Andreas Renner

The Transfer of Medical Charlatanism to Eighteenth-Century Russia

This article examines one case study of medical charlatanism from eighteenth-century Russia in its political, social, and ideological dimensions. Quackery is seen as a by-product of “westernization”—the counterpart to European-style medicine institutionalized from above. The legal notion of charlatanism remained irrelevant for the majority of the population, but it was pivotal for the professional identity of physicians. The struggle against charlatanism was a symbolic struggle that confirmed the precedence of official physicians concerning all questions of health and disease. Though the government never meant—and lacked the means—to repress other healers, a binary medical culture was evolving.

Watching foreign neighbours: Russian and Soviet travel writing about Japan in the first half of the twentieth century

Before the 1960s Russian tourism to Japan hardly existed – but travel writing since the 1890s had helped construct Japan as a tourist place. Starting from a semiotic definition of the sight, this article analyses visual markers from Russian travelogues against the background of changing travel practices. As a rule, travel authors defined Japan as an ambivalent country torn between tradition and modernity. This notion proved surprisingly stable, despite dramatically changing political relations between the two nations. Of course, Tsarist and Soviet travelogues differed in content, style and evaluation, but both outlined similar symbols of Japan (like food or rickshaws). These symbols were located off the beaten track of famous attractions and were meant to document an authentic experience of Japan. Thus Russian travel writing challenged traditional clichés of exotic Japan while at the same time introducing new symbols of otherness.