Pavel ALEKSEEV

En mars et avril 2019, le labex TransferS et Mandana Covindassamy (Pays germaniques) accueillent Pavel ALEKSEEV, professeur au département d’histoire et de philologie de la Gorno-Altaisk State University.

Lien vers page professionnelle : https://gasu.academia.edu/PavelAlekseev

 

 

 

Russian Orientalism in the Context of Russian-European Literary Relations in the 19^th Century

 

The four sessions of this seminar examine how the image of the East has been interpreted in 19^th century Russian literature. This interpretation derives from the discourse of the colonial practices of Western Europe and Russian Empire. Russian Orientalism is an excellent example of cultural transfer. Indeed, the idea of a cultural and political domination of the West over the East (and over the inner population described as an oriental Others) was widely reflected in English, French and German literature, and it also strongly influenced Russian authors. By the help of classical and rare texts, we examine different ways of this cultural transfer and we try to understand its impact on Russian identity.

 

March 19, 16h00 – 18h00. « Poet and tyrant : Russian Orientalism for free-thinkers and idealist »

(in Russian, salle Paul Celan)

 

In this first session, we introduce the definition of Russian Orientalism, and we explain the reasons why concepts as the West and the East (invented during the colonial practices of Europe) has become the most important mechanism for the creation of Russian national identity. In 19^th century Russia, the Prophet Mohammed, Oriental poets, knights and caliphs were not only literary images coming from French, English and German translations : they were also a conventional language by which Russian free-thinkers criticized the imperial power and the social institutions.

Russian Orientalism has two main concepts : « poet » and « tyrant ». The main questions connected whit such concepts are : what did Aleksander Pushkin find in the Quran ? Why did he translate Prosper Merimee’s poems from the collection « La Gusla » ? What was the subtext of the description of his journey to Turkey in 1829 ? How did Mikhail Lermontov emphasize his opposition by the help of Eastern themes ? How did Osip Senkovsky fool his readers, making fun of Russian imperial ambitions by using pre-Islamic Arabic poetry, romantic clichés and Semitic mythology ? Why did Afanasy Fet harm his reputation by taking up the first in Russian literature large-scale translation of Hafiz’s Sufi poetry ?

 

19 марта, 16h00 – 18h00. « Поэт и тиран : русский ориентализм для вольнодумцев и идеалистов »

(на русском языке)

 

На первом семинаре будет дано определение русского ориентализма, а также объяснено, почему понятия « Запад » и « Восток », придуманные в ходе колониальных практик Европы, стали важнейшим механизмом формирования русской национальной идентичности. Пророк Магомет, восточные поэты, витязи и халифы в России 19 века – не только литературные образы из французских, английских и немецких переводов, но и средства иносказания, при помощи которого русские вольнодумцы критиковали имперскую власть и социальные институты. Два главных концепта русского ориентализма – « поэт » и « тиран » - определили круг вопросов, которые будут рассмотрены : что Пушкин нашел в Коране, зачем перевел стихотворения П. Мериме из сборника « La Gusla » и что зашифровал в описании своего путешествия в Турцию ? Как Лермонтов подчеркивал свою оппозиционность при помощи восточных тем ? Как О. Сенковский дурачил своих читателей, иронизируя над имперскими амбициями России на материале доисламской арабской поэзии, романтических штампов и семитской мифологии ? Почему А. Фет, взявшись за первый в русской литературе масштабный перевод суфийской поэзии Хафиза, навредил своей репутации ?

 

March 26, 16h00 – 18h00. « Moscow as Third Rome : Russian Orientalism for nationalists and monarchists »

(in Russian, salle Paul Celan)

 

The second session shows that Russian Orientalism is a very controversial system. For progressive and democratic circles, the division of the world into the West and the East was a perfect tool in order to consider the European enlightenment as the only way for the development of Russia. For religious and nationalist circles, the West-East dyad was transformed into the West-Russia-East triad, based on the idea of messianism : Russia is the last spiritual light on Earth, since it is opposed to the barbarism of the East as well as to the materialism of the West and its perverted Christianity. In this lecture, we try to give an answer to the following questions : how did the medieval idea Moscow is a Third Rome integrate into the ideological discourse of the Russian empire of the 18th and 19th centuries ? Why did Nikolai Gogol show interest in the 9th century Arab caliph Al-Mamun, and Fyodor Dostoevsky in the prophet Mohammed and Tongzhi emperor ? How the figure of Johannes Lichtenberger - a medieval astrologer at the court of Frederick III, the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire - was associated with Dostoevsky’s obsessive appeal to conquer Constantinople ? How are F. Tyutchev’s oriental motifs related to the foreign policy of the Russian Empire on the eve of and during the Russian-Turkish war (1828-1829) and the Crimean war (1853-1856) ?

