Disruption and Affirmation of the Canon: Spanish Sketches and Florence by P. P. Pertsov

The short Italian and Spanish travelogues by P. P. Pertsov are samples of exploring and appropriating alien cultural spaces from within. Invoking the «image» of a country as reflected in the Russian culture, Pertsov tried to transcend the existing stereotypes and come up with his own image of a country and a cultural space as implanted in his own spirituality. Spanish Sketches and Florence resonate with Pertsov’s book Venice that was first published in 1905. Based on the manuscripts, all the stages of the writer’s work on his texts can be reconstructed. His studies of I. P. Muratov and H. Taine’s books on Italy (he translated the latter into Russian) led to the emergence of his own concept of representing the images of the «unknown» people and countries, of an anthropogeopraphy of culture of sorts.