Orientalism in Lord Byron's "Turkish Tales"

Abstract

In most of the critical studies of Orientalist and/or colonialist literature, there is an element of humanist closure, marked by the bracketing of the political context of culture and history. At times, this humanist closure is deliberate. For it not only helps in avoiding an analysis of domination, exploitation, denigration, and manipulation, but also it facilitates in reducing the discursive antagonism between "we" and "they," between the "white" and the "dark," between the "Occidentals" and the "Orientals." By distancing oneself from the politics of domination, this typical facet of humanjst closure makes it possible to reject Edward Said's suggestion that "colonial power and discourse is possessed entirely by the colonizer"-an insight with a far-reaching discursive implication (Orientalism, 1978). One needs to take a critical look at OrientaJism not only to delineate an accurate representation of a profound conflict but also to highlight those elements of syncretism which are suggestive of “a deviation from conventional western concepts of the orient” (p. v). In fact, in chapter 1, titled “Image of the Orient in English Literature: A Historical Survey,” it is in this vein that the main contours of literary Orientalism from the beginning up to Byron’s day are outlined ...