Before Orientalism: Asian Peoples and Cultures in European Travel Writing, 1245-1510
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
A distinct European perspective on Asia emerged in the late Middle Ages. Early reports of a homogeneous "India" of marvels and monsters gave way to accounts written by medieval travelers that indulged readers' curiosity about far-flung landscapes and cultures without exhibiting the attitudes evident in the later writings of aspiring imperialists. Mining the accounts of more than twenty Europeans who made—or claimed to have made—journeys to Mongolia, China, India, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia between the mid-thirteenth and early sixteenth centuries, Kim Phillips reconstructs a medieval European vision of Asia that was by turns critical, neutral, and admiring.
In offering a cultural history of the encounter between medieval Latin Christians and the distant East, Before Orientalism reveals how Europeans' prevailing preoccupations with food and eating habits, gender roles, sexualities, civility, and the foreign body helped shape their perceptions of Asian peoples and societies. Phillips gives particular attention to the texts' known or likely audiences, the cultural settings within which they found a foothold, and the broader impact of their descriptions, while also considering the motivations of their writers. She reveals in rich detail responses from European travelers that ranged from pragmatism to wonder. Fear of military might, admiration for high standards of civic life and court culture, and even delight in foreign magnificence rarely assumed the kind of secular Eurocentric superiority that would later characterize Orientalism. Placing medieval writing on the East in the context of an emergent "Europe" whose explorers sought to learn more than to rule, Before Orientalism complicates our understanding of medieval attitudes toward the foreign.
Related to Before Orientalism
Related ebooks
Writing Travel in Central Asian History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn Light of Another's Word: European Ethnography in the Middle Ages Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEthnography After Antiquity: Foreign Lands and Peoples in Byzantine Literature Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Medieval Invention of Travel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Reorienting the East: Jewish Travelers to the Medieval Muslim World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn the Land of a Thousand Gods: A History of Asia Minor in the Ancient World Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Balkan Departures: Travel Writing from Southeastern Europe Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Day the World Changed: May 29, 1453 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Crusades: An Epitome Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIdols in the East: European Representations of Islam and the Orient, 1100–1450 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerican Missionaries and Russian Explorers Close in on China Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJews and the Mediterranean Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCharming Orient Shining England Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Long Journey: Exploring Travel and Travel Writing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIranians and Greeks in South Russia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Mind of the Middle Ages: An Historical Survey Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5English Travellers of the Renaissance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Discovery of America Vol. 1 (of 2) with some account of Ancient America and the Spanish Conquest Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Mythology of Cherokee, Iroquois, Navajo, Siouan and Zuñi Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Saktas: An Introductory and Comparative Study Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Oduduwa's Chain: Locations of Culture in the Yoruba-Atlantic Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Mythology of North American Indians: Illustrated Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJews and Journeys: Travel and the Performance of Jewish Identity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Hellenistic Far East: Archaeology, Language, and Identity in Greek Central Asia Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5For Those Who Come After: A Study of Native American Autobiography Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFinding Wisdom in East Asian Classics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ancient History of the Near East from the Earliest Times to the Battle of Salamis Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGuide to American Culture Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Phoenician Sonnets: Mediterranean mysteries along ancient trading routes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFrom History to Theory Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Literary Criticism For You
As I Lay Dying Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/512 Rules For Life: by Jordan Peterson | Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Reader’s Companion to J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Oscar Wilde: The Unrepentant Years Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 48 Laws of Power: by Robert Greene | Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Man's Search for Meaning: by Viktor E. Frankl | Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Killers of the Flower Moon: by David Grann | Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Art of Seduction: by Robert Greene | Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain | Conversation Starters Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Verity: by Colleen Hoover | Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bad Feminist: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.by Brené Brown | Conversation Starters Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Letters to a Young Poet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Circe: by Madeline Miller | Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lincoln Lawyer: A Mysterious Profile Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPaperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Alone: by Kristin Hannah | Conversation Starters Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Book of Virtues Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Before Orientalism
0 ratings0 reviews