Anti-Orientalist Moments in Edmund O’Donovan’s Travelogue: The Merv Oasis
AbstractViewed as the defender and legitimizer of Western Imperialism, travel writing has been the object of paranoid reading and examination by postcolonial critics like Edward Said. When the Orient becomes Western travelers’ destinations, their travel accounts, Said argues, envision their encounte...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Arad Institute of Higher Education
2024-09-01
|
| Series: | International Journal of Practical and Pedagogical Issues in English Education |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.ijpie.org/article_205735_343c3671c9042ff845cfeabe5a33feff.pdf |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1850100286842994688 |
|---|---|
| author | Ahmad Gholi Mohammad Marandi |
| author_facet | Ahmad Gholi Mohammad Marandi |
| author_sort | Ahmad Gholi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | AbstractViewed as the defender and legitimizer of Western Imperialism, travel writing has been the object of paranoid reading and examination by postcolonial critics like Edward Said. When the Orient becomes Western travelers’ destinations, their travel accounts, Said argues, envision their encountered spaces as the embodiment of a dysfunctional world serving as a perfect foil for the Occident's masculinity, vitality, stability, rationality, and normality. In doing so, they, according to Edward Said, perpetuate and reinforce the fictitious pictures of the Orient. Though Said’s critical analysis is persuasive and incontestable, his perspective does not cast light on the moments that some Western travelers eschew the cultural trap of an Oreintalistic frame of thinking. Accordingly, the present study seeks to illustrate this textual divergence from Orientalism in Edmund O’Donovan’s The Merv Oasis relating his journey to and captivity in Merv when Turkmen in their anti-colonial resistance against the Tsarist regime in the second half of the nineteenth century. The study argues that O’Donovan illustrates anti-Orientalist moments in his travel account in three ways, firstly, when he becomes his travelees’ object of incessant gaze rather than the sole gazer, secondly, when he depicts Tsarist travelers as thieves rather than local people, and thirdly when he sketches a humane picture of his travelees by highlighting their tolerance towards Jews, and finally, when he steers clear of bolstering the myth of Oriental indolence. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-826c1dac4e9c4229bf90501786ff8c28 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2980-9533 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-09-01 |
| publisher | Arad Institute of Higher Education |
| record_format | Article |
| series | International Journal of Practical and Pedagogical Issues in English Education |
| spelling | doaj-art-826c1dac4e9c4229bf90501786ff8c282025-08-20T02:40:20ZengArad Institute of Higher EducationInternational Journal of Practical and Pedagogical Issues in English Education2980-95332024-09-012310211410.22034/ijpie.2024.473865.1039205735Anti-Orientalist Moments in Edmund O’Donovan’s Travelogue: The Merv OasisAhmad Gholi0Mohammad Marandi1Department of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Humanities and Physical Education, Gonbad Kavous University.Tehran UniversityAbstractViewed as the defender and legitimizer of Western Imperialism, travel writing has been the object of paranoid reading and examination by postcolonial critics like Edward Said. When the Orient becomes Western travelers’ destinations, their travel accounts, Said argues, envision their encountered spaces as the embodiment of a dysfunctional world serving as a perfect foil for the Occident's masculinity, vitality, stability, rationality, and normality. In doing so, they, according to Edward Said, perpetuate and reinforce the fictitious pictures of the Orient. Though Said’s critical analysis is persuasive and incontestable, his perspective does not cast light on the moments that some Western travelers eschew the cultural trap of an Oreintalistic frame of thinking. Accordingly, the present study seeks to illustrate this textual divergence from Orientalism in Edmund O’Donovan’s The Merv Oasis relating his journey to and captivity in Merv when Turkmen in their anti-colonial resistance against the Tsarist regime in the second half of the nineteenth century. The study argues that O’Donovan illustrates anti-Orientalist moments in his travel account in three ways, firstly, when he becomes his travelees’ object of incessant gaze rather than the sole gazer, secondly, when he depicts Tsarist travelers as thieves rather than local people, and thirdly when he sketches a humane picture of his travelees by highlighting their tolerance towards Jews, and finally, when he steers clear of bolstering the myth of Oriental indolence.https://www.ijpie.org/article_205735_343c3671c9042ff845cfeabe5a33feff.pdfgazeindolencenon-orientalist momentstolerancetravel writing |
| spellingShingle | Ahmad Gholi Mohammad Marandi Anti-Orientalist Moments in Edmund O’Donovan’s Travelogue: The Merv Oasis International Journal of Practical and Pedagogical Issues in English Education gaze indolence non-orientalist moments tolerance travel writing |
| title | Anti-Orientalist Moments in Edmund O’Donovan’s Travelogue: The Merv Oasis |
| title_full | Anti-Orientalist Moments in Edmund O’Donovan’s Travelogue: The Merv Oasis |
| title_fullStr | Anti-Orientalist Moments in Edmund O’Donovan’s Travelogue: The Merv Oasis |
| title_full_unstemmed | Anti-Orientalist Moments in Edmund O’Donovan’s Travelogue: The Merv Oasis |
| title_short | Anti-Orientalist Moments in Edmund O’Donovan’s Travelogue: The Merv Oasis |
| title_sort | anti orientalist moments in edmund o donovan s travelogue the merv oasis |
| topic | gaze indolence non-orientalist moments tolerance travel writing |
| url | https://www.ijpie.org/article_205735_343c3671c9042ff845cfeabe5a33feff.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ahmadgholi antiorientalistmomentsinedmundodonovanstraveloguethemervoasis AT mohammadmarandi antiorientalistmomentsinedmundodonovanstraveloguethemervoasis |