Walk, Walk, Fashion Baby

Elliot Ruvalcaba

A consistent pattern found within each author’s accounts is the motif of superiority affirmed through one’s appearance. Appearance is colloquially understood as outer attire, but this theme extends to include their mannerism since it contributes to constructing a person’s social identity. While the person can claim superiority based on their self-defined metric of their intelligence, morality, or prowess, those categories are invisible to others. Appearance, on the other hand, is the first aspect people judge when encountering an individual and establishes a foundation on how they should regard them. Therefore, the individual takes it upon themselves to portray themselves in alignment with the hegemonic notions of their culture, instead of the one they are occupying. They will forgo the customs of the territory they are occupying in favor of the ones they believe are superior.

The most striking exemplifies of this conduct is Lady Montague. As a western woman traveling to the East, the hegemonic notions that she carries with her are influenced by the orientalist view that western societies are more advanced society to those of the east. Orientalism operates on a binary scale that places the hemispheres as juxtaposing polarities. Hegemonic Western discourse gets to define the identity of the Orient, and they characterize the East as inferior to justify the West’s superiority. Cultural aspects such as fashion and practices reinforce the position of superiority in others’ eyes since it affirms one’s caste system at a mere glance. During her journey in Turkish domains, she writes, “I was in my traveling habit, which is a riding dress, and certainly appeared very extraordinary to them.” ( Letter XXVL). Despite entering a new culture with unique customs that allow them to recognize caste differently from Europe, Lady Montague maintained her western attire. By wearing her riding dress, so is not automatically recognized as high class as she would be in Britain since the Turkish people have a different hegemonic notion of the appearance of their upper class. Instead, she is seen as foreign. However, while in the western country of Rotterdam, she was willing to make modifications to her as she mentions she arrived “incognito” amongst the “great variety of neat dresses”. Therefore, showing that she is willing to adopt different attire to match the country she’s occupying, but will not initially for an Eastern country. While it would be easier to adopt the matching class fashion of the Turks, she does not appear to believe that there is a one-to-one conversion. The European style signifies her superior status more accurately than Turkish fashion, which is the message she wants to immediately convey.

One too Many Pearls

The text throughout the semester has brought a lot of ideas and understanding to situations I had known about. One things that I have mostly picked up on and am starting to focus more is the type of slavery that happened and how it contributed to those peoples live. Like in the United States, a slave is a slave for life and their children after. But in places like Europe or Eastern countries, like seen by Lady Mariot, slaves were given respect and had a change for their freedom. These slaves were prisoners of war and also girls being sold for a profit. It is scary to see how the world revolved, a world where European standards didn’t care where you came from, status was everything “… But I cannot forbear applauding the humanity of the Turks to these creatures; they are never ill-used, and their slavery, in my opinion, no worse than servitude all over the world…”.

I argue that these slaves were also seen as trophy items, like a pretty slave can show off the status of a person. I suggest that slaves of a higher caliber (with muscles, taller, and such) were not only sold at a higher price but were used for offspring. It would then fit into how the European ladies took such an interest into Abu Tali as they did, more so as a curiosity. Regardless of being aware of them only seeing him for interest, he saw them as a sexual conquest “…frequently challenged by some beautiful women to replenish my glass” (147). Hes playing the game. He recognized that status equals power since they kept confusing him for a prince even though he was not royalty. It hints that if he was not royalty, they would disgrace him for trying to talk to them. They people these women surround themselves are those of class and wealth, anything less will be an insult.

Orientalism: An Insecure Ideology

The lead-up to this blog summary has been an educational one. We began this semester with the framework of Orientalism as this hegemonic power, that dominated the works we read and will continue to read beyond the classroom. Said implied that Orientalism was all-encompassing, all-consuming. However, with the addition of voices such as Khan, Mahomet, and Swinton, it quickly became apparent that Orientalism isn’t an ideology based on power, but rather, on insecurity. Swinton relied on racism to lower and devalue Khan’s class position. Khan was considered the “Persian Prince” which showed that a cultural exchange between the “West and East” was possible. A lot of our texts have “counter-hegemonic” moments as Porter mentions them, however, they’re not moments, they’re the norm. Where Pitts is forced to contend with the humanity of those who kidnapped him and forced him to convert to Islam. Where Khan navigates the social scene of Britain and criticizes it for its vices. Where Lady Montagu admires and details the lives of Turkish women. Orientalism isn’t a hegemonic ideology, it’s an insecure one where it has to rely on hegemonic institutions to sustain itself. It relies on patriarchy, racism, and/or classism to sustain itself. On its own, it has no hegemonic power.

