Russian orientalism : Asia in the Russian mind from Peter the Great to the emigration / David Schimmelpenninck van der Oye.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schimmelpenninck van der Oye, David.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Orientalism--Russia--History.

Orientalism.

Public opinion--Russia--History.

Public opinion.

Asia--Study and teaching--Russia.

Asia.

Russia--Intellectual life--18th century.

Russia.

Russia--Intellectual life--1801-1917.

Asia--Foreign public opinion, Russian.

Russia--Relations--Asia.

Asia--Relations--Russia.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (1 online resource (xii, 298 p.))

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, c2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The West has been accused of seeing the East in a hostile and deprecatory light, as the legacy of nineteenth-century European imperialism. In this highly original and controversial book, David Schimmelpenninck van der Oye examines Russian thinking about the Orient before the Revolution of 1917. Exploring the writings, poetry, and art of representative individuals including Catherine the Great, Alexander Pushkin, Alexander Borodin, and leading orientologists, Schimmelpenninck argues that the Russian Empire's bi-continental geography, its ambivalent relationship with the rest of Europe, and the complicated nature of its encounter with Asia have all resulted in a variegated and often surprisingly sympathetic understanding of the East among its people.

Contents:

Introduction: What is Russian orientalism?

The forest and the steppe

The Petrine dawn

Catherinian chinoiserie

The oriental muse

The Kazan school

Missionary orientology

The rise of the St. Petersburg school

The oriental faculty

The exotic self

Conclusion: Asia in the Russian mind.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-300-16289-8

OCLC:

808346460