Class Year
2014
Document Type
Student Research Paper
Date of Creation
Fall 2013
Department 1
English
Abstract
This paper specifically discusses the cultural attitudes that made writing fully realized Muslim characters problematic for Western authors during the 19th and 20th centuries and also how, through their writing, certain authors perpetuated these attitudes. The discussed authors and works include William Beckford's Vathek, Lord Byron's poem “The Giaour,” multiple short stories from the periodical collection Oriental Stories, one of Hergé's installments of The Adventures of Tintin, and E.M. Hull's novel The Sheik. Three “types” of Muslim characters emerge in these works: the good, the bad, and the white. All three reflect Western attitudes towards the East as a place full of indolence, luxury, and childish vice. This paper draws heavily on Edward Said's notions of Orientalism but focuses more specifically on how Western authors wield their power and how readers can be more active in questioning stereotypes found in literature.
Copyright Note
This is the author's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution.
Recommended Citation
Miller, Robin K., "“An Imperialism of the Imagination”: Muslim Characters and Western Authors in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries" (2013). Student Publications. 197.
https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship/197
Included in
Comparative Literature Commons, English Language and Literature Commons, European Languages and Societies Commons, Religion Commons
Comments
English Honors Thesis