Vladimir Klavdiyevich Arsenyev’s Literary Framework and its Orientalist Implications: Study on Travelogue in the Russian Far East from a Postcolonial Perspective

Abstract

The present thesis seeks to undertake an extensive literary analysis of the multifaceted personality of Vladimir Arsenyev (1872–1930), an explorer, ethnographer, and writer of the Russian Far East. This study includes a discussion of his biographical background to better comprehend the writer's moral upbringing and literary style and engages in an analysis of his most notable works, such as Across the Ussuri Krai and Dersu Uzala, from travel diaries to travelogues, probing into the East-West dichotomy, and the juxtaposition between civilization and nature in his writing. Furthermore, this work employs the theoretical approaches of Orientalism and Postcoloniality to explore the author's relationship with different ethnic groups in the Far East. By categorizing Arsenyev's literature as a colonial travel genre, this thesis offers valuable insights for further research on the literary depiction of the bond between colonizers and the colonized in the Russian Far East.