This class will examine representations of “the Orient” in Enlightenment and Romantic-era European (mostly British and French) writing. How did these writers imagine what distant places were like, and how do their fantasies influence their writing? What kinds of ideas or desires become possible in an exotic setting? Do these portrayals serve as manifestations of subconscious – or explicit – desires of conquest, or are they foundations for the multicultural and globalized world of our own time?
Required Texts
Turkish Embassy Letters, Elizabeth Wortley Montagu
Persian Letters, Montesquieu
Zadig and L’Ingenu, Voltaire
Rasselas, Samuel Johnson
Vathek, William Beckford
Zofloya, or The Moor, Charlotte Dacre
The Missionary, Sydney Owenson
Chronicles of the Canongate, Walter Scott
Major Assignments
Weekly written responses (1-2 pages)
Paper #1 (3-5 pages)
Final Paper (5-7 pages)
Final Presentation (discussing an example of orientalism today)
Schedule
Wed., Aug. 21 Hi! First day syllabus things
Fri., Aug. 23 Edward Said, Orientalism Intro [handout]
Mon., Aug. 26 Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism Intro [pdf]; Srinivas Aravamudan, Enlightenment Orientalism, Intro [pdf]
Wed., Aug. 28 Arabian Nights’ Entertainments 1-19 [pdf]
Fri., Aug. 30 Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, 19-66 [pdf]
Mon., Sep. 2 Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, 651-726, 892 [pdf]
Wed., Sep. 4 Turkish Embassy Letters, 47-87
Fri., Sep. 6 Turkish Embassy Letters, 87-141
Mon., Sep. 9 Turkish Embassy Letters, 141-180
Wed., Sep. 11 Turkish Embassy Letters, 180-224
Fri., Sep. 13 Persian Letters, 39-93
Mon., Sep. 16 Persian Letters, 94-143
Wed., Sep. 18 Persian Letters, 144-191
Fri., Sep. 20 Persian Letters, 192-229
Mon., Sep. 23 Persian Letters, 230-284
Wed., Sep. 25 Montagu vs Montesquieu
Fri., Sep. 27 Diderot [pdf]
Mon., Sep. 30 L’Ingenu, 105-153
Paper 1 Draft Due
Wed., Oct. 2 L’Ingenu, 154-end
Fri., Oct. 4 No class – Revise your paper!
Mon., Oct. 7 Zadig, 1-51
Paper 1 Due
Wed., Oct. 9 Zadig, 52-end
Fri., Oct. 11 Rasselas, 1-53
Mon., Oct. 14 Rasselas, 53-end
Wed., Oct. 16 Hieroglyphic Tales [pdf]
Fri., Oct. 18 Charoba, Queen of Aegypt; Murad, the Unlucky [pdf]
Mon., Oct. 21 History of Nourjahad[pdf]
Wed., Oct. 23 Mentoring Day, No class
Fri., Oct. 25 Symposium Readings
Saturday October 26 Symposium on Medieval Japan
Mon., Oct. 28 Vathek, 3-52
Wed., Oct. 30 Vathek, 52-end
Fri., Nov. 1 Zofloya, 3-51
Mon., Nov. 4 Zofloya, 52-98
Wed., Nov. 6 Zofloya, 99-150
Fri., Nov. 8 Zofloya, 151-192
Mon., Nov. 11 Zofloya, 193-268
Wed., Nov. 13 Byron, The Giaour [pdf]
Fri., Nov. 15 Byron, The Bride of Abydos [pdf]
Mon., Nov. 18 Shelley, Hellas [pdf]
Wed., Nov. 20 The Missionary, 71-129
Rough Draft of Final Paper Due
Fri., Nov. 22 The Missionary, 130-198
Mon., Nov. 25 The Missionary, 199-261
Happy Thanksgiving!
Mon., Dec. 2 The Surgeon’s Daughter
Wed., Dec. 4 Conclusions – Orientalism today, Student Presentations
Prompt for Paper 1
Choose one of the following topics, and address it in a thesis-driven argument of 3-4 pages, grounded in evidence from the text (using at least three different scenes). Rough draft due in class on Monday, September 30, final draft due Monday, October 7.
- Compare and contrast two of the characters in The Persian Letters. Remember, your paper should not simply be a list of similarities and differences, but an argument for some kind of synthetic claim that emerges from a discussion of how the characters are alike (or not).
- We spent some time in class discussing Lady Mary’s “translation” of the Persian poem and how it differed from the original. The scene raises a bigger question related to the underlying concept of difference – namely, what can be translated, and what can not, and what that tells us about what Lady Wortley Montagu sees as the real differences between Turks and Britons. For your paper, you are to unearth the view of “culture” or “ethnicity” (or “race”) that is implicit in Lady Mary’s letters. Be sure to ground your claim in specific evidence from the text (and not just from the discussion of poetic translation!).
- Both Persian Letters and Turkish Embassy Letters take great interest in the condition of women “elsewhere” – in the seraglio, in Persian Letters, and in both Turkey and Continental Europe in Turkish Embassy Letters. But what do they reveal about the situation of woman “here” (Britain, for Lady Mary, and France, for Montesquieu)? Remember, your paper should not simply be a description, but an argument!
- It is notable that even though both of these texts are collections of letters, they find ways to integrate other genres – stories, poems, etc. Choose one of these integrated pieces, and discuss its function in the text – what is it illustrating, and how does its genre relate to that role?
Kasia Reads 