Dixon, John Spencer (1991) Representations of the East in English and French travel writing 1798-1882 : with particular reference to Egypt. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

The aim of the thesis has been to offer a comparative analysis of discourses within
English and French travel writing in the late-eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, in
order to develop a more nuanced understanding of how the East was represented in this
type of literature than that offered by Edward Said in his book Orientalism. The thesis
considers the degree to which the latent racism and imperialism of western attitudes was
universally expressed in this type of writing. While dates have been set for this study,
the main reason for this has been to limit the vast body of archive material potentially
relevant to its theoretical base. On occasion it has been necessary to step outside these
dates in order to examine earlier eighteenth-century work or point out the relevance of
this type of study to more recent western approaches to the East. The thesis shows a
decline in the nineteenth century in popular belief in a fiction of the Orient as an
imagined site of luxury and sensual indulgence, as travel writing countered this image
with reports of real countries and peoples. The place of the aesthetic in French writing
is considered here, as it offers a challenge to the more political perspective offered by
Said. The thesis concludes by suggesting that there were other discourses in travel
literature in this period which lie outside specifically racist and imperialist constructs,
and therefore deepens and broadens the investigations undertaken by Said with
reference to British and French travel writing of the late eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DS Asia P Language and Literature > PQ Romance literatures P Language and Literature > PR English literature
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Travelers' writings, English -- Orient -- History and criticism, Travelers' writings, French -- Orient -- History and criticism, Orient -- Description and travel -- History -- 18th century, Orient -- Description and travel -- History -- 19th century
Official Date:	September 1991
Dates:	Date Event September 1991 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Bassnett, Susan
Sponsors:	British Academy
Extent:	252 leaves
Language:	eng

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