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

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.

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.

Whose side?

By: Yocelin De Lira

Throughout the semester we have seen so many different types of authors and culture, although the main dominant women’s perspective we saw was Lady Mary.Women throughout all the other reading were used as pawn to depict abnormal sexual practice  or given no voice at all. This description of women’s usage was most prominent in The Giaur, and although the other authors were seen as responsible for questionable behavior Abu Taleb gave perspective to women. Abu is no saint, yet out of all the authors he was the only author who demonstrated respect for women’s intellect and opinion. I am not justifying all his questionable behavior, but I am crediting him for his openness and willingness to understand women’s politics. He also uses women as pawns to critique the Englishmen and English way. He is able to keep his own identity without compromising his dignity. He was able to keep his muslim identity and able to earn the respect of the English and even receive celebrity status. His moments where he is critiquing women, he is actually questioning the morals, integrity and intelligence of the Englishman whose action he is actually critiquing. He continues to question the intentions and morals of the English actively participating in immoral situations. Such as their sexual experisnce such the ball and the open sex workers. He continues to display his opinion through using women pawns to depict his displeasure. He is not critiquing, but the action. He also uses women as a counter hegemonic move. Due to the fact he is superior, because of his gender he has more power. Overall this semester we were able to capture Islamic culture with so many perspectives such as orientalism and gender politics. We were able to capture the importance of perspective, to receive the whole picture. 

Women Run the World (Blog Summary 2)

Rhiannon Badgett

It is apparent in many genres of literature, and even indefinitely throughout regular aspects of everyone’s life, despite one’s gender, that women seem to run the world as an entity and as a whole. While it is commonly known and frowned upon that men are seen as the “dominant” people of the world while opposed to women themselves, it can be proven that women are redundantly disrespected and not seen as equals due to society’s own insecurities and unwillingness to acknowledge the power that the supposedly “submissive” people of the world hold. A recurring theme throughout the texts we have read this semester would have to be how despite women being seen as an accessory or through a patriarchal lens, they serve a greater purpose throughout these literary texts, that no matter where they are, they’re talked about, sought after, and have always been important to an author despite their own gender.

For example, in Lady Mary Montagu’s Turkish Embassy Letters, she is always aware of the women around her, what they’re dressed like, and their possible motives. She writes, “I know no European court where the ladies would have behaved themselves in so a polite manner to such a stranger” (102). As a wealthy and confused aristocrat, she doesn’t understand the Turkish bathhouses and the over sexualized women who bathe within them (and that basically invited her, too). Yet, she notices that they’re perceived and accepted for what they are, something she might struggle with as someone who is always in the spotlight. Women are continually observed in this text by an author who is a woman due to the way confidence that they have always had regardless of the hardships that are inherently tied to inequality within society. Another example of women being continually sought after and admired due to their awe-inspiring auras and external confidence is within the novel The Travels of Mirza Abu Taleb Khan. He can’t help but criticize the strong and well-built women living within Cape Town, specifically the Dutch women, implying that he deems himself and his friends worthy of having a beautiful or accepted by a society’s standards at the time, perhaps a patriarchal British society. Taleb also believes that his own status and the women he surrounds himself with are intertwined at the seams. It is as if women are one of his main motivations in the novel, that they’re keeping him productive amongst his travels. He writes that he is “…frequently challenged by some beautiful women to replenish my glass” (147). When he writes this, he helps his audience understand that not only does he have the urge to be surrounded by women, but they also wish to be around him too. While he says this humbly and tends to imply how fetishization is a two way street, his own desire to have women around him does not go unnoticed. All in all, one of the main themes that has proven to be redundant amongst the texts we’ve read is that women are a main focal point and drive many of the author’s views, actions, and desires regardless of the author’s gender.

An Awareness of Audience and Lack of Consistency in Works by Non-Muslim & Muslim Authors

