Romanticism, Oriental history, and the literary construction of Occidental identity: gender, religion, and liberty

Thesis

This thesis explores Romantic Orientalism in works by Robert Southey, Maria Edgeworth, George Gordon, Lord Byron, and Mary Shelley. The works illustrate that representations of the Islamic East were used to argue for reform in the West and the reconstruction of occidental identity, both in negative and positive representations.

Decades of literary, travel, and historical writing, as well as artworks, inform the works of these writers that recycle the stereotypes about the Islamic Orien...

Expand abstract

Authors: Rammahi, RKM

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-nbk6a2q68
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Islamic Orient; Romantic Orientalism; Harem; East–West Relations; and Islamic Cultural Histories; Arab; Occident / Occidental Identity; women’s liberty; pre-Islamic; onomastics; cultural translation; Orientalism; British Romanticism; religion and reform; liberty and oppression; nineteenth-century British Literature; superstition and true faith; Ottoman
• Subjects: British Romantic Literature