Dialogue of Cultures on the Great Silk Road

Abstract

In modern cultural processes in the humanitarian sphere the concept of «border» is redefined, as it does not divide, but acts as a meeting place for one’s own and another’s. In this context, the Great Silk Road, connecting countries, peoples, civilizations, contributed to the development of the alien, the synthesis of different cultural traditions and artistic systems, the inclusion of the achievements of national cultures in the world.

The Central Asian region has been a cultural source of the Renaissance since ancient times. Freedom of thought prevailed in the teachings and works of Khayyam, Al-Farabi, Balasaguni and many outstanding figures of science and culture. In the mentality of the peoples, there is a trace of the great caravan routes and nomads. Maurice Simashko called the Great Silk Road «philosophy of life». The ideas of cultural distance and cultural transfer allowed prose writers and publicists to freely cross the boundaries between languages, cultural systems, traditions, and world civilizations.

Being at the crossroads of cultures, writers were included in the ongoing dialogue of civilizations in the context of the modern sociocultural situation. The aesthetic orientation towards the synthesis of cultural influences and the dialogue of cultural traditions led them to artistic discoveries and the conviction that «starting from antiquity and the early Middle Ages, Roman and steppe, Turkic and Iranian, Arab and Chinese civilizations clashed in conflict on the territory of Central Asia.

At the same time, from a geopolitical point of view, this region has always been the subject of conquest as an “intermediate belt”, “buffer”, “middle” zone that would protect against direct contact» (Chingiz Aitmatov).