Description
Product ID: | 9780815365723 |
Product Form: | Paperback / softback |
Country of Manufacture: | US |
Series: | Central Asian Studies |
Title: | Soviet Orientalism and the Creation of Central Asian Nations |
Authors: | Author: Alfrid K. Bustanov |
Page Count: | 144 |
Subjects: | Regional / International studies, Regional studies, Cultural studies, Social groups, communities and identities, Anthropology, Politics and government, Regional geography, Cultural studies, Social groups, Anthropology, Politics & government, Regional geography |
Description: | Orientalism – the idea that the standpoint of Western writers on the East greatly affected their writing about the East, the "Other" – applied also in Russia and the Soviet Union, where the study of exotic peoples incorporated into the Russian Empire became a major academic industry and the standpoint of writers greatly affected what they wrote. Russian/Soviet orientalism had a particularly important impact during the creation of new Central Asian republics, and this book explores this influence, providing a rich picture of academic politics, and showing how academic cultural classification cemented political boundaries, often in unhelpful ways. Orientalism – the idea that the standpoint of Western writers on the East greatly affected what they wrote about the East, the "Other" – applied also in Russia and the Soviet Union, where the study of the many exotic peoples incorporated into the Russian Empire, often in quite late imperial times, became a major academic industry, where, as in the West, the standpoint of writers greatly affected what they wrote. Russian/Soviet orientalism had a particularly important impact in Central Asia, where in early Soviet times new republics, later states, were created, often based on the distorted perceptions of scholars in St Petersburg and Moscow, and often cutting across previously existing political and cultural boundaries. The book explores how the Soviet orientalism academic industry influenced the creation of Central Asian nations. It discusses the content of oriental sources and discourses, considers the differences between scholars working in St Petersburg and Moscow and those working more locally in Central Asia, providing a rich picture of academic politics, and shows how academic cultural classification cemented political boundaries, often in unhelpful ways. |
Imprint Name: | Routledge |
Publisher Name: | Taylor & Francis Inc |
Country of Publication: | GB |
Publishing Date: | 2017-10-13 |