Islam and romantic orientalism : literary encounters with the Orient

Resource Information

The work Islam and romantic orientalism : literary encounters with the Orient represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Internet Archive - Open Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Islam and romantic orientalism : literary encounters with the Orient

Title remainder

literary encounters with the Orient

Statement of responsibility

Mohammed Sharafuddin

Creator

• Sharafuddin, Mohammed

Subject

• Literaire thema's
• English poetry -- Asian influences
• East and West in literature
• Letterkunde
• Romanticism -- Great Britain
• Orient -- In literature
• Middle East -- In literature
• Islam
• Islamic civilization in literature
• English poetry -- 19th century -- History and criticism
• Oosterse wereld
• Engels
• Exoticism in literature
• Islam in literature

Language

eng

Summary

This important intervention in the debate on orientalism takes a fresh look at some of the main literary texts from the Romantic period explored by Edward Said's classic work. Sharafuddin recognized elements of truth in the thesis that Western writers and scholars created an image of the Muslim 'Orient' as a place of tyranny, unreason and immorality destined to be subjected and exploited by the civilized West. However, he argues that in the work of such writers as Southey, Byron, Moore, Landor and Beckford, the world of Islam appears not as an antithesis to the world of European 'civilization', but rather as an alternative cultural reality with its own values. He explores the sense in which the work of these writers opens up the possibility for a knowledge of the Orient that does not simply confirm ideologies of Western power and hegemony. Themes of the exotic and the fanciful in fact had the effect of challenging the boundaries of Western-cent[e]red culture and thus created the conditions for a more positive perception of other cultures. Although this did not translate into a new political and literary openness, it did at least demonstrate the existence of a more complex cultural interaction between East and West. This admission has been completely sidelined in many recent debates on orientalism. Above all, Sharafuddin argues that the Romantic writers in question present a rich and subversive view of the Orient not simply informed by inherited stereotypes. This book will be of great interest to those concerned with the debate about orientalism and post-colonialism and to students of 19th-century literature.--Back cover

Cataloging source

SNN

Dewey number

• 809.933217561
• 821.709

Index

index present

LC call number

PR129.M54

LC item number

S48 1996

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

• dictionaries
• bibliography