The Fashioning of Orientalism

in 18 -Century Britain
th

Presenter: Marveh Farhang

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 Table of Contents

01 02
Introduction The Rise of Oriental Travel
and Early Accounts

03 04
Representations of Pseudo-oriental
the Orient letters
2
 Table of Contents

05 06
Oriental and Pseudo- Travel Narratives
oriental Tales

07 08
Role of Female Research References
Travel Writers
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 Introduction

• Historical Context

• Diplomatic Ties

• Shift in Orientalism

• Travel Literature

4
 The Rise of Oriental Travel

• Formal Inception of Anglo-Ottoman Relations (1579)

• Formation of Trading Companies

• Expansion of English Commercial Network (Mid-1580s)

• Trade as Catalyst for Relations

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 Early Accounts of Oriental Travel

1.Thomas Dallam’s (1575-1630)

A Brefe Relation of My Travell
from the Royall Cittie of
London towards The Straite of
Mariemediteranum and What
Happened by the Waye (1599)

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 Early Accounts of Oriental Travel

2. William Biddulph’s The

Travels of certaine
Englishmen into Africa, Asia,
Troy, Bythnia, Thracia, and to
the Blacke Sea (1609)

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 Early Accounts of Oriental Travel

3. Sir Henry Blount’s (1602–

1682) A Voyage into the
Levant (1636)

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 Early Accounts of Oriental Travel

4. T.S’s The Adventures of

(Mr T.S.) An English
Merchant, Taken Prisoner
by the Turks of Algiers
(1670)

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 Representations of the Orient
The increasing popularity of travel and oriental narratives in the
18th century England:
• Trade and Commodities
• Colonial Expansion
• Curiosity and Observation
• Periodicals and Novels
• Global Perspective
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 Representations of the Orient

1. Pseudo-oriental 2. Oriental Tales 3. Travel Writings

Letters

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 Pseudo-oriental Letters
• The Eastern Mask
• Deeper Perspective
• Critical Narrative Tradition
• Giovanni Paolo Marana’s (1642-1693) Letters Written by A
Turkish Spy (1687)
• Baron de Montesquieu’s (1689-1755) Persian Letters (1721)
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 Letters Written by A Turkish Spy (1687)

• Increasing Popularity of Pseudo-Oriental Letters

• Authorship and Historical Background

• Purpose and Style of the Letters

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 Oriental and Pseudo-oriental Tales
• Evolution from Pseudo-Oriental Letters to Oriental Tales
• Modern Interpretations of Oriental Tales
• Translation of Arabian Nights (1713)
• Addison's "The Vision of Mirza" and Other Tales
• Samuel Johnson’s The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759)
• William Bckford’s Vathek (1786)

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 Addison's The Story of a King and Dervish

The Story of a King and Dervish is another story which Addison invented. This
story is written in the Spectator No: 298. In the story the dervish is invited to a
palace. He mistakes the palace for an inn, which makes the King very angry. “Sir”
says the dervish, “give me leave to ask your majesty a question or two. Who were
the persons that lodged in this house when it was first built?” The king replies, his
ancestors. “And who”, says the Dervish, “was the last person that lodged here?”
The king replies, his father. “And who is it”, says the dervish that lodges here at
present?” The king tells him that it is himself. “And who” says the dervish, “will
be after you?” The king answers, the young prince, his son. “Ah, Sir”, said the
dervish, “a house that changes its inhabitants so often and receives perpetual
succession of guests, is not a Palace, but a Caravansaray”
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 Vathek (1786)

• Vathek, an Arabian Tale or The History of the Caliph Vathek

• Beckford’s Background
• Creation of Vathek
• Overview of “Vathek”
• Shift in Oriental Tales

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Vathek (1786)

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 Travel Narratives

• Shift in Travel Literature

• Characteristics and Style of 18th-Century Travel Literature
• Evolution from Hostility to Critical Perspective
• Depictions of the Oriental World

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 Role of Female Travel Writers

• Prevalence of Female Travel Writing

• Distinctive Challenges Faced by Women Authors
• Cultural Exploration
• Freedom to Travel “Aimlessly”
• Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's Turkish Embassy Letters (1717-1718)
• Penelope Aubin’s Strange Adventure of Count de Vinevil and His Family
(1721)
• Elizabeth Craven’s A Journey Through Crimea to Constantinople (1789)

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 Turkish Embassy Letters (1717-1718)

• Lady Mary Wortely Montagu’s Background

• Departure from Male-Centric Tradition
• Unique Perspective as a Woman
• Nuanced Engagement with Travel Writing Conventions
• Ethnographic Contribution

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Turkish Embassy Letters (1717-1718)

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 Research References
Aune, M. G. “Early Modern European Travel Writing after Orientalism.” Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies,

vol. 5, no. 2, 2005, pp. 120–38. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40339554. Accessed 30 Dec. 2023.

Baktir, Hasan. Representation of the Ottomon Orient in Eighteenth Century English Literature. 2007. Middle East

Technical University, PhD dissertation.

Din-Kariuki, Natalya. “Reading the Ottoman Empire: Intertextuality and Experience in Henry Blount’s Voyage Into

the Levant (1636).” The Review of English Studies, vol. 74, no. 313, Sept. 2022, pp. 47–63.

https://doi.org/10.1093/res/hgac062

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 Research References
Fernea, Elizabeth Warnock. “An Early Ethnographer of Middle Eastern Women: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-

1762).” Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol. 40, no. 4, 1981, pp. 329–38. JSTOR,

http://www.jstor.org/stable/544606. Accessed 30 Dec. 2023.

Lowe, Lisa. “Travel Narratives and Orientalism: Montagu and Montesquieu.” Critical Terrains: French and British

Orientalisms, Cornell University Press, 1991, pp. 30–74. JSTOR,

http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctt207g5rk.5. Accessed 30 Dec. 2023.

MacLean, Gerald M. The Rise of Oriental Travel. Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

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 Research References

Matos-Ayala, Stephanie, "British Essentialism in Eighteenth-Century British Travel Literature of the West Indies

and North America." 2018. Open Access Dissertations. 1768.

https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/1768

Nash, Geoffrey, editor. Orientalism and Literature. Cambridge University Press, 2019.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Lady Mary Wortley Montagu | British Author and Poet.” Encyclopedia

Britannica, 8 Dec. 2023, www.britannica.com/biography/Lady-Mary-Wortley-Montagu.

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 Research References

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Thomas Dallam | Organ Builder, Musical Instruments and Restoration.”

Encyclopedia Britannica, 20 July 1998, www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Dallam.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Vathek | Gothic Fiction, Arabian Nights, Caliph.” Encyclopedia

Britannica, 3 Nov. 2011, www.britannica.com/topic/Vathek.

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