Geopolitical Discourse in Contemporary Latvian and American Travel Narratives

Abstract

The concept of geopolitics has become a subject for research in a number of scientific disciplines, including literary studies with a special focus on travelogue, which is the most multipresentative genre of travel writing. Travelogue, being a literary genre, the thematic dominant of which highlights the aspect of mobility, represents numerous geographical locations through the prism of geopolitics. Countries, territories, and regions, may acquire associative changes in the context of historically-political shifts. The present article focuses on the common political influences on the Siberian chronotope reflected in the contemporary Latvian and American travel narratives. It reveals not just the travellers’ subjective receptions of the place, but also indicates numerous political influences, which created a stereotypical image of Siberia as a place of marginality, forced power and exile. After considering and analysing the Siberian chronotope through the comparative perspective, it becomes obvious that American travellers tend to perceive this region basing on their general knowledge of historical processes and on the established stereotypes, while Latvian travellers trace a piece of their own history in Siberia, where hundreds of Latvians suffered repressions in the late 1930s under the influence of the Soviet regime.

Keywords

• geopolitical discourse
• travel narrative
• american and latvian travelogues
• mental mapping
• cartography
• postcolonial studies
• siberian chronotope
• the other
• soviet regime
• national identity