ANTI-COLONIAL MOTIFS IN SOFIIA YABLONSKA’S TRAVELOGUES

Abstract

The study aims to characterize the anti-colonial focus of S. Yablonska’s travelogues included in the book “The Charm of Morocco. From the Country of Rice and Opium. Far Horizons” and identify the specificity of the author’s visualization of the hierarchal relationships between the East and the West. The Ukrainian traveler’s works, including essays, short stories, and epistolary, accumulate a diverse experience of intercultural communication gained in the course of her visiting Asia, Africa, and New Zealand. The scientific community’s interest in S. Yablonska’s travelogues is continuously increasing, and the multifaceted research into the writer’s works underscores its powerful interpretative potential.The methodological basis of the study comprises the books of the founder of postcolonial theory, E. Said, “Orientalism” and “Culture and Imperialism”, whose author traces the historical origins of colonialism and imperialism and clarifies their preconditions and consequences. The relevance of the research topic can be explained, on the one hand, by the lack of publications about the critical vision of the colonial policies of Western countries towards the peoples of the East in S. Yablonska’s books, and, on the other hand, by the need to draw analogies between the colonizing intentions of Europe in the early 20th century and the modern imperialistic threats, associated with the ongoing Russian– Ukrainian war. The analysis of the travelogues included in the book «The Charm of Morocco. From the Country of Rice and Opium. Far Horizons» indicates the distinct anti-colonial pathos of the author, who strongly opposes and condemns the ideas about the superiority of European civilization imposed by the western world and its right to interfere in the lives of the “inferior” peoples of the East. The critical vision of the colonizing French and British policies towards the countries of the Far East and Africa, proposed by S. Yablonska, emphasizes the ability to go beyond the boundaries of her “Self”, which allows for treating the “Other” as not alien or hostile. The author is always on the side of colonized peoples and associates herself with them more than Europeans. The writer’s travelogues reveal the continuity of imperialist traditions aimed at conquering the modern Ukraine and encourage researchers to model the scenarios of cultural resistance. Interpreting the opposition “Self–Other” in the context of the intercultural dialogue, visualized in S. Yablonska’s travelogues, may be a prospect for further research.