Persian customs in the travelogue of James Morier and Towards Ispahan by Pierre Loti

Abstract

Imagology in comparative literature deals with the study of representations and the image of the others in a travelogue or a literary work. Alterity is one of the conceptions of this branch of history/ literature and in reality; it is an attempt to know the opinion of others about yourself with all the prejudices or derivations made by the writer. In this study, we will see through the writing of an English traveler, James Morier, and Pierre Loti, a French writer, the described image of the customs of the Iranians of the Qajar era. First of all, a general image, positive or negative, which gives in the foreground a vision of self-identification and admiration of the Western "self" focused on the culture of the Eastern (Iranian) "Other" and in a second plan, a negative look according to the current example in the orientalist context in the opposition between the self and the other or the East and the West, Stereotyping and generalization, amplification of conflicts and contradictions, humiliating and insulting.

Keywords

• iranian customs and culture
• morier
• loti
• self-identification
• opposition