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Travelogue and its role in the presentation of the Crimea by German travelers in the XVIII-XIX centuries.

Krygin Roman Vyacheslavovich

ORCID: 0000-0002-9840-8498

Lecturer, Department of German Philology, State Educational Institution of the Republic of Kazakhstan "Crimean Engineering and Pedagogical University named after Fevzi Yakubov"

295014, Russia, respublika Krym, g. Simferopol', ul. Turistov, 24, of. ul. Turistov, 24

romakrygin@gmail.com
Other publications by this author
 

 
Dolgopolova Liliya Anatol'evna

Doctor of Philology

Professor, Department of German Philology, GBOUVO RK "Crimean Engineering and Pedagogical University named after Fevzi Yakubov"

295015, Russia, Republic of Crimea, Simferopol, lane. Educational, 8

lilian2000@mail.ru

DOI:

10.25136/2409-8698.2022.9.37720

EDN:

QBHETI

Received:

20-03-2022


Published:

07-10-2022


Abstract: The work is devoted to clarifying the status of travelogue as a special literary genre. The features of German-language travelogues about the Crimea of the XVIII-XIX centuries are considered. The purpose of the work is to clarify the status of travelogue as a special literary genre combining the features of prose, epistolary genre, adventure. The relevance of the work is due both to the increased interest in travelogue as a genre and to the linguoculturological aspect of studying foreign-language travelogues. The methodological basis was the works of E.R. Ponomarev, E.F. Shafranskaya, A. Pasquali, G. Tverdoty. The article clarifies the concept of "travelogue" based on the critical analysis of theoretical sources. The classification of travelogue by genre and purpose of writing is presented. The article describes the history of the appearance of the term "travelogue" and its consolidation in the scientific literature. The practical research was based on the material of a German-language travelogue about the Crimea of the XVIII-XIX centuries, the period of the development of the peninsula of the Russian Empire. Special attention is paid to genre and target types of travelogue.     The choice of the topic is determined, on the one hand, by the little-studied subject, on the other hand, by the increased interest in the representation of Crimea as a tourist and multicultural object in various linguistic cultures.The objectives of our work are to clarify the concept of "travelogue" and its types, as well as thematic analysis of early German-language travelogues about the peninsula. The constant desire of mankind to travel, to explore unexplored or little–explored territories and, as a result, the desire to capture what they saw and tell others about it contributed to the emergence of a new genre - travelogue. In modern science, travelogue is considered from the standpoint of a meta-genre approach and does not have an unambiguous definition. The main purpose of the travelogue is to create an image of the purpose of the trip. This fact determines the structure of the image, which includes objective, subjective and emotional content. The scientific literature notes the heterogeneity of the travelogue, which makes it possible to distinguish it and classify it according to genre features, goals and functions.


Keywords:

travelogue, educational text, travel notes, german language, Crimea, voyage, geographical novel, adventure story, a science fiction novel, genre

This article is automatically translated.

IntroductionWhen getting acquainted with new regions, they often resort to the stories of those who have already been there and are ready to share their impressions.

Today, to "discover" new lands for themselves, they turn to bloggers or search for information on the Internet. Before the advent of electronic texts, the only sources of information were travel notes or diaries of those who specifically went on a trip in order to describe poorly studied or closed territories for the majority. Such records were later published in magazines or in separate editions. The popularity of such literature was explained by the fact that in them the observed and described objects and people were shown in a "live", informal form. The increased interest in such publications and their constant growth, associated with an increase in the possibility of travel, led to the emergence of a new genre – travelogue. Consideration of the concept of "travelogue" requires preliminary clarifications of its use and interpretation in modern research.

It is assumed that the concept of "travelogue" appeared in Russian philology about 15 years ago as a result of borrowing from the English language. At the same time, it is noted that for the first time this term was used in his notes by the American traveler Burton Holmes in 1903. He combined the two bases of English and Greek origin "travel" + "-logue". It should be noted that in Russian literature, such concepts as "travel notes", "travel notes", "travel diaries" or "travel essays", which do not have a clear differentiation, have been used and continue to be used to designate such a genre.

The purpose of this article is to clarify the status of travelogue as a literary genre and to establish its significance in the works of the first German travelers who visited the Crimea.

The relevance of this work is explained by the fact that modern developments of linguistic and cultural studies help to interpret the facts reflected in travelogues in a new way.

The object of the study is travelogue as a special literary genre, and the subject is the role of descriptions of German–speaking travelers of the XVIII-XIX centuries when they visit the Crimea.

