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Narrating and mapping Russia: From Terra Incognita to a charted space on the road to Cathay
- Author(s):
- George Prokhorov (see profile) , Sergey Saveliev
- Date:
- 2018
- Group(s):
- CLCS European Regions, GS Travel Writing, Interdisciplinary Approaches to Culture and Society, LLC Russian and Eurasian, Narrative theory and Narratology
- Subject(s):
- Travel writing, International relations, English literature--Old English, Russian literature, Comparative literature--Russian and English, Creative nonfiction, Seventeenth century, Narration (Rhetoric), Diplomatic history
- Item Type:
- Article
- Tag(s):
- travelogue, Travel narratives, Anglo-Russian literary relations, Nonfiction prose, 17th century, Narrative, Adaptation
- Permanent URL:
- http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/ek4q-en64
- Abstract:
- In the 16th century most of Russia is still a terra incognita with a highly dubious and mostly mythologized geography, anthropology, and sociology. In this article we look at some texts of the Early Modern period – Sir Thomas Smithes Voiage and Entertainment in Rushia (1605), Peter Mundy’s Travel Writings of 1640–1641, and The Voiages and Travels of John Struys (1676–1683) – and try to uncover the transformation of the obscure country into a more or less charted space, filled with narratives of adventures and travels in an enigmatic land on the verge of Europe, where exotic cultures are drawn together in a flamboyant mix. It is travel narrative that actually charts the territory and provides an explanation from which stems a partial understanding, physical and cultural, of the “Land of the Unpredictable.”
- Metadata:
- xml
- Published as:
- Journal article
- Status:
- Published
- Last Updated:
- 5 years ago
- License:
- All Rights Reserved
fns2018.pdf