-FM Radio

Oriental Thought

Edward Said defined “orientalism” as a “social construction based on fantasized perception.” After looking back at my previous blog posts, one topic that remains consistent is the way the texts are written through an oriental lens. Orientalism is an attitude sculpted by hierarchies where the “other” is viewed as inferior.  Many of the authors we read this semester wrote of the cultures, people, and surroundings of places foreign to them. While some authors presented truthful illustrations others supported assumptions fabricated by orientalism. Throughout many of the texts,  orientalist ideas are demonstrated and how damaging they are to Muslims. In the letter written on May 17th, 1717, readers can see Lady Mary participating in oriental ideology. After watching a ceremony to honor the Grand Signor, Montagu details how the Turkish took part in an act of self-inflicted mutilation in order to present their devotion to fighting for their leader. Rather than seeing it as something natural in Turkish culture, she sees the action as barbaric, in the same fashion Europeans referred to indigenous people when colonizing countries. With that being said, orientalism was widely shaped by imperialism. Likewise, in Letter VIII, Dean Mohamet recalls “an elegant building finished in the English style” which represents the way in which Europeans have stolen and established colonies in lands of other people for centuries. I’tesamuddin also challenges and critiques oriental ideas. All in all, many of the authors in the course compose their texts from an oriental perspective. 

Maya Carranza

The importance of text and tones

Paana Zamani

Glancing at my writing from the beginning of the semester seems so foreign to me now. It was very dull and uninteresting, perhaps even boring if you will; but this course has got me to look deeper and read beyond what is already given to me. Kicking off the semester to learning about Joseph Pitts I was surprised to find out that he traveled to Mecca, when many muslims do not have the means to visit Mecca let alone perform Hajj, but Joseph wrote with bias. He had an Orientalist view on muslim people, he thought of them as barbaric, as for the religion he had no  ill will toward it, but he had hoped that the people would be more adherent to the practices. Edward Said challenged the viewers to read closely in history and within it you will find many different rhetoric pertaining  to Orientalism. Edward Said was very vocal on how Orientalism will change the view on history as Europeans sought superiority over any other race or culture. Edward Said states, “European superiority over Oriental backwardness” the Europeans saw their customs and traditions to be fine and accepted, while when any other country tries it it becomes controversial and odd since it is not a common concept for them. We then spoke on Lady Mary and her experience in an Ottomans women bathhouse. This struck me as very controversial because she entered this sacred and private place and exposed it through a males gaze. This was highly offensive as a muslim woman because the we tend to cover our modesty and not use our body as sexual traction, yet that is exactly what Lady Mary did. Lady Mary did state that the bathhouses were more of a tea or gossip session for the Ottoman ladies, and they were not overly sexual as men percieve it to be, and that was a very helpful piece for history, but she should have stopped right there to protect these ladies modesty, instead she was being highly exploitative of these women. This class made me realize the importance of textual evidence simply being understanding and examining the text in front of me, then proceeding to understand and look for the missing text and understand why it was missing. In Abu Taleb’s writing he wrote a lot about women, as he had the most to say when it came to mannerism and looks pertaining to people, especially women. He would also stress his need for a clean space, and he would never go into detail other than, for ‘ablution’ reasons. The class would see him as more of a ‘lax’ muslim since he was not as strict of a muslim as Sake Dean Mahomed, but I would disagree he lets his readers understand the importance of ablution because Muslims need to perform ablution before they pray. Muslims also need a clean space to pray on as they can not pray in places that have filth. So I would argue that Abu Taleb did care for his religion, as he respected the religion enough to have a clean space to perform ablution so he can pray. Although he never really stated he needed a clean space to pray, since we were taught to look at text that was missing I began to realize why he stressed the importance of a clean living space, he wanted to perform his religious duty and attend to prayer.