The choice of the topic is determined, on the one hand, by the little-studied subject, on the other hand, by the increased interest in the representation of Crimea as a tourist and multicultural object in various linguistic cultures.

The objectives of our work are to clarify the concept of "travelogue" and its types, as well as a thematic analysis of early German-language travelogues about the peninsula.

Research methodologyThe theoretical basis for the analysis of the term "travelogue" was primarily the work of domestic philologists E.R. Ponomarev, A. A. Maiga, E.F. Shafranskaya, etc.; foreign scientists A. Pasquali, G. Tverdota.

The practical part of the study is based on the data of notes and diaries of German travelers, obtained by sampling from the collections of libraries in the Crimea, as well as electronic libraries eLibrary.RU, Doe.

Research and resultsFor the practical analysis of the data about the Crimea compiled by German travelers, it is important to define the concept of "travelogue" and establish its types.

The complexity of the definition of travelogue is noted by researchers A.A. Maiga and E.R. Ponomarev with reference to the fact that "the problem of defining this term is related to its novelty for Russian science" [6 p.10-14].

Many literary critics, such as A. Sorochan, consider a travelogue as a narrative or travel report, "supplemented by the chronology of the trip, as well as subjective experiences, impressions of the author that were caused by what they saw or experienced" [2 p. 20-26].

In turn, E.R. Ponomarev, in an interview with Travelogues as a genre, notes that "travel on the one hand suggests thoughts about the trip that a person makes, and the travelogue immediately points us to a written record of what happened on this trip. That is, travel, as it has been used for a long time, means both a trip and a book about the trip. And the travelogue, in turn, is exclusively a book about the trip, and in this respect it is already more convenient than the word "journey" [6, p. 10-14].

In French literary studies, this genre is interpreted as "r?cit de voyage" or "carnet de voyage", i.e. "travel notes, travel diaries" and is defined as "a story about an adventure, a period of life in some space" [10, p. 98], thereby recognizing the fact that a travelogue can It can be both a story about the expedition of the discoverers and about the personal experience of the traveler.

If we proceed from the fact that travel, as a rule, performs a narrative and descriptive function, since the traveler not only tells about the adventures he has experienced, but also describes the phenomena and objects that he observes, then it should be recognized to some extent a narrowed interpretation of travelogue as travel literature in French.

Since travelogue as a genre reveals heterogeneity of features, the question of its types has been raised in the linguistic literature. Thus, the French philologist A. Pasquali distinguishes "geographical novel", "adventure story", "science fiction story" and texts in which adventures and exoticism are present. He considers these views as "r?cit de voyage", i.e. travelogue. At the same time, he clarifies that we are talking about "a genre consisting of other genres, as well as a genre that has made a significant contribution to the genesis of the modern novel, and to the development of the autobiographical novel." A. Pasquali, thus, considers travelogue as "a crossroads and a montage of genres of discursive types" [12, p.111].

To the features of the travelogue named by A. Pasquali, one can also add that it "does not imply a specific type or genre of narrative, since it is a combination of all types of narrative and discourses, as a result of which this term can be defined as a collective literary form" [1, p. 11]. This makes it possible to interpret "travelogue" as a syncretic genre that gives the author scope for creativity.

A similar statement is found in the work of the Hungarian researcher G. Tverdota, "travelogues belong, first of all, to the so-called "epic" literature, that is, a long multi-genre narrative: they tell about the adventures of movement, alternating with impressions and reflections" [3, p. 60].

In addition, the syncretism of the travelogue and its marginality, which give rise to many genre interpretations of travelogue texts, was also highlighted in speeches at the conference organized by E.F. Shafranskaya "Travelogues: reception and interpretation". It was also noted there that this fact caused confusion around the term "travelogue" [2, pp. 20-26].

As a result of the discussions, a meta-genre approach to the study of the term "travelogue" was proposed as one of the solutions to this problem.

As for the issue of travelogue classification, along with genre features, functional indicators are also distinguished by the criteria for their differentiation. Most researchers tend to believe that the leading criterion is the purpose of travelogue,.

In the work of the Russian philologist N.V. Krivtsov, we find the following classification of travelogue according to the purposes of the message:

· educational texts (a story about the country, the people, that is, country studies);

· entertainment;

· motivational (written in order to interest the reader to go to a particular region, country, city, etc.);

· advertising (description in positive tones of the resort, hotel or restaurant);

· analytical (statistics, popularity analysis, causal relationships) [7 p. 882].

