Search

Abstract: In this paper the author discusses Boris Akuninʼs novel Altyn-tolobas. The two plot lines in the novel (the seventeenth-century journey of Kornelius von Dorn and the journey to the “new Russia” by his descendant) are shown to run parallel, as they both appear to involve the transfer from “civilized” European cultural space to “uncivilized” Russia. However, it is demonstrated that this simple opposition of “Russia” and “The West” is much more ambiguous and complicated than it might seem at first glance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]