As an Image of the Other: Buryats in Russian Popular Literature of the Twenty First Century

Introduction. Contemporary Russian popular literature shows a trend to depict non-Russian citizens as minor and negative characters, the malign features proper being often somewhat attributed to race and ethnicity. Goals. The study provides an insight into the image of Buryats in Russian popular literature of the twenty first century, since some of the identified narratives can artificially ignite xenophobia in Russian society. Materials and methods. The article examines a variety of literary and research material, published field data collected by S. Zhambalova and N. Igaue, online sources. The employed methods comprise those of historical imagology and theory of stigmatization. Results. The considered detective novel (Taxi for an Angel) by V. Platova depicts four Buryats and one German as ‘othered’ — secondary and negative characters. Body-related portrayals are adversely supplemented with elements of Buryat mythology, religion, and ethnography. As for the work by I. Stogoff, he articulates therein some negative impressions of his stay in Buryatia. And both the literary compositions are abundant in critical accounts of Buddhism, Buddhists, and Ivolginsky Datsan. Discussion. The examined narratives are distinguished by xenophobia towards Buryats and basically contradict the state of the art, Russia’s Constitution, current nationalities policies of the Government, and may threaten interethnic relations. The bulk of Buryats are Russian citizens successfully integrated into global contexts, and the negative public stigmatization of one indigenous people attests to rudiments of the post-Soviet self-stigmatization of Russia are still there. Conclusions. Both the books are products of early twenty-first-century literature characterized by identity crisis — and bear traces of nationalism and ethnocentrism. Images of the Other attributed to Buryats are toll opinion-based, questionable, and falsify the actual present-day interethnic agenda in Russia. Like other indigenous communities, Buryats are civilized members of the contemporary world, while the manifested stigmas may adversely influence intra-nation harmony. Such publications and nation-wide self-stigmatization in Russian popular literature are definitely inadmissible.

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