We note that today the travelogue is of great scientific interest to a wide range of researchers – literary critics, linguists, historians, geographers, culturologists and local historians. To date, travelogue is intensively studied both in diachrony and synchrony. Thus , the works of literary critics M. Debrenn and A. Lavrentiev are devoted to the history of French - speaking diaries of the Russian aristocracy of the XIX century .  According to their observations, travelogue diaries of that time provide the most interesting material for studying bilingualism and the interaction of Russian and French culture, since the authors of the diaries constantly switch from one language to another when describing trips, events and experiences [3, pp. 168-171].

Despite the fact that travelogue became the object of linguistic research not so long ago, which was the reason to consider travelogue a genre of modernity, its origin began much earlier than it can be assumed. Moreover, based on the work of E.B. Martynyuk, travelogue can be considered one of the oldest literary genres. Throughout the development of society, the travelogue was constantly undergoing changes, changing the ways of narration, "it expanded, modified, changing its goals" [11].

There is no doubt among researchers that one of the main features of the travelogue is its impact on readers and the formation of a certain image of the described world and ideas about other cultures. This is the reason for the high interest of society in travelogue for centuries, which we can find on the example of the representation of the Crimea in the works of German travelers [6, pp. 10-14].

The huge interest of foreigners in the peninsula, long considered closed to any traveler, was caused by its first annexation to Russia in 1783. The Russian government organized a large-scale study of the natural resources of the entire peninsula. Western European politicians and scientists, most of whom were residents of Germany, collected information about Crimea in connection with changes in the international balance of power, trying to predict new trends in the economic exploitation of the Black Sea basin [5, 246 c].

In the period from the end of the XVIII to the beginning of the XIX centuries, dozens of travelogues were written. According to the target characteristic, they are mainly educational texts, since they contain a description of nature, the local population, its traditions, clothing, food. Sometimes advertising elements could be found in such records. Thus, Sh. de Lin (1787) created the image of an ideal land, where the motifs of Arabic fairy tales and ancient Greek myths came together [4, pp. 35-40].

In the works of German travelers, much attention was paid to the description of local residents: their lifestyle, clothing, crafts were described in detail. Often such a description was negative in nature; the inhabitants of the peninsula seemed lazy [8, pp. 466-467; pp. 265-266], while among Western Europeans there was a belief that the inhabitants of "paradise" should be "noble savages". In addition, laziness was attributed to the lack of civilization of the peoples (more precisely, their dissimilarity with Western European ideals). Similar qualities were also attributed, for example, to Ukrainians and Russians [1, p.78-181; 8, p. 118].

European travelers also could not understand the reluctance of the Crimean Tatars to accept advanced agricultural technologies and create a market-oriented capitalist economy.

The German-language travelogues we are considering are characterized by genre differences. Among them there are travel diaries [5], travel notes [4] or memories of a trip to the Crimea [8].

It should also be mentioned that the Crimean travel notes were often accompanied by drawings, engravings and lithographs illustrating the publications. Often, professional artists traveled with travelers to the Crimea, who compiled entire albums of illustrations.

One of the most famous albums is the album by H. G. Geisler, created during Palace's journey. This album presents the cities and small settlements of the Crimea, and also shows the multicultural picture of the peninsula [4, pp.48-50].

We see the most complete picture of the peninsula in the work of the famous German biologist and traveler Karl Koch, who visited the Crimea in the middle of the XIX century. His travel notes are of great interest to a wide range of researchers. Karl Koch describes in detail the flora and fauna of the peninsula, creates a portrait of local residents – Crimean Tatars, Armenians, Russians, Jews and German colonists. In his notes we find a large number of geographical and historical realities, as well as personalities helping to recreate the historical appearance of the Crimea in the first half of the XIX century. His travel notes can be considered as an analytical travelogue: they give a detailed analysis of existing plant species, rocks; features of the language, clothing and nutrition of the local population.

ConclusionsThe constant desire of mankind to travel, to explore unexplored or little–explored territories and, as a result, the desire to capture what they saw and tell others about it contributed to the emergence of a new genre - travelogue.

In modern science, travelogue is considered from the standpoint of a meta-genre approach and does not have an unambiguous definition. The main purpose of the travelogue is to create an image of the purpose of the trip. This fact determines the structure of the image, which includes objective, subjective and emotional content. The scientific literature notes the heterogeneity of the travelogue, which makes it possible to distinguish it and classify it according to genre features, goals and functions.

