The concepts of East and West in the identification processes of Russian literature
Alekseev P. V. The conceptual sphere of the Orient discourse
in the Russian literature of the first half of 19th century: A. Pushkin, F. Dostoyevsky.
Monograph. Tomsk,

In the context of modern Oriental studies and Oriental concepts, the book covers Oriental
theme in Russian literature. The object of study is the artistic works of the romantic era,
journal publications, epistolary, travelogues. The author presents historiography of Russian Orientalism
dealing with political, religious and philosophical aspects. The Quran is proposed to be
a nuclear text of Russian Orientalism, marked by the reception of Sufi motifs forming the Eastern
codes of Russian poetry. The central concepts of Russian Orientalism are specified as «Oriental
poet» and «Oriental tyrant», the Oriental content of which is studied in the works of N. Gogol
(«Аl-Mamun») and the poetry of A. A. Fet. The genre-thematic unity of the Eastern text of the
Russian literature is traced on the material of the Quranic narrative in the cycle of Pushkin’s «Imitations
of Quran» in the Lermontov’s Turkish tale «Ashik-Kerib». The protest character of Lermontov’s
Orientalism is emphasized. A special section of books is dedicated to Oriental travelogues
and imaginative geography of Russian Orientalism (Syrian topos in the prose
of O. Senkovsky, A. Veltman’s «pseudopotential» East, Arzamas travelogue of A. S. Pushkin)
in which the image of the Russian people in the East is formed.