Discrimination and Labeling

By: Suki Kaur

There are many topics that were broadcasted throughout the course of this semester. I feel like each and every one blog post portrays my understanding of the readings, texts, lectures, and in class discussions. Some things that I have realized after reading my previous blog posts is that I have seem to focus on the labels that the authors have placed or given to other objects, or characters in the texts. To clarify, the term label is being referred to how the authors would objectify, racially discriminate, compare/contrast people or their practices/actions. Basically, how the authors would be judgmental towards the people they interacted with. The way how the West judges the East and vice versa. For example, the how Lady Mary explains the ”ruins of Greece” instead of just addressing the servants and their women, (184 Turk.Letters) Lady Mary uses the term/word ”poor” and ”peasants” which in today’s world would be seen as quite a derogative and unpleasant remark. Lady Mary labels the men and women as ”poor” and ”peasants” which is used as an indicator to distinguish between social classes. Similarly, The Giaour also displays his jealousy towards Hassan and Leila’s relationship, judging what would have been better for Leila. The Giaour depicts himself in a way that could make the reader think that Hassan is not worthy while the Giaour is for Leila (lines 505-518 Giaour). This is an example of how the Giaour is being judgmental towards the other characters/people’s. In most of my blog posts, I have either chosen to focus on the discriminating aspects of the readings or the racial disparities seemed to have so much weight that I could not focus on any other findings or motives of the authors. These are the recurring points that I have noticed in my blog posts all throughout the course.

Your Just Like Me For Real

Texts that promote negative Western perceptions of the East become orientalist presenting. This orientalist frame allows for non-orientalist themes to appear subtly yet with further thought can cause discomfort to the orientalist’s consciousness. I argue that texts such as Sheikh Mirza I’tesamuddin, The Wonders of Vilayet and Sake Dean Mahomet, The Travels of Dean Mahomet although orientalist presenting serve a greater purpose of creating discomfort in orientalist thought. I’tesamuddin in his work is often criticizing the East even his place of residence, which seemingly promotes orientalist ideas rather than simply being viewed as a person critiquing their homeland. However, being perceived as orientalist his work is easily consumed by other orientalists until they are faced with the discomfort of maybe the occident and the orient are more similar than believed. I’tesamuddin highlights that Arabic and Persian historians are lacking accuracy due to the distance from European historical events in comparison to European historians. I’tesammuddin, then goes on to state, “there is a world of difference between what one hears and what one sees with one’s own eyes” (29), however, the indirectness of this statement suggests that this can not only be applied to Arabic and Persian historians but European historians as well. As if suggesting, “your lack of seeing/experiencing the East makes you just as unreliable” essentially targeting the Western authority which is the center of orientalism. However, Sake Dean Mahomet takes a different approach to create an orientalist discomfort. Dean Mahomet wrote for the East India Company and to appease his European audience, his work at face value appears orientalist yet attacks the orientalist thought of Western religious superiority. Mahomet describes an Islamic practice of circumcision and ceremonial baptisms however rather than use the word mosque he uses chapel. Through the use of the chapel, Mahomet forces his orientalist readers to consider that the orient and occident are more similar than different as promoted. In the end, both of these seeming orientalist texts disturb orientalist thought.

By Chelsey Olivarria

Ending At The Beginning: Said and Orientalism

By Will Darpinian

Edward Said wrote in Orientalism about his concerns for striking the correct balance of insight and relevance; “How then to recognize individuality and to reconcile it with its intelligent, and by no means passive or merely dictatorial, general and hegemonic context?” (17)

Much of Said’s introduction in Orientalism emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of this field of study. He makes reference to a wide array of writers, thinkers, scholars, poets, and playwrights just in the opening pages of his book, and makes further distinctions based on culture and time period (as with British, German, and French Orientalism versus eventual American Orientalism). Even in this conception of the idea, Orientalism as an ideological entity is not singular, but rather a product of both culture and era. It is not merely beheld, but it is propagated as a form of authority which creates entire intellectual frameworks in its host countries which then organize and pass on an entire mythological and creative system that situates the Orient within the constellation of mythology held by various European thinkers.

In this course, we have largely examined first-hand accounts of this kind of Orientalism as an active worldview, navigated by the individual through the collision between cultures. This sort of literature is influenced by the more abstract academic sky which Said focuses upon, but it is also a different creature entirely. The ways that peoples of the world in this time interacted, and negotiated their places in foreign societies, both reflects these intellectual traditions and rebuffs them. This can be clearly seen in Lord Byron’s The Giaour, as a direct link back to the Orientalist writers stretching back even to Homer, as a clear line of scholarly lineage. On the other hand, travelogues like those written by Joseph Pitts and Abu Taleb Khan provide a more personal view into how individual people navigate this liminal space between worlds, and how others in those spaces treated foreign ideas, practices, and peoples.

