Slavica TerGestina (Jul 2017)
Redefining North Africa: Modern Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt in Russian Travel Literature
Abstract
The article deals with the representation of Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt by Russian travel writers between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. The text will focus on the hiatus between their a priori idea of North Africa as a cradle of an ancient and timeless civilization (an idea which reveals the contact with the orientalist European tradition) and their disappointment once they understand how modernized and “europeanized” this geographical area is. In these travelogues two different “Others” can be identified: while the first one is clearly North Africa, the second one, more subtle, is Europe, which emerges as something completely alien to the Russian mind. Modern North Africa and Europe are here described as symmetrical doubles, while Russia stands apart.
