The self in the other: Aleksandr Griboedov’s Orient

Abstract

While scholars of Russian orientalism have diverged somewhat in their interpretation of Aleksandr Griboedov, they have in the main viewed him as a supporter of Russian expansion and seen in his works a justification of Russia’s conquests in the East. This essay seeks to complicate that view. By taking a comprehensive look at Griboedov’s Eastern-themed works (including his poems “There, Where Flows the Alazani”, “Kal'ianchi”, and “Predators on the Chegem”, the play Georgian Night and a series of editorials, letters, and travel notes written from the Caucasus and Persia) and situating them in the context of contemporary literary and political debates, the author argues that Griboedov undercuts rather than supports the orientalist conception of the East’s alterity. By portraying “Eastern” ways as possibilities latent within all humans and by pointing out the Russian past in the Persian present, Griboedov is able to question Russia’s role in the Caucasus and to explore the costs of Russia’s progress towards European-style civilization.