Motives of cultural colonialism in foreign tourist guidebooks of Belarus
This article is devoted to the study of the specifics of the representation of Belarus and Belarus, recreated by foreign guides. The author considers foreign tourist guides to Belarus, published in 1994-2014, from the point of view of postcolonial theory and describes the ideological attitudes of colonial discourse, according to which Belarus is a passive object that is characterized by lack of development (backwardness), permanent dependence and victimhood. Such a representation strategy fits into the scheme of colonial discourse, the object of which is the Other, presented in the categories of local, ethnographic, backward (non-historical), non-independent, static. At the same time, it would seem that positive and innocent images strengthen ideological asymmetry and record the colonial image of the local population as primitive and submissive people. The representation of local residents in tourist texts as obedient and harmless romanticizes the image of a fearless and slightly naive savage, which is part of colonial discourse. Such a strategy of representation of Belarus and Belarusians is connected with the motives of cultural colonialism. The article describes the techniques by which these motifs are revealed: verb in a passive voice, multiple enumeration of words and expressions with negative connotations, use of various types of artistic trail, reception of comic. The revealed features allow us to consider foreign guides to Belarus, with the exception of the guide “Minsk: A Historical Guide and Brief Administrative, Professional and Commercial Directory”, as texts that reproduce ideological colonial asymmetry due to the presence of power relations between the West and Belarus, Russia and Belarus, and justifying the need for the latter relationship of domination-subordination.