 

26 марта, 16h00 – 18h00. « Москва – Третий Рим : русский ориентализм для националистов и монархистов »

(на русском языке)

 

Второй семинар должен продемонстрировать, что русский ориентализм – очень противоречивая система. Для прогрессивных и демократических кругов деление мира на Запад и Восток – это инструментарий, который позволял говорить о европейском просвещении как единственном пути развития России. Однако в религиозных и националистических кругах диада « Запад-Восток » трансформировалась в триаду « Запад-Россия-Восток », в основе которой лежала идея мессианства : Россия – последний светоч духовности на Земле, противостоящий варварству Востока, а также материализму и извращенному христианству Запада. Круг вопросов этой лекции : как средневековая идея « Москва – Третий Рим » встроилась в идеологический дискурс Российской империи 18-19 веков ? Почему Н. Гоголь заинтересовался арабским халифом 9 века Ал-Мамуном, а Ф. Достоевский пророком Магометом и китайским императором Тунчжи ? Как средневековый астролог при дворе императора Священной Римской империи Фридриха III связан с навязчивым призывом Достоевского завоевать Константинополь ? Как восточные мотивы Ф. Тютчева связаны с внешней политикой Российской империи накануне и во время русско-турецкой войны 1828-1829 годов и Крымской войны 1853-1856 годов ? 

 

April 8, 10h00 – 13h00. « Reception of Hafiz’s poetics in Russia and Germany of 19^th century »

(in English, together with Mandana Covindassamy, Espace lettres 1)

 

The 14^th century Persian poet Hafiz became the most famous representative of Muslim poetry for the 19^th century Europe. His ghazals were translated several times and in different countries of Europe and Russia. But, in 19^th century, Hafiz spoke to European cultures as a great poet mainly in its German translation. In this regard, several questions arise : how did German translators understand and present the peculiarities of Hafiz’s poetry ? Why and how did German poets write poetic answers to Hafiz ? How did German translations and imitations affect the Russian reception of Hafiz’s poetry ? How was the image of Hafiz and the main features of his poetics and philosophy understood by those Russian and German authors who were far from professional oriental studies ? What topics were represented in Russian and German literature in connection with the image of Hafiz ?

 

April 15, 17h00 – 19h00. « Russian Orientalism as a subject and object of cultural transfer »

(in English, Espace lettres 1)

 

In this session we sum up the main results of Pavel Alekseev’s own research in the field of Russian Orientalism. The lecture consists of three parts :

1) Methods for studying the image of the East in Russia and the advantages of the modern Orientalist approach as the synthesis of postcolonial criticism, the theory of cultural transfers and the theory of local texts. This part focuses on the political, religious-philosophical and imagological aspects of Russian Orientalism on the material of the texts of Aleksander Pushkin, Fyodor Tyutchev, Dmitri Oznobishin, Afanasy Fet and Nikolai Gogol.

2) The main reasons for the interest of Aleksander Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov and Fyodor Dostoevsky to the personality of the Muslim prophet, as well as to the philosophy, the artistic language and the mythology of the Quran. Some works of German, English and French authors will be considered as a source of cultural transfer.

3) Real and fictional journeys to the East, and their role in the imaginary geography of Russian Orientalism. We examine a trip to India by the merchant Afanasy Nikitin (15^th century) century as a prototype of the Oriental travelogue, which will be formed in the 19^th century. In the context of the evolution of Russian Orientalism, the journeys of Aleksander Pushkin and Aleksander Veltman to Turkey, Mikhail Lermontov to the Caucasus, Osip Senkovsky to Syria and Elim Demidoff to Siberia will be considered.

 

 

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• Entrée libre dans la limite des places disponibles

  19, 26 mars 2019 - 16h00-18h00 ENS, 45 rue d’Ulm, 75005 salle Celan (RdC, escalier A) 8 avril 2019 - 10h00-13h00 15 avril 2019 - 17h00-19h00 ENS, 45 rue d’Ulm, 75005 Espace Lettres 1 (2e étage, escalier BC)

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