ИСТИНА

Inspired by recent research that documented a significant discursive presence of Spain in the British Romantic culture (e.g. Romanticism and the Anglo-Hispanic Imaginary 2010, Howarth 2007, Saglia 2000), the paper suggests an attempt of comparative cultural geography that would bring together the images of Spain and Russia in the British culture at the age of transition between Enlightenment and Romanticism. Throughout modern history both Spain and Russia had long been imagined at the periphery of Europe and at the same time experienced dramatic ‘relocations’ between the periphery and the centre, forming a peculiar relation with European modernity. For the British Empire which was ascending to the dominant position Spain and Russia - two empires, the one declining and the other on the rise - provoked a mingle of fascination and revulsion. Certain elements that emerged then as part of a complex attitudes and references system (Edward Said) will be explored in the paper.