Presentations by Streams

This panel considers representations of the Orient and Orientalism in the late-Imperial and early-Soviet periods. We examine three distinct spheres - archaeology, ballet, and museums - in which knowledge about the Orient was constructed, reimagined, and presented through material and visual culture. Roman Osharov will talk about the history of the Turkestan Circle of Amateurs of Archaeology, a learned society in Turkestan, and its role in knowledge production about the Orient in the Russian Empire. Jordan Lian uses choreographic and scenographic analysis of Fokine’s adaptation of The Polovtsian Dances to consider the imaginative license of exoticisation in Diaghilev’s Les Saisons Russes productions. Mollie Arbuthnot considers the role of material objects and strategies of display in early Soviet attempts to redress imperial legacies in Central Asia, taking the Main Central Asian Museum as her case study. We will therefore examine continuities between the Imperial and early Soviet periods, as well as engage critically with the concept of “Orient” and “Orientalism” - what do these mean for our individual case studies, and in their different institutional framings, epistemological traditions, and historical contexts? This panel therefore contributes to the broader debate about the application of Saidian Orientalism to the Russian Imperial / Soviet case.