The image of the Other as a reflection of cultural identity (a case study of Russian postmodern prose and dramaturgy)
The image of the Other as a reflection of cultural identity (a case study of Russian postmodern prose and dramaturgy)

Summary/Abstract: This article examines the strategies for creation of the images of the Other and the One-of-Us asexemplified in postmodern prose and dramaturgy (Evgenii Grishkovets’ drama Zapiski russkogoputeshestvennika [Notes of a Russian traveler], 2011; Maria Arbatova’s dramatic traveloguePo doroge k sebe [Eng. trans. On the Road to Ourselves, 1998], [1992] 1999; Vladimir Tuchkov’shypertext novel “Russkii I Tszin” [Russian I Ching], 2009; Valerii Kislov’s comical treatise “Kratkiikurs u-vei” [A short course on wu wei], 2009). The close attention to the images of the East andthe West and emphasis placed on similarities and differences with the Russian worldview is drivenby the transitional character of Russian culture and its search for identity. The dominant strategyemerges in reviewing the outdated images of the Other and the One-of-Us. By creating theseimages, the authors employ a range of strategies: demythologization/mythologization, inversion,and apophatics. The common intention of the works lies in promoting cultural dialogue.

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