TOPOGRAPHY OF THE ALIEN: NATIONAL STEREOTYPES OF GEOGRAPHY TEXTBOOKS AS A BASIS FOR CARICATURED VISUALIZATION OF IDEAS ABOUT SPACE AT THE TURN OF THE 20TH CENTURY
DOI: 10.23951/2312-7899-2021-4-234-255
The article discusses how constructing visual images that reflect cultural stereotypes simultaneously creates a cultural (mental) map. The objective of the paper is to reconstruct the system of visual images in political caricatures of a short period of history of Russian culture (the last decade of the 19th century and the first five years of the 20th century) culminating in fact in the Russo-Japanese war (1904) and the first Russian revolution (1905). Then the ideology of romantic nationalism was at its peak. That period is referred to as imperialism because it was characterized by an active colonial redivision of the world and protectionism. To reveal the main national stereotypes, the article draws on descriptions of the mental characteristics of various countries (peoples) from Russian geography textbooks used for teaching on the eve of the analyzed period. Attracting geography textbooks as a source of national stereotypes for political caricature studies is a new approach, and it leads to unexpected conclusions. The authors of textbooks proceed from the romantic attitude that definitions are essential, integral, which means that the image of any representative is the image of every representative of the population (country). Geography textbooks transmit common national stereotypes about other peoples, which, by teaching, are fixed at the level of everyday consciousness. It allows almost everyone to understand the humor of caricature images. Caricature is a continuation of the cultural or political discourse whose attitudes it translates, so it is caricature visual images that allow the researcher to identify (stereo)typical content in everyday culture (at the level of everyday consciousness), determine the features of the cultural and political discourse of that period, and record any changes in stereotypes. The article shows how the mental map of the world from the geography textbook in which Russia is located in the center is concretized and transformed into an everyday mental map of the world that has stereotypical monsters-Others, easily transformed into enemies. The scientific discourse of that period is easily transformed into a tool of political propaganda. The research develops from the general description of the historical and political context, research attitudes, and the main characteristics of imagological discourse in caricature to the consideration of more specific examples, comparisons of national stereotypes from geography textbooks (Germany, France, Turkey, Japan, and China) with national stereotypes recorded by caricaturists in relation to these countries.
Keywords: geography textbook, mental map, national stereotype, political caricature, imagology, Alien, significant Other
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Issue: 4, 2021
Series of issue: Issue 4
Rubric: ARTICLES
Pages: 234 — 255
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