Journal | Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie occidentale
Journal issue | 49 | 2015
Research Article | Andrej Belyj in Africa del Nord (1911)
Andrej Belyj in Africa del Nord (1911)
Orientalismo e riflessione sull’identità culturale russa
Abstract
Andrei Belyi (1880-1934) wrote several works about his trip to North Africa in 1911. The analysis of his ‘African’ letters (to his mother, to A. Blok, E. Metner, A. Kožebatkin, A. Petrovskij and M. Morozova) shows the coexistence of the orientalist thinking and a gradual distaste for the European world. Belyi undoubtedly describes Arabic people using typical orientalist commonplaces, thus putting himself inside the Western cultural identity (which has always created these stereotypes, as highlighted by Edward Said in Orientalism); but he also looks at the European colonists from an external point of view, that of a Russian not directly involved in the imperialistic division of the African continent. These first-hand reports show the beginning of his rejection of Western society and the starting point for the creation of a Russian identity, clearly separated from the European one. This process is not unique. In fact, it is a peculiar feature of the so called ‘Russian orientalism’: while talking about ‘the Orient’, Russian travellers and writers have often also considered the ‘West’, namely Europe, in an attempt to shape Russia’s cultural identity and clarify its ambiguous position.
Published Sept. 1, 2015 | Language: it
Keywords Russian orientalism • Andrei Belyi’s ‘African’ letters • Rejection of Western society • Russian identity
Copyright © 2015 Anita Frison. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.14277/2499-1562/AnnOc-49-15-15
