The Intellectual Acquisition of the Caucasus in the Paradigm of the Orientalist Narrative in Russian Mass Media of 1820–1840

Abstract

The paper focuses on the study of Orientalist discourse in narrative, which determined the logic and meaning of compiling military-political and ethno-cultural descriptions of the Caucasus and its inhabitants. The sources of the analysis were the publications in central and regional periodicals of the first half of the 19th c. They provided readers with not only knowledge about their region, but also conveyed clear political and cultural guidelines, legitimized and strengthened the existing relationships both within regional communities and with the central imperial administration. The authors were united by the use of a number of postulates, terms and methodological approaches developed in European colonial practice of the 18th–19th c. in descriptions of Oriental cultures.