ANTI-COLONIAL DISCOURSE IN VISUAL IMAGES OF THE EAST OF THE XIX CENTURY

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the semantics of images of the East in European painting of the XIXth cent., which reflected the anti-colonial (emancipator, humanist) discourse in the era artistic consciousness of the XIXth cent. The relevance of the study is due to the insufficient knowledge representation of cultural policies in classical painting, as well as the active development of the research into new forms of imperialism and colonialism in the field of media, social communications and modern culture. Anti-colonial discourse is understood as a discourse on the significance and the identity of other cultures representatives and their acceptance as equals to representatives of Western culture. Orientalism is associated, first of all, with the images of harem scenes and odalisques, thanks to which the political ideology of empires throughout the history of Western colonialism formed the image of a depraved, wild, immoral East in the public consciousness of the West. The scientific novelty of the study consists of anti-colonial images of semantics determining of the East in European painting of the XIXth cent., and in an attempt to identify their typology. Methodologically, the author is based on the Postcolonial Studies (Edward Said, E. Ann Kaplan), the studies of modern forms of imperialism and colonialism (Richard Bernstein, Oliver Boyd- Barrett), the Visual Studies (John Berger, Linda Nochlin, Susan Woodford). The object of the study is well- known and the same time as little-known subjects of the XIXth cent. painting that represents colonial and anti-colonial rhetoric. The author aims to explore the images of Islamic, Jewish religiosity and everyday life, mosques and synagogues, deeply religious Muslim and Jewish women. The author introduces the concept of “external Others” of the empire (living on the borders or outside the boundaries of the empire) and “internal Others” (living within the boundaries of the empire), who can be classified depending on geographical, religious proximity or political ties with one or the other empires and communities. The author develops the East images typology of the anti-colonial (emancipator, humanist) direction and analyzes their semantics, which are characterized by the emphasized spiritual sublimity of the East, a positive image of the religious experience of the inhabitants of the East, hidden femininity and Eastern everyday life.