The Image of the Arab East in the Travel Literature of the Silver Age

Abstract

The Silver Age of Russian culture as a specific image of the world outlook marks rising tide of interest in East culture. That period was dominated by increasing the numerous travels to the Arab World and, as a result, ushered in creating a large body of travel literature. The important role in image-building of the Arab East culture played such countries of the African Continent as Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Egypt and Abyssinia. Demystifying the subject of weird Africa turned it to a “land for travelers” thus African issues heavily entered in Russian research and art space. If the interests of travelling scientists were focused on imperial policy of Russia, then the art world, full of mysticism and philosophy, discovered in the Arab World “wealth of knowledge” and returned to primitiveness and purity of archaic cultures. In this article, we represent Andrey Bely as one of the most famous Silver Age Symbolists. His journey to the East (Tunisia, Egypt) revealed not only oriental trend of Era, symbolic vision of eastern countries, but also reflected the writer’s philosophical and creative thoughts, the start of new poetics.