The Alien Republic: Narratives of Deterritorialization in Imaginations of Turkmenistan from the Late Nineteenth to the Late Twentieth Century
Turkmenistan holds a special place in the Russian and Soviet imagination. At the turn of the last century, especially, Turkmenistan appeared as an imaginative object shaped by both nineteenth century tropes and images of the steppe and by the modernist's revaluation and displacement of these ve...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/slr.2022.76 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0037677922000766 |
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crcambridgeupr:10.1017/slr.2022.76 2023-05-15T15:09:10+02:00 The Alien Republic: Narratives of Deterritorialization in Imaginations of Turkmenistan from the Late Nineteenth to the Late Twentieth Century Günther, Clemens 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/slr.2022.76 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0037677922000766 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CC-BY Slavic Review volume 81, issue 1, page 55-76 ISSN 0037-6779 2325-7784 Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) Cultural Studies journal-article 2022 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/slr.2022.76 2022-08-23T16:59:16Z Turkmenistan holds a special place in the Russian and Soviet imagination. At the turn of the last century, especially, Turkmenistan appeared as an imaginative object shaped by both nineteenth century tropes and images of the steppe and by the modernist's revaluation and displacement of these very tropes. This article traces this intellectual history from the late nineteenth century to the fall of the Soviet empire and elicits three main narratives through which the republic was rendered alien: Turkmenistan as a “republic from outer space,” as an “arctic desert,” and as a republic whose southern border is constantly threatened by various forces that can never be successfully defeated. Based on a wide body of literary works and films, mainly from the 1920s–30s and the late Soviet period, the paper points to intertextual references that betray both shifts and continuities within these narratives. The analysis shows how notions of political integration and climatic transformations were constantly countered by alternative imaginary boundaries, contributing to an “imaginative geography” of the republic that shaped the way Turkmenistan was perceived. The development of such an “imaginative geography” of Turkmenistan as an “alien republic” was thereby inextricably linked to its steppe and desert geography, marked by a threefold dialectic between concrete and imaginary geography, a rhetoric of appropriation and of alienation, and between present and mythical time. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Cambridge University Press (via Crossref) Arctic Slavic Review 81 1 55 76 |
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Cambridge University Press (via Crossref) |
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English |
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Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) Cultural Studies |
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Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) Cultural Studies Günther, Clemens The Alien Republic: Narratives of Deterritorialization in Imaginations of Turkmenistan from the Late Nineteenth to the Late Twentieth Century |
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Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) Cultural Studies |
description |
Turkmenistan holds a special place in the Russian and Soviet imagination. At the turn of the last century, especially, Turkmenistan appeared as an imaginative object shaped by both nineteenth century tropes and images of the steppe and by the modernist's revaluation and displacement of these very tropes. This article traces this intellectual history from the late nineteenth century to the fall of the Soviet empire and elicits three main narratives through which the republic was rendered alien: Turkmenistan as a “republic from outer space,” as an “arctic desert,” and as a republic whose southern border is constantly threatened by various forces that can never be successfully defeated. Based on a wide body of literary works and films, mainly from the 1920s–30s and the late Soviet period, the paper points to intertextual references that betray both shifts and continuities within these narratives. The analysis shows how notions of political integration and climatic transformations were constantly countered by alternative imaginary boundaries, contributing to an “imaginative geography” of the republic that shaped the way Turkmenistan was perceived. The development of such an “imaginative geography” of Turkmenistan as an “alien republic” was thereby inextricably linked to its steppe and desert geography, marked by a threefold dialectic between concrete and imaginary geography, a rhetoric of appropriation and of alienation, and between present and mythical time. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Günther, Clemens |
author_facet |
Günther, Clemens |
author_sort |
Günther, Clemens |
title |
The Alien Republic: Narratives of Deterritorialization in Imaginations of Turkmenistan from the Late Nineteenth to the Late Twentieth Century |
title_short |
The Alien Republic: Narratives of Deterritorialization in Imaginations of Turkmenistan from the Late Nineteenth to the Late Twentieth Century |
title_full |
The Alien Republic: Narratives of Deterritorialization in Imaginations of Turkmenistan from the Late Nineteenth to the Late Twentieth Century |
title_fullStr |
The Alien Republic: Narratives of Deterritorialization in Imaginations of Turkmenistan from the Late Nineteenth to the Late Twentieth Century |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Alien Republic: Narratives of Deterritorialization in Imaginations of Turkmenistan from the Late Nineteenth to the Late Twentieth Century |
title_sort |
alien republic: narratives of deterritorialization in imaginations of turkmenistan from the late nineteenth to the late twentieth century |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/slr.2022.76 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0037677922000766 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Slavic Review volume 81, issue 1, page 55-76 ISSN 0037-6779 2325-7784 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/slr.2022.76 |
container_title |
Slavic Review |
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81 |
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1 |
container_start_page |
55 |
op_container_end_page |
76 |
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1766340404234420224 |