Ultimately, I think there is a difference of magnitude between Edward Said’s Orientalism as a structure of authority and imperialism (which dictated the movements of governments and the fate of nations, as in India) and the “practical” Orientalism absorbed by the everyday person in this same time period of the 17th and 18th centuries. In this vein, Said even comments that “much of what I do in this study is to describe both the historical authority in and the personal authorities of Orientalism” (28).

As with any story, who is telling it makes all of the difference. When the author has freedom, or authority to wrest full control of an Oriental narrative, you get the beginnings of the intellectual traditions where Occidental scholars claimed and curated a body of knowledge and norms about the Orient, often in service to political and imperial ambitions. On the other hand, we still have seen that people are resilient and often form their own conclusions and live their lives in spite of the existence of these scholastic entities, as many of the first-hand textual accounts in this course show of contemporary men and women redefining what the Orient means on their own terms.

Top-down authority can certainly shape intellectual policy, and yet people lived their messy lives anyway which often contained a different truth; Orientalism only works as a fantasy, and once a person is confronted with the reality of other people and cultures existing, they must always decide whether fantasy or shared humanity is more important to them.

New Meaning, Same Text

As I look back at the themes discussed throughout our lectures, I see repetition in sex and orientalism. We see many different perspectives from Abu Taleb, I’tesamuddin and Lady Montague. 

Our class discussion reminded to find what is missing in the text, and I see how sex is being used in many different scenarios across all of the literature read. In Lady Montague’s reading we see how she explains the way to have social status being a woman in Turkey. The more children you have , the better you seem to others. It is supposed to show how you are fertile and are not “old” or “worn-out”. Cultures are different.  “Without Any exaggeration, All The Women Of My Acquaintance That Have Been Married Ten Year Have Twelve Or Thirteen Children, And The Old Ones Boast Of Having Had FIve And Twenty Or Thirty A piece, And Are Respected According To the Number They Have produced.”(152) We also see sex play a major role in Abu Taleb’s voyage. He notices how different women in Europe are compared to the women from his origin,  although he speaks on how the women have no chastity , he still takes part in parties and enjoys the visits of high class prostitutes. Sex here has no place for the creation of life, it is rather used as a way to gain status or to gain wealth. 

The trend of sex continues for I’tesamuddin, who created an image of the Europeans that viewed them as a dominant race. He would label them better than his own people and even speak down on them. He is not European, yet belittles non-europeans, including his own, and displays them to be a higher entity. I can see how he would be seen as an orientalist by thinking in this manner. I see it as I’tesamuddin trying to carry out the ideas which are in his book to implement them to the people where he is from, as if he would want his people to pick up and adapt to European ways.

Enrique Aguilar

Orient’s and Occident’s War of Arts

Written by Caitlyn Klemm

Besides the standards set by Orientalism as well as Occidentalism, an interesting interaction between the early stages of East and West intermingling is the idea of performance. Each text written by each author serves an ulterior motive besides detailing their personal accounts with foreign countries and peoples. The complexity of international history complicates any simplicity in writing for the sake of writing. Although the texts may act as a means of documenting cultural differences, similarities, as well as tensions or harmony, the very creation and public release of said text is the product of a performance—a performance that benefits the creator culturally or personally. 

For example, Abu Taleb Khan’s journals about his trips throughout England carry heavily misogynistic tones, which may reflect badly on his homeland and people. However, upon further inspection, Khan appears to be joining in on the societal norms of the Englishmen; by constantly engaging in the social sport and equally asserting himself as better than the Englishmen around him, Khan makes a dominant stand as an Easterner in the West. He conforms to the English culture if only to best them at it, without wholly disparaging his own background. Similarly, painter William Daniell’s paintings of India appear to have a double-sided meaning as well. On one hand, they are atmospheric paintings of a land many English people will never see, depicting the beauty of India. Yet, a majority of his paintings seem to lack human societies or technological developments. Daniell attempts to display the picturesque of India, but in doing so, also reduces the country down to an Edenic paradise with seemingly primitive people. It potentially misrepresents a nation in favor of Western aesthetic standards, be it for purely artistic, monetary, or popular interests. 

The recorded accounts exchanged between Eastern and Western travelers may seem like catalogs for a time of the past, but actually capture the fascinating and subtle war in which the traveling Orient and Occident attempt to outmatch the other through the arts.