November 30-December 1, 2012 at St. John's College The international conference " From Russian Orientalism to Soviet Iranian Studies. The Iranian-speaking World and its History: A View from Russia", organized by the Oxford Oriental Institute. The theme of the conference shows the great importance that foreign scientists attach to the contribution of Russian and Soviet researchers to Iranian studies. It was attended by representatives of the scientific world from Great Britain, Russia, Uzbekistan, Austria, the USA, and the Netherlands. The goal of the organizers was to understand how the theory of Edward Said, the author of the famous book "Orientalism" (New York, 1978), who changed the meaning and gave a negative meaning to this word, fits Russian Oriental studies. Can this theory be applied to Soviet Oriental studies? In terms of its content, E. Said's work is topical for Western Europe and the USA. It deals with the contribution of Western, mainly Anglo-American and French, orientalism to the establishment of the colonial rule of the West over the Middle East and other regions of the "third world". He was completely unaware of the Russian texture, which is why in all editions of the book the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union are mentioned only briefly, mostly as an object of American or European politics, and sometimes as an image of the Other comparable to the orientalized East. None of the Russian and Soviet Orientalists appear in it. E. Said examines in detail the role of European fiction of the XVIII-XX centuries in the spread of Orientalist stereotypes, but only Leo Tolstoy is mentioned in passing from the Russian classics. Neither Lermontov nor early Pushkin, in whose works Oriental exoticism and the conquest of the Muslim East by the Russians occupied a large place, found a place in his book. Another important point is that Russia has never been a colonial power. All this means that orientalism is not relevant for Russia. The conference was opened by the ... Читать далее