Luis Arceo

I argue that authors we’ve read, pay particular attention to their audiences and so shape their narratives with them in mind, while some ignore the fact of how contradictory they can be at times. Dean Mahomet for example describes his time in India in a positive manner, “the finest country on earth, diversified with fields…and gardens abounding with a variety of fruits and flowers,”(Dean Mahomet 84) while in reality it was a place fraught with famine and in-arable land as he described earlier on, “I remember to have seen numbers perish by famine…: the excessive heat of the climate, and want of rain, dried up the land; and all the fruits of the earth decayed without moisture.” (41) Dean Mahomet’s target audience were people who have never been to India like potential recruits for the East Indian Company. He created this India removed from reality than to sell more books and have more people join the East India Company. When I looked at other Muslim writers like Abu Taleb Khan or I’tesamuddin, I noticed this as well. I’tesamuddin and Abu Taleb Kan had their fellow countrymen in mind when writing their books. I’tesamuddin used his book to shame his Indian readers by comparing them to the English of whom he describes in high regards throughout. Abu Taleb on the other hand reverses this to show the audience how insecure English society can be. Mentioning how they think he’s a Persian Prince and constantly invite him to social gatherings since they want to be seen as high class. Taleb does this to show his audience how insecure they are, and how important he is, but unknowingly shows how unimportant he truly is since they “think,” he’s a Persian Prince. 

When shifting the focus away from non-Muslim writers like Lady Mary and Joseph Pitts this was also present as well. Lady Mary, who knew her letters were being read out-loud made sure to be as detailed as possible when describing Ottoman Greece, “I took the pains…to view…those ruins…the Turks call…Old Constantinople…[took] a tour round the ancient walls…We found the remains of…several broken pillars and two pedestals.” (Lady Mary 186) Putting emphasis on the destruction, knowing how useful it’ll be not only to her audience’s construction of Ottoman Greece, but also to artists wanting to paint this scene. When looking at Joseph Pitts this awareness for his audience is quite apparent. Throughout he makes sure to distance himself from Muslims. He does this through hegemonic means but frequently contradicts himself through counter-hegemonic instances like praising them for their devotion to the Qur’an, ““I wish to God that Christians were as diligent in studying the holy scriptures, the Law, and the Gospel…as those infidels are in poring upon that legend of falsities and abominable follies and absurdities.” (Pitts 244) As I’ve shown, the main point of my blog posts have highlighted this “awareness of audience,” and the lack of consistency on the behalf of some Muslim and non-Muslim authors when constructing their narratives.  

Deeper and Deeper: An Analysis of Author’s Discretion by: Luis Mendez

Arriving at the end of the semester, I want to take some time to reflect on the blog posts that I have written. Over the past few months, I witnessed how my views towards written blogs were shifting to encapsulate certain aspects of the novels we covered. Towards the latter half of the semester, I found that my blog posts started to focus on the author’s intention and background. This was specifically born from my first blog summary where I asserted that authors are using their work to assert political statements. However, it is the nature of how these statements are conveyed that is the most intriguing. Essentially, the authors we have covered make political statements by using their work to convey it discreetly. 

This idea was born from the concept of censorship. Outside of the blog posts, I was able to take some time to research the environments these authors lived in. I was curious about what kind of society they lived in and, most importantly, what was expected of them as authors. This is where I received more context for my blog posts. For instance, I used this expectation of society as a way to explore Abu Taleb’s fetishization of women. A conclusion I made regarding Abu Taleb is that he: “…establishes that he thinks that these people spending all their money are very materialistic, and wastes their time trying to impress people from other countries with their wealth.” This assertion was based on how Abu Taleb established a double standard between the foreign, western society and the society that he was born into. This was where I started to reflect back on my older work to see where I saw similarities in society. I saw this best in analyzing the work of Joseph Pitts. He ended up being my favorite author due to how many layers he has towards the messages he wants to convey. This was to the point where I’m finding new ideas when going back to older blog posts. Earlier in the semester, I wrote a piece on Pitts and his subtle critiques of Christianity. I specifically came up with the idea of Pitts using subtle, yet effective wordplay to critique Christianities’ flaws such as lack of faith and the focus on monetary gain. However, with the context that I have learned throughout the semester, I came to some new conclusions. I found that he couldn’t be explicit with his critiques because of how difficult censorship was during his time. Funnily enough, there are many instances where Joseph Pitts seems like he is trying to appeal to his audience which is something I focused on in the blog posts and my essay. So, it seems Joseph Pitts had to create a double standard to not offend the Christian church. This sense of double standard present in these authors shows readers what kind of environment they had to live in. It made sense why they had to jump through these hoops to convey these messages. This is why this class is so intriguing for me. It feels like we learn more about the authors than we do their stories. Because of this, we learn that many authors have deep layers to their characters and their writing style.

