V.G. Korolenko’s Essay “At the Cossacks” in the Discourse of Russian Orientalism

Abstract

D.N. Dyusekenev. V.G. Korolenko's Essay “At the Cossacks” in the Discourse of Russian Orientalism. The article analyzes the essay by V.G. Korolenko “At the Cossacks” (1900) as a work that is directly related to the specific discourse of the “invention of the East”, in which elements of the cultures of Russia, the West and the East are typologically opposed. Based on representations of the Steppe and the way of life of Kazakh nomads in the realistic work of V.G. Korolenko there was detected one of the most important strategies of Russian orientalism of the late Empire period – self-orientalization (the formation of the “inner East” through the description of Russian territories as "eastern"). The steppe frontier is recreated by the writer with the help of ready-made orientalist constructs - stereotypical ideas about the steppe frontier of the Russian Empire, which were formed in Russian society during the period when this space was included in the orbit of Russian culture in the 18th-19th centuries. Based on the material of Korolenko's essay, the following conclusion is made: the “invention” of the Steppe in Russian Orientalism of the late imperial period is carried out due to the construction of a self-sufficient Russian identity.