Kundera (cont.)/Eurasianists

[Alexandra Smith]

Dear Sergey,

Thank you very much for your informative response to my comments  
regards Andrey's views related to Kundera, Russian identity, etc. I've  
meant to say that the emphasis on the pivotal role of Mongols in the  
course of Russian history appears to have some Eurasianist overtones  
or rather evocative of some Eurasianist tenets...
Since you wrote your PhD thesis on Eurasianists,it would be  
interesting to know whether you agree with Halperin's statement  
(expressed in his article on Vernadsky, Slavic Review, 41, vol.3,  
autumn 1982) that "Vernadsky's conception of the role of Mongols in  
the rise of Moscow derived from Karamzin, although it had been  
rejected by Solov'ev and Kliuchevsky" (p.479).
I think that in any discussion of Russian identity in terms of spatial  
symbolism, one shouldn't overlook the fact that the North was often  
seen as a symbol of national particularity. This notion was especially  
well developed in literary texts penned by Russian Romantics. Otto  
Boele discusses this issue very  convincingly in his book "The North  
in Russian Romantic Literature" (Rodopi, Amsterdam, 1996). According  
to this book, in Russian Romantic literature the North replaced the  
East as the symbol of national identity. Russian Symbolists/modernists  
(Gippius, Merezhkovsky, Prishvin, etc.) also were interested in this  
notion and travelled to the North of Russia searching for various  
manifestation of pure Russian spirit there...The  mythologeme related  
to Kitezh was well explored in many works of the modernist period,  
too...
In sum, I think that it's important to bear in mind the  
Northern-Southern cultural paradigm, too, when we talk about Russian  
identity in cultural and literary contexts.

All very best,
Alexandra


========================================
Alexandra Smith (PhD, University of London)
Lecturer in Russian
School of European Languages and Cultures
The University of Edinburgh
David Hume Tower
George Square
Edinburgh EX8 9JX
UK

tel. +44-(0)131-511381
fax: +44- (0) 650-3604
e-mail: Alexandra.Smith at ed.ac.uk

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