Judgment Call: Abu Taleb’s True Character Shown In Interactions with Women

Throughout my blog posts, it would seem the main focus is more oriented (ha) at the writers themselves and their reliability in what they say they do and see. My suspicions are more directed towards Abu Taleb Khan. The subject matter of my posts pose questions like what makes our narrators reliable and how can we be so sure that they are not telling the readers things to view their personalities in a different light? I take a very pessimistic approach to Abu Taleb’s The Wonders of Vilayet, this I know and take his recollections of England with a grain of salt. Based on the readings, Abu Taleb seems to be a very judgmental narcissist who has a distaste for anything that isn’t high enough for his standards, though he tries to mask this by playing a victim of the sexualization of women he interacts with, but also his distaste for Dutch women as well.  A prevalent example I utilize is page 84, when Abu Taleb generalizes the European Dutch people as “low-minded and inhospitable, neither do they fear the imputation of a bad name, and are more oppressive to their slaves than any other people in the world”. He goes on in that same page to name their women specifically as “very fat, gross and stupid” as opposed to the women he meets in Cape Town who he describes as very fair. 

An example I used explaining his duality of like/ dislike towards these European women is the following page 85, where Abu Taleb is being fetishized by women at a gathering in Cape Town in which a group of women are dancing and keep exchanging glances with them in what is presumably a seductive fashion. “yet in dancing they made use of so many wanton airs, and threw such significant looks towards me, that I was often put to the blush, and obliged to retire to the other side of the room.” (Abu Taleb 85) It is obvious within this setting Abu Taleb is trying to portray for us this image of himself being the subject of these women’s lust while still trying to portray his modesty in his action to move away from them. Yet he still plays to their seductive ways when one of them snatches away his handkerchief when he says only the most beautiful woman will be obliged to take it from him. He clearly is showing us this side of him that is a flirt, yet doesn’t show this same willingness to indulge in this kind of hospitable fun with women he previously came into contact with. Abu Taleb doesn’t hate women, just the ones that he finds aren’t attractive enough for him, that for me shines potently in my judgement of his character and personality and takes away his reliability as a narrator.

women after women.

Jocelyn Lemus

A rising theme that I’ve encountered in all my blog posts is the way women are perceived. As I’ve mentioned before, Lady Mary Montagu and Lord Byron have generated this initial argument of women being objectified by the way they live and the way they are seen from a male’s perspective. To elaborate more, another perspective that I’ve noticed in my blog posts is The Travels of Mirza Taleb Khan. He helps me elaborate more on the way women are portrayed through his erotic desires for European women. For instance, when he compared them to European Dutch women, he emphasizes, “All the European Dutch Women whom I saw, were very fat, gross, and insipid; but the girls born at the Cape are all made, handsome and sprightly” (84). This is important because not only is Khan depicting “erotic” women as physically attractive, but he is also belittling Dutch women that do not fulfill the compartments of his type of beauty. He is neglecting these women, while he is praising another group of women. Khan is grasping onto the image of women and categorizing them from beautiful to ugly. Furthermore, Khan elaborates how the status of women is glorified through their appearances and nothing more. Khan indicates in his travels, “the English legislators and philosophers have wisely determined that the best mode of keeping women out of the way of temptation and their minds from wandering after improper desires is by giving them sufficient employment” (173). Women in Khan’s eyes are nothing but muses used to entertain men. He is sexualizing women as a distraction because they provoked a man’s erotic desires. They are led on into something less important. To him, sexual pleasure has become a business to women, meaning that women are nothing more than sexual desires. 

Abu Taleb Khan is depicting the image of a woman, placing it on a pedestal, and calling it the male gaze. In The Travels of Mirza Abu Taleb Khan, where he also emphasizes a critical opinion on the way women should be treated. He chooses to indicate the presence of a woman as “require costly presents” (84). This is important because it connects to how he sexualizes women as erotic desires because he is grasping into the idea that women are only objects that only acquire sexual attention. They are not given a voice to speak for themselves, especially since they are held upon their husband’s commands. “They are upon no account allowed to walk out after dark; and they never think of sleeping abroad, even at the house of their father or mother, unless the husband is with them” (173). Without the presence of their husbands, they are nothing. Women are converted into specs of dust, searching for a place to land and calling “home.” Women are treated as if they were weak and fragile as if a life without men is a life without meaning and definition. Women are not allowed to do much, they are treated like cats and dogs. As Khan mentions, a “man may beat his wife with a stick” (173). How is it even possible for a man to do that to a woman? As if their life is less than a male’s. Khan is demeaning the word “women” and replaces the word with objects, desires, distractions, and even more. This demonstrates how Khan is incapable of setting aside his masculine perspective toward the image of a woman.