Orientalism in the work of V.I. Dahl

Abstract

Vladimir Ivanovich Dahl is known as a lexicographer, military doctor, ethnographer, folklorist and writer. In the context of Russian-Oriental literary ties, the work of V.I. Dahl attracts the attention of researchers by oriental motives, which are known to a narrow circle of researchers and readers. And therefore, the purpose of the article is to give an idea of manifesting the orientalism specifics in V.I. Dahl works. Pictures of the Orient history are presented in V.I. Dahl works, acquainting Russian reader with Tatars, Bashkirs and Kazakhs folklore and ethnography. These oriental works can be loosely divided into following groups: scientific works, oriental parables, oriental stories, and works about historical figures. The first group includes works of an ethnographic nature. Russian reader was enriched with scientific information, information on the Oriental people’s life through the eyes of a Russian prisoner or from the words of Asia people. Another group includes oriental parables. Analysis of V.I. Dahl works from the cycle “Oriental parables and fairy tales” allowed to refer the parables “Soleiman and the owl”, “Soleiman and the crow”, “Caliph painter” to the moralizing ones and the parables “Gallas – teacher and student”, “Padishah’s dream”, “The Thief and the Concealer”, “Sheikh Najmuddin” to the religious. From a wide range of V.I. Dahl works on oriental motives the literary criticism studied works related to the genre of oriental stories, for instance “Sheep”, “The Tale of Princess Milonega...”. Oriental material associated with historical figures – “The Life of Dzhingizkhan” (1843), “The Story of Aksak-Timur” (1838) is based on the life and activities of a historical person. Such works are based on documentary works (contemporaries of the described one) or on the oriental folk tales and legends. The basis of the works is historical events, interspersed with “fabulous legends” and decorated with “extravagance”.

The reason for Dahl’s appeal to oriental themes is banally simple: it is impermissible not to know and it is shameful to neglect the literature of the Asian peoples of the Russian Empire.