Travel notes – the continuous connection of time and space in a literary work (continuum) includes geographical, psychological and social space. They contribute to the preservation and study of geographical, ethnographic and historical realities. Most often, such trips are not only personal, but also social in nature.

Travel notes and memoirs of Western European travelers, and in particular German travelers who visited the Crimea in the late XVIII – early XIX centuries, represent an extremely interesting and important corpus of historical sources. At the same time, most of the travel notes and diaries practically remain unexplored and require full-fledged scientific research. The Crimean travelogue of this period contains a wide variety of information about the peoples of the Crimea, its nature and administrative structure. In addition, the study of the travelogue helps to recreate the image of the author and highlight those features of the peninsula that contributed to the formation of a stable image of the Crimea and its inhabitants among representatives of Western European culture.

It should also be noted that a comparative analysis of Crimean travelogues will help to establish how the idea of Crimea has changed and is changing, and to identify those points that Western European travelers primarily pay attention to in different periods.

References
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5. Petr Simon Palas. Nablyudeniya, sdelannye vo vremya puteshestviya po yuzhnym namestnichestvam Russkogo gosudarstva v 1793-1794 godah Moskva: Nauka, 1999.-246 p.
6. Ponomarev E.R. Tipologiya sovetskogo puteshestviya: Puteshestvie na zapad v russkoj literature 1920-1930 gg. Spb, 2013, P. 10-14.
7. Doiron N. «L'art de voyager. Pour une définition du récit de voyage à l'époque classique». – Dans Poétique. – ¹ 73. (In French). 1988. 18 p.
8. Koch K. Die Krim und Odessa Reise-Erinnerungen aus dem Tagebuche des Karl Koch. – Leipzig : Druck von Breitkopf und Härtel, 1867. – 224 S.
9. Lavrentiev, A., Debrenne M. Korpus russkih frankoyazychnyh dnevnikov XIX v. kak material dlya issledovaniya vzaimodejstviya yazykov i kul'tur, Saint-Pétersbourg, Russia (In English). 2017, 73 p.
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The peer-reviewed article "Travelogue and its role in the presentation of Crimea by German travelers in the XVIII-XIX centuries", proposed for publication in the journal "Litera", is undoubtedly relevant due to the fact that modern developments in linguistic and cultural studies help to interpret the facts reflected in travelogues in a new way. Undoubtedly, changes in society, the popularity of social networks, blogs and vlogs, as well as TV shows that talk about travel, and the availability of trips have changed the public consciousness today. However, the genre of travelogues about new lands was known several centuries ago. So, the author focuses his attention on travelogues within the framework of this article. In addition, localization is of interest - the author focuses on the Crimean peninsula and its descriptions in the works of German-speaking travelers. The purpose of this article is to clarify the status of travelogue as a literary genre and to establish its significance in the works of the first German travelers who visited Crimea, which for several years. It has been an object of attraction for centuries and does not lose its relevance today due to its unique nature. The practical part of the study is based on data from notes and diaries of German travelers, obtained by sampling from the collections of libraries in Crimea, as well as electronic libraries eLibrary.RU, Doe. However, it should be noted that the author does not provide accurate data on the corpus taken for the study. The presented article is made in line with modern scientific approaches, the work consists of an introduction containing the formulation of the problem, the main part, as well as a research one with an empirical base. In the article, the author pays attention to the theoretical side of the issue, citing the opinions of various domestic linguists and foreign researchers regarding the interpretation of the term "travelogue" and its types. The article presents a research methodology, the choice of which is quite adequate to the goals and objectives of the work. Such works using various methodologies are relevant and, taking into account the actual material, allow us to replicate the principle of research proposed by the author on other linguistic material. It should be noted that the author reasonably approached the theoretical basis of the study and presented convincing data. All theoretical postulates are confirmed by references to authoritative sources and are reflected in the conclusions of the study. The conclusions are justified and reflect the problems stated in the article. The bibliography of the article contains 13 sources in Russian and foreign languages, which include scientific articles, dictionaries, abstracts of reports at conferences. The appeal to foreign works makes it possible to include this work in the global scientific paradigm. However, the author did not turn to fundamental works such as monographs, PhD and doctoral dissertations, which were defended sufficiently on related research topics. The article will undoubtedly be useful to a wide range of people: philologists, literary critics, undergraduates and graduate students of specialized universities. In general, it should be noted that the article is written in a simple language understandable to the reader, well structured, typos, spelling and syntactic errors, inaccuracies were not found. The overall impression of acquaintance with the work is positive, the article can be recommended for publication in a scientific journal from the list of the Higher Attestation Commission.