Situated between Europe and Asia, Russia has systematically challenged the European theories attached to nationhood due to its geopolitical and cultural peculiarities. After the rise of European nationalist movements, imperial Russia posed a threat to the very existence of the Germanic empires of Britain, Germany and Austria, and was frequently evoked to epitomise European barbarism, paganism, despotism and the Orient. In its struggle to acquire a new identity, which would bridge the gap with Western empires, Russia could not conform to the rising Anglo-Saxon movements that sought to glorify Nordic supremacy at the expense of the Oriental Other. Drawing upon this binary opposition between the Orient and the Occident, the Russian Empire concentrated on the development of its own nation-building theories, which managed to incorporate the ascending Pan-Slavic wave into its nationalist agenda. The anti-Western rhetoric that often characterised Russian politics contributed to the subversion of the conventional Western perspective of the Orient and the emergence of Eurasianism as a political theory that exalted the different traits of its imperial system. This book sets the focus on the representations of the Russian Empire from 1792 until 1912 in the field of travel literature. To this end, it selects British and American travel narratives of the aforementioned period to explore all aspects of Russian identity and culture. For this reason, it addresses major issues attached to Russian history and culture that were investigated by Western travellers in their attempt to approach the Russian Empire.
Auflage
Sprache
Verlagsort
Newcastle upon Tyne
Großbritannien
Zielgruppe
Editions-Typ
Produkt-Hinweis
Maße
Höhe: 212 mm
Breite: 148 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-5275-6082-6 (9781527560826)
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Schweitzer Klassifikation
Dimitrios Kassis holds a PhD from the Faculty of English Studies of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. His doctoral thesis was entitled "Representations of the North in Victorian Travel Literature", and was published in 2015. He received a Master's degree in Education Studies from Roehampton University, UK, as well as a Master's degree in Translation Studies from the Department of French Language and Literature of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He speaks 18 foreign languages and his academic interests are connected with travel literature, translation and language studies. He is the author of the books Representations of the North in Victorian Travel Literature; American Travellers in Scandinavia, Icelandic Utopia in Victorian Travel Literature; Greek Dystopia in British Women Travellers' Discourse; Images of Irishness in Nineteenth-Century Travel Literature; and Perceptions of Germany in British Travel Literature. He is currently working as an English teacher in the public sector.
