Orientalization of space in Alexander Pushkin's Journey to Erzerum

In this article, Pushkin's Journey to Erzerum during the campaign in 1829 is considered as the most significant oriental travelogue in Russian literature of the first half of the 19th century. Description of a private travel of a Russian nobleman in Transcaucasia and Asiatic Turkey during the colonial wars of the Russian Empire considerably expanded the oriental discourse of Russian literature in the first half of the 19th century, forming a more complex and realistic image of the Orient. The main idea of the article is that Pushkin's Journey reflects the specific discourse of Russian Orientalism as a specific way of thinking based on a mythological representation of Russia's place in the world where the West (primarily Western European countries) and East (mainly Muslim territories) are a necessary means of reasserting of Russian national identity, oscillating between the poles of the East-Western dichotomy. The term "orientalization" in the article refers to the process of creative invention of a semiotic space in which it's endowed with specific features of the ''Oriental'' in the discourse of Orientalism. In the article in order to understand the orientalization mechanisms in the Journey the subject of orientalization (narrator) is analyzed. "Literariness" is considered as the basic principle of orientalization, i.e. the principle of outlining mythological borders in Pushkin's travelogue: demarcation of mythological borders between East and West is possible only in the cultural space. Domination (including sexual domination) is considered as the most important principle of orientalization in Pushkin's travelogue, because it shows the convergence point of cultures in terms of evaluation. The principle of European dominance in the Journey (including allusions to Peter the Great, General Ermolov and Napoleon) is largely similar to European travelers inventing Eastern Europe and Russia. Explicit and implicit allusions to the Decembrists, who actively participated in the military campaign of 1828-1829, significant thoughts about Aleksander Griboyedov and the appendix in French ''Notice sur la secte des Yezidis'' are analyzed within the conception of Oriental tyranny.

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