertheless able to express an anti-colonial perspective.
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For citation:
Chetyrova L. B. and Sakharov A. S. Travelogi v perspektive gendernogo orientalizma (po materialam tekstov K. D. Mintslovoi, E. K. Vereshchaginoi, S. R. Mintslova i Iu. N. Rerikha) [Travelogues in the perspective of gender Orientalism (A case study of texts by K. D. Mintslova, E. K. Vereshchagina, S. R. Mintslov and Yu. N. Roerich)]. New Research of Tuva, 2023, no. 2, pp. 141‑152. (In Russ.). DOI: https://doi.org/10.25178/nit.2023.2.10
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Author Biographies
Lyubov B. Chetyrova, Samara University
Doctor of Philosophy, Professor, Department of Philosophy, Samara University.
Postal address: 34, Moskovskoye shosse, 443086 Samara, Russian Federation.
E-mail: chetyrova@gmail.com
Alexey S. Sakharov, Samara University
Research Assistant, Research Department 90, Samara University.
Postal address: 34, Moskovskoye shosse, 443086 Samara, Russian Federation.
E-mail: saharovatlt@gmail.com
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