“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”: the Representation of the Far East Countries in the Russian Caricatures of 1890-1905

Abstract

This article is devoted to the zoomorphic images of China and Japan in the caricatures published in the Russian periodical press from 1890 to 1905. The aim of the study is to analyze the mechanisms of building images of the Other by creating a comic effect, as a strategy for overcoming cultural aphasia. The study focuses on the caricature technique of zoomorphism, or giving the Other an animalistic form. Within the framework of the article, we examined the possibilities of caricature as a means of political communication and analyzed its tools for expressing the changing political situation, including opportunities for the actual transformation of the image. In addition, the reception of zoomorphism as a shift in the natural/innate domain in the gradation from “prey”, “noble animal” to “beast” was examined. According to the results of the study, the image of China as a dragon and the images of Japan as a dog or monkey as well as the symbolism of the yellow color and exotization as a method of alienation are of most interest. Furthermore, the issues of the imperial discourse of the Russian Empire, which was formed, among others, under the influence of the colonial discourse of the leading European powers of that time, the problem of orientalism as well as the question of self-identification of Russia within the framework of the “East-West” opposition, were discussed. The article is intended for everyone who is interested in the history of the development of political caricature in Russia and those who study the theoretical and practical issues of creation of the image of the Other.

Keywords

• image of the other
• the other
• imagology
• imagema
• representation
• deconstruction
• orientalism
• caricature
• china
• japan