Ingushetia’s Vernacular Landscape and the Colonial Encounter in Idris Bazorkin’s Iz T’my Vekov (1968)

Abstract

This article analyses the role of landscape in Ingush writer Idris Bazorkin’s historical novel From the Darkness of Ages (1968). It aims to show how the novel criticises both 19th-century Russian imperial colonialism and intra-ethnic feuds in the region by concentrating on the way in which the landscape is altered by these conflicts rather than fully relying on anthropocentrism as do most Soviet historical works. In order to better grasp the transformation process of the landscape, this article chiefly employs the dichotomy established by Nixon between vernacular and official landscapes. Complementary theoretical frameworks, such as the notion of affective and disturbed landscapes as well as de Certeau’s place-space dichotomy, also prove